Chauffer Oren Bersagel-Briese from Castle Rock Fire sent in a door that could pose a challenge if it needed to be forced.
The door is made of solid wood is 2.5 inches thick and has multiple locking mechanisms not frequently found on residental doors. Check out the supplemental page for details.
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This door is a perfect example why you “sound” the top and bottom of the door, before you attempt to force it.
I think anytime you are faced with an unusual door on a residence you need to look for an alternate entry point before attempting to force it. Maybe force a side or rear door is more easily accessible then go through to the front door provided smoke and or fire are not in that area. Or maybe force the overhead door then enter the house via the garage. Or maybe throw a ladder and take out a window.
A big, heavy, fortified door can eat up personnel and time. It can also lead to exhaustion or worse tunnel vision when what we think will work does not and the challege to overcome and win takes over.
If this door must be forced then go full force:
-Saw the hinges?
-Cut vertically where two panels join?
-Pull trim and cut out frame?
-Chain or cable the mid-section and pull with winch or vehicle?
Just a few quick thoughts.
A saw will not cut through this door. Well not quickly even with a K-12. Those locks are mickey mouse, and so are the slide pins on the top and bottom. I weigh 170lbs and I know I can blast through that thing with a 10 lbs maul and a halligan. If you do not have man power, go for a window and walk in and around.
And dont forget to try the knob first!
Door snore,
This door is baby caca compared to some of the nightmare found in the ghettos of
this great nation. This is a fancy pants door and use less this door is hanging on a door at a residence where the occupants do not what unexpected visitors to enter saying ” Search Warrant ” . Attack the lock or locking mechanism. That is the weak point on this door. To add the K12 with the warthog blade would turn this door into toothpicks. I believe this door would TAPOUT with solid shot from the sledgie. After looking at the door there is no way that this door is made from one solid piece of wood. Don’t be fooled by the looks.
In closing don’t worry the the Truck has the Door.
FTM,BTB,EGH,RFB,KTF,DTRT
Truckie13 is right to many “firefighters think to much our job as firemen is a job of heart,will and common sense. Just because u have a saw or rabbit tool doesn’t mean that you should become lazy and use them…those locks are not even as difficult as a standard garden apt. door ….Go issue though because i think people get the big eye when they see something differnt,relax and use your training….
The easiest door to force (normally) is the one that the occupants use for everyday exit/entry. Unless they are paranoid they will not go through the trouble locking/unlocking multiple locks. Since both sides of this door operates, the side with the “dummy” lock will need to remain pinned at the top and bottom in order to give the other door something to lock against. Otherwise with a little pressure inward both doors would open and clear the bolt from the keeper like it was never even locked. If the pictures are what the door is like normally with regards to lock position, the slide bolts on both door slabs are in the locked position. I’d guess that the occupants do not use this door regularly. More likely they enter through the garage like most Americans.
Thru-the-lock methods would be hindered by the design of the handle. A Bam-Bam might work. Depending on how the strip of wood covering the seam and acting as a stop is fastened. It may be able to be removed and a shove knife (if no deadbolt is present) or a rotary saw with an aluminum-oxide blade could be used to cut through the lock(s). The thickness of the door would complicate conventional forcible entry with the irons. Once the fork was driven in, you would not be able to create enough leverage with a 30″ bar to bring it into position to work. A sharp adz my be able to be driven through the door slab (of the moving door) at an angle towards the interior edge of the stationary door which would create a pryable angle to work with. Another technique used by the Columbus (OH) FD is to make two angled cuts around the lock set, simply removing the lock from the door system, with a chainsaw. This will work as long as the door is not secured with the slide locks at the top and bottom. Plunging the saw blade through these doors will take time, however, once it is through it will make short work of them. Another method would be to make a vertical cut from top to bottom several inches off to one side of the lock set of either door. The best method may be to preplan and use an alternate point of entry that is less formidable.
While this door definitely looks like it might be tougher than average to take, it may or may not be that difficult. Were there any buildings in our area nice enough to have such a door, I would anticipate my boss having one of us assess it and get to work while sending the other to do some recon for alternate means of entry. This door might be tight, and it might not be, but it seems that the best practice for anything is to immediately start developing contingency plans.
While this is happening, I can also see the driver bringing over a saw (see contingency plans above) to deal with this door if significant progress wasn’t being made with the irons within the first thirty seconds. Using the irons is an art that should be practiced and used wherever practical, but if our goal is to get into somewhere because there’s a fire, we need to get in as quickly as possible. Will we get it with the irons? Undoubtedly. However, how long will that take in some situations versus using some form of power equipment? We have to remember to see the forest through the trees.
I’m also thinking that once the deadbolt was defeated that a couple of motivated shots to both top and bottom where the resistance was felt due to the sliding locks would have the door open. This door could serve as a good example as to why an 8-lb flathead axe should be used in an irons set instead of a lighter axe.
Be safe.
So, what do we know from the picture. Well, it is a door….actually 2 doors. It may be solid in thickness but it is not 1 solid piece per door (look at the construction). The left door has the lock, so the right door is the more stationary one. So we force the left door to defeat the left locks. (if you forced the right side you would be working against the right and left locks). If this door lacked the top and botttom slide locks you could simply push it in at the middle and both would swing open, even with the deadbolt locked. As for irons, a good sledge and halligan man should not have a problem using tradional means. Prying at the middle or slamming the top and bottom should yeild results quickly. The saw is a no brainer; chainsaw or carbide tip rotary = no problems. Use your head as well as your hands. This looks like a great door because it is supposed to. Just like most alarms are merely a deterrent to entrants, so is this door. Both are easily defeated by the PROFESSIONAL.
As far as forcible entry goes,this door would be one of the easiest doors that we would encounter to gain entry
into a residential building. Double doors will swing easily inward once the sliding locks at the top and bottom are forced. As you can see in the pictures the depth of these sliders is less than an inch into the 3/4″ finish trim at the top of the door. A ten pound
sledge would make mincemeat out of these sliders(the solid construction of the doors actually help distribute the force of the blows through the door).
They would then both swing in together. The hinge side
force would be slower due to the case of four hinges per door. This would not be the case, of course, if there were additional security measures, such as an interior horizontal bar or other fortification measures that you see in some high security homes. Sometimes looks can be deceiving.
Everyone sees these locks and Freaks out. This door has ONE lock to me. The main Dead bolt. The two locks on the top and bottom are nothing but screws. A lock is only as strong as its weakest part. Usually these locks look substantial. Going into the floor and the ceiling. But REALLY look close. All that it is held in by is plain wood screws. If using your halligan right you can pop these locks easily by using traditional methods and the screws will strip and the lock will no longer be a proble. Then all you have to do is attack the dead bolt the way you normally would. Let the right door act as your door jamb. It will be substantial enough to wrap the fork around and pop that deadbolt. Ecspecially if it is wood, with enough froce the door will go! We are the last hope, if we cant get in who can right? There is no lock we cannot force in this world. Use your halligan, dont depend on technology. Think outside the box!