Many Bars, One Pin

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A friend from North Carolina sent in these photos of an interesting find. At first glance, someone with tunnel vision would focus on the bars, and start cutting. But this one is so much easier than that. Look at the track on top, and the guides down below. Hopefully you already keyed in on those. Take a closer look. The lower right hand corner shows the simple solution to this one.

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A single pin and padlock is all that hold this in the closed and locked position. A simple cut with the bolt cutters, or a single cut with the rotary saw and you’re in business. Actually, if none of those tools are handy, placing the fork of the halligan between the building and the bar assembly and prying to the left would separate the hasp assembly from the bars. One the lock is defeated, the entire assembly slides out of the way. As always slow down and identify what is actually securing whatever is standing in your way. We need to always work smarter not harder on the fireground.

10 thoughts on “Many Bars, One Pin

  1. Geoff Leavens says:

    Or a 1/2 socket set, or a pair of plyers and the same result. A little time consuming, but easy. Great post!

  2. DMAN72 says:

    Battery and salsa. I saw them do it on Mythbusters.

  3. Geroge Forman says:

    That is interesting to see the bars able to slide out of their location. I wonder if that is like that by design, or just the easy way to secure them in place. Those windows dont look like they open, so I dont see why the bars would need to slide out in a non-emergency situation.

  4. JohnnyOV says:

    Those bars need to be removed in case of an emergency situation. Just because there is not one occurring when you arrive on scene, does not justify the immediate bar removal. Why waste precious time removing the bars when our brothers are trapped inside? The OV should have it done upon arrival.

  5. JohnnyOV says:

    sorry, it should read like this: “Just because there is not an emergency occurring when you arrive on scene, does not justify the placement of bar removal to a secondary or tertiary function.”

    Call for the extra truck if you are unsure, and get those bars off ASAP!

  6. Dan says:

    Geroge, guess its supposed to be George, but w/e. Come to the city one time… You have to lock up everything from people getting IN to your place before worrying about them getting out in the event of an emergency. Those bars are to prevent grab and go robberies, quick night time jobs. No scumbag wants to fool with that when the next shopping center over doesn’t have bars to slow him down.

  7. Firetruckin says:

    I am welder/fabricator by trade, volly FF by choice. Those have to the be the cheesest window bars I have ever seen. The 3 black bottom brackets are nothing more than 1/8″ mild steel plate. Which a good smack with a sledge would bend them down and out of place. Then you could swing the bars up if you couldn’t get them to slide to the side. I really can’t tell by the pictures, but since the hasp is bolted on vs welded, I want to say the bars maybe aluminum. If thats the case you could take a pair of bolt cutters to the bars since its soft aluminum. Also the roller track that the whole thing is hanging from is 12 gauge steel. One could pry around each hanger to get the wheel assemble to pop out of the track and the whole gate would come off. I am surpized that there isn’t a hockey puck style master lock on those bars as they are the hardest locks to defeat.

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