Screen and storm doors are nothing more than a nuisance when performing a door size up and forcing entry on a residential structure. Obviously they can be removed through various methods, but sometimes that may be more trouble than it’s worth. They are not easily chocked because of the piano style hinge or otherwise limited accessible hinge side. Removing the door closers (newer doors have two, top and bottom) is time consuming and does little to secure the door if the wind is blowing from the hinge side.
Samuel Hittle from Wichita Firehouse 10 sent in an idea that another brother from Wichita shared with him. Firefighter Tom Dent from Firehouse 9 showed him a solution utilizing a bungee cord carried in his pocket, the bungee cord is used to quickly and easily secure these doors. The boys from Firehouse 10 liked the idea so much they attached an 18†bungee to the irons. Having it attached to the irons makes it readily available for any firefighter assigned to the door position. When an attachment point cannot be found on the structure, they simply create a purchase (to hook into) on the structure by driving the halligan into the house or porch wall.
An excellent solution if you encounter storm doors on a daily basis, be it EMS or food on the stove. The usual continuous hinge on todays modern screen doors make disabling it very difficult. Ive found that looking for something to hold it open is a lot less time consuming and saves your energy for making the real ‘push’. Its usually part of my size-up looking at the front of the house and whats there, it can give you a good idea if you will find a crib or stroller and the child that belongs with it.
“save a bungee, use a ‘truckie'”….that’s my motto for that picture! Ahhhhhh….im just kidding. Truckies don’t -always- get in the way. Ive seen one of those big metal spring loaded clips used once. The clip is light but the bungee seems better due to the length it can go to reach the anchor object and also its more outta the way when stored on the irons as seen in the photo. Nice Idea Tom & Samuel.
I’ve carried a 24″ tarp strap in my pocket for a couple years now. I use the tarp strap over the bungee because it has less stretch and is stronger. Those two qualities allow me to accomplish a few other tasks, such as bundle carrying air cylinders and securing ladder tips in a pinch (as well as “chocking” screen doors and some commercial doors). I replaced one of the hooks with a mattress hook which has a sharpened point. It grabs better and can sometimes be pushed into the material you are anchoring to. The uses for a bungee or tarp strap are only limited by your imagination.
My ladder company and I discussed this a little further and don’t think we would loose a haligan to hold open a screen door. Use the haligan to remove it!
I was going to suggest using the halligan to just pop off the bracket that the piston mounts to which is usually held in by 4 little wood screws. But then again, if you think about it, the door will most likely end up not staying open anyway. Ironically while at work today I was talking to the brothers and they had a P/D fire yesterday and had the prob with the front screen door not staying open. The little piston stopper wouldnt stay put. They eventually got it to stay but I was sure to fwd the bungee idea.
Try and take a screen door with a halligan. Let me know how it goes. Better off looking for something to hold it in place. The hinge is continuous usually from top to bottom, and practically gives you no place to force it apart. Ive tried in a controlled environment and not using a saw limits you.
What about the built in holder on the top of the door?
The metal “square” slides over the metal rod to hold it in place on non critical incidents. every one should be carrying some webbing as well so secring it shouldn’t be an issue.
In critical functions just take it OUT!!!! all its going to do is get in the way.
Great idea! anything to make the job easier & faster to deploy is a plus. Taking the screen door out seems to be too time consuming(in a fire call stuation)considering the growth of fire spread & minimum manning.
technicalrc November 20th, 2007 9:30 pm
My ladder company and I discussed this a little further and don’t think we would loose a haligan to hold open a screen door. Use the haligan to remove it!
What an idiot, you do not leave the halligan in the wall with the bungee attached. You use the halligan to make a hole in the wall to tie the bungee cord too. This allows you to keep you forcible entry tool with you during fire attack and search and rescue operations. Another option would be to use a door wedge or a hinge hook to keep the screen door open, it would be faster overall,and allow you to make faster access to the door needing forced or maybe to fight the fire. Which is probably the reason you were called anyway.
I think this is another submission for “Whats in your pockets?”
Never thought of adding it, but will consider it. Now, which probie to order to carry that… were getting quite full of equipment in our pockets… lol
Hope everyone has a safe and a happy turkey day. Special Thanksgiving day thanks to all who contribute to this page and its content.
Stay safe.
Brother Egan,
That is such a good idea we’ll take you up on that offer. We added it to the What’s in your pockets page. We’re not quite sure why we didn’t do that from the beginning, but with you’re help we corrected the issue, thanks for the heads up. –Jimm-
How about a hose rope tool or strap? Some departments require their members to carry them. Why not use one to secure the door to the railing, if one is there.
We were talking about this the other day and our standard fix was webbing but I would hate to use it then need it later on. Blowing it off the hing also came up as well as the basic principle of protecting property. I would hate to damage a door for a bad furnace motor or a smokey grease fire. The bungie goes in the pocket next tour. Thanks for the great tip and keep em’ coming.
I carry a bungee cord for this, also works well on front doors to apt buildings. I would like to know how well the bungee works for holding the irons together. It looks like a good idea, but it doesnt look like it would work as well as a regular marrying strap.
Stay Safe
Yo NH misread the original post so bite me.
The bungee doesn’t actually hold the tools together. It is only attached to the tool to make it available when forcing the front door. If you carry 8 lb flat head axes, the axe “wedges” into the fork and holds together fairly well. You can actually create a valley for the fork in the axe and then the tools basically “lock” together.
While teaching at the FDIC, we had numerous vacants with storm doors and discussed this matter(truckies from across the USA). There were a lot of fixes discussed. One that quickly came to me was:
While holding the halligan, I quickly took a swing at the aluminum cap and bent it down. Doing this bent the cap and didn’t let the door swing closed because the metal cap acted like a chock near the self closure/hinge side. In some of the scenarios we had to hit it more then once to get enough bend on the cap to act like a chock. A pliers may bend it down enough to.
Of course like any thing else SIZE-UP the door because each door may be different….and tactics may have to change.
Hey Champ,
That looks like sounds like it’s gonna be your next sidebar article for Fire Engineering… A couple pics would really clear up the technique for everyone. Great to see your input here. Keep it coming!
Be safe Brothers,
Chris
A small pair of cheap vise grips works great, just clip them on the cylinder where you want the door to stop. Thats one of the many uses for them, they fit in your turnout gear very well.
I can’t take the credit for this one but Capt Peter Kertzie of Buffalo FD Truck 14 once taught this.
Nice work to the original “inventors” of the bungee fix. Another quick way is to use the vise grips you probably already have in your pocket on the bar of the closer cylinder. While the door is fully open, just clamp em down. If its a SFD, chances are good that in most places in the country, once you defeat the front door, your in.
Another quick (although less fully open) solution is while the door is opened all the way, to simply give it a quick wack on the cylinder bar. A slight bend will prevent the door from closing all the way, but it may partially obstruct the opening.
As a matter of thought, I wonder if you could use the chain/spring assembly some (not all) screen doors have at the top similarly to the bungee technique?
I honestly never gave it much thought as about 2 or 3 good swings will usually take enough of the door down so it no longer resembles anything that will get in the way ever again. Remember, these aren’t security doors were talking about.
P.S.
41T – Indian leg wrestling this year????
all is good til the thing melts and breaks due to heat and fire. then u r f’d
carry a chock!
You tell me wear in a screen door a chock will fit. The bottom is too far from the ground cause most screen doors have a step before them the hinge side is not deep enough and the top the is nothing to put pressure with so a chock is out of the question.