BY TODD CONNORS
The engine company’s most important function is effectively and efficiently advancing the handline. Grave consequences may result if this single function is delayed. In most small to midsized departments, the typical engine company staffing is three firefighters; hence, the initial stretch needs as much help as possible. To make handline stretches easier, truck companies need to force open doors; if there is no dedicated truck company, then the engine company does this. But what happens to the door afterward also matters.
Too often, we rush to get to the fire and search for victims, forgetting a fundamental technique-chocking the door. If the door is unchocked, the resulting difficulty in advancing hose through it can seriously impede initial operations. Hoses may catch on the door, preventing advancement, or catch under the door, limiting water flow. Chocking the door is one of the most effective ways to ensure an effective stretch.
However, always remember that chocking open a door to the immediate fire area will also provide the fire air and possibly pull the fire back toward this new avenue of ventilation.
Numerous door chocks are on the market and come in various shapes, sizes, materials, and costs. The best way to see how different chocks work is to simulate a fire situation. Put on your gloves, black out your mask, get down on the floor, and try chocking the door using different methods and chocks to see which method and chock work best.
NAILS
Although not an ideal method, some may use 10- or 12-penny nails (10-penny nails are often too short) or masonry (cut) nails wedged between the edge of the door and the doorjamb. This works in situations in which the handline won’t cause too much door movement, such as when ventilating in a high-rise or office complex that just requires smoke removal.
To use a nail to chock open a door, simply place the point of the nail into the hinge’s screw head on the door, and let the flat head of the nail rest against the doorjamb to keep the door open. However, door movement may cause the nail to fall out.
On wood doors, it may be possible to keep the nail firmly in place so it won’t fall out if the door moves. Place the nail between the door’s hinge side and the doorjamb, with the point of the nail against the wood of the door’s edge and the nail head pressed against the doorjamb. Closing the door with the nail thus in place will make the nail’s point bite into the wood; if the door is accidentally pushed open, the nail will stay in position.
On some metal doors, the nail’s point may be positioned in the seam on the hinge side where the front or back panel of the door is attached; closing the door on it will wedge the point into the seam and keep it in place as above.
If carrying nails in your pocket, bundle the nails together using two thick rubber bands, such as those used to hold broccoli or asparagus together.
However, using nails on the primary hose access point isn’t a good practice, since the hoseline can move the door and dislodge the nail; it’s also hard to put the nails in place while wearing bulky firefighting gloves.
WOOD CHOCKS
 Photos by author. |
Wood chocks, often used to chock open doors illegally, can be made out of scrap wood. Use hard woods such as oak, hickory, or maple, not soft woods such as pine or poplar. The weight of a metal fire-rated door with a self-closing mechanism can crush a soft wood chock. But if hard wood is not available, by all means use whatever wood is at hand so you have the proper equipment in your arsenal. Although size isn’t a critical factor, most chock dimensions are 11⁄2 × 11⁄2 × 4 inches (photo 1). These dimensions allow a substantial amount of material to hold the door open. Carry two chocks to allow for chocking multiple doors.
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Gear storage. Carefully consider where to store the chock in your gear. It must be readily available, not buried in your bunker pants pocket along with everything else you might keep there and thus difficult to get at. Keeping it on your helmet with a rubber tire strap is effective, but it should also be positioned so that you can grab it and pull to release it (photo 2).
There are two methods for releasing the chock. You can pull down on it and with the same motion pull outward. This ensures that the strap stays on the helmet and that you do not hit the brim of your helmet and turn it on your head. Pulling it upward may be easier because your arm is moving upward in the direction toward the door hinge (especially if you are chocking a nonfire-rated door with a piano hinge that must be chocked at the top). Also, a longer chock is awkward to pull from the helmet when pulling down. The rubber strap on the helmet should not be under the helmet’s frontpiece, since the strap is also a tool that must be accessible. This strap can be removed and put around the door handles on each side of a door to prevent a door from latching or locking if it closes. Unfortunately, many firefighters use this tool as an advertising display and attach pins and buttons to it. How effective will this tool be if you need to use it over a self-latching door in a fire tower?
Chocks can also be placed in the rabbit tool bag and on the 21⁄2-gallon water extinguisher held with rubber straps.
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Deployment. What is the best way to use the wooden door chock? Placing it at the top of the door is not practical, since you must reach up through heated smoke and fire and the chock can become easily dislodged. You could place it above the door’s first hinge from the floor, but it may also become dislodged if someone bumps the door (photo 3). You could place it on the floor and wedge it under the door, but some firefighter may accidentally kick it out (photo 4).
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A good spot to place it is on the floor at the bottom corner of the door in the doorjamb, where it can’t get kicked out; and if the door gets bumped, the chock is already on the ground (photo 5).
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Some say to tap the chock in with a tool, but then it becomes hard to remove if you have to retreat in haste. Although tapping can be used in some instances (such as at a main entrance door that is far removed from the fire area), remember that a size-up should tell you when, how, and where to chock. There are often doors we don’t want to chock, such as those in the immediate fire area. We must maintain control of the fire by shutting the door until the arrival of personnel with a charged hoseline.
Firefighters should get in the habit of chocking doors as they progress into the structure with the hoseline. After the truck company forces the door, the next step must be to maintain control of the door and, if necessary, chock it. Remember that this new opening has introduced air to the fire, which can increase its volume; it also can pull the fire back to this opening. This allows the engine company to effectively advance the hoseline. If no truck company is on-scene or you don’t have one in your department, the engine should chock the door. This allows for easy access through the means of ingress and what could be your means of egress. Everyone in the department should get in the habit of placing the chock in the same place. This will allow someone who didn’t chock the door to remove it when the door needs to be closed in a hurry.
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The door chock is a simple and inexpensive tool that can make or break an operation. How many times in training and on the fire scene has the hoseline advance been delayed because it has become snagged or caught on a door? This requires someone to go back and get it loose. Some will say, “I don’t have the time to waste; I need to get to the fire!” If you cannot advance the line, you can’t get to the fire to fight it! How much more time will it take to retrace your steps, release the hose, and continue your advance? Make the time to take the time. By getting in the habit of always chocking doors open, you will enhance the hoseline stretch efficiency dramatically. ■
■ TODD CONNORS, a 12-year veteran of the fire service, is a lieutenant with Clearwater (FL) Fire and Rescue. He teaches hose and fire stream management for the Clearwater Fire and Rescue Recruit Program. A state-certified paramedic, pump operator, fire officer I and II, instructor I and II, fire safety inspector I, and fire investigator I, he also has an associate of fire science degree in emergency medical services and in fire science technology from Pasco-Hernando Community College.
