As homeowners and business owners secure their properties with sophisticated locks and security systems, area firefighters need to learn how to get inside during an emergency.
Clark County Fire & Rescue hosted a three-day forcible-entry training at their station near Dollars Corner in Battle Ground. Firefighters from stations around the Pacific Northwest — Gig Harbor, Seattle, Portland — were instructed in how to force their way into residential and commercial buildings by local training group Brothers in Battle.
Jesse Avery, a firefighter for the Vancouver Fire Department, and Cody Trestrail, a firefighter for the Portland Fire Bureau, co-founded the organization about a year ago after seeing a need for forcible-entry training. Firefighters need to know how to assess a situation and determine the best way to get inside, while doing minimal damage to the structure. It all depends on the emergency: during an active fire, a quicker entry and more damage is warranted.
At the final Thursday training, the class covered nearly every kind of door and door mechanism — glass push-bar door you’ll find at a school, a reinforced metal door found on the backside of a commercial building, an ornate wrought-iron door with a dead bolt found at area residences. The piles of locks, door knobs and handles made it look as though Brothers in Battle raided Home Depot.
