Tool Time

By Raul A. Angulo

What Hand Tools Are In Your Pockets?

In the Seattle Fire Department, our tradition is that the on-coming member puts away the turnout gear (helmet, coat and boots) of the member he or she is relieving. I am always amused at shift change how some coats weigh as much as a boat anchor and others are light as a feather.

If the gear is soaking wet from a fire, it’s all heavy, but for the most part, it’s all in the tools they carry in their pockets.

In the old days, only the bunking coats had deep pockets. Most, if not all modern bunking pants have large, deep cargo pockets on each leg. With all the pockets on today’s bunking gear, some guys can – and do – carry a miniature Home Depot. This is OK as long as they are not working near deep water on a short, narrow pier.

Other firefighters couldn’t care less and only carry whatever the department issued them the day they joined up.

Going through a guy’s turnout pockets is not the same as going through his locker. When a coat is too light, I can’t help but check and see what the firefighter isn’t carrying. Likewise, when   I lift a turnout coat from the rig and      it feels like a bag of cement, I can’t help but check to see what type of cement this firefighter thinks is important to carry.

For those of you who think this is snooping, the proper term is equipment inspection. As the captain of the company, it is my responsibility to make sure my firefighters are properly equipped to do the job. Part of that preparation is making sure they are carrying the essential tools in their pockets.

 

The Gear Keeper with a retractable cord allows for easy reach and use of a radio microphone without losing it.

There are various multi-tools on the market. Strong plastic strap wrenches are lightweight and function like a pipe wrench. The MXZ pocket saw has a tungsten carbide edge.

The FESH hook has a 4-inch bite that can go around a windowsill or a door jam. It can also attach to a pipe, ladder rung or bite through sheetrock and weighs 12 ounces.

For example, it goes without saying that every firefighter should have at least one flashlight, preferably one that works, and a pocketknife that gets sharpened at least once a year.

If you’re assigned to a truck company, you’d better have a sprinkler wedge that can also double as a door chock. If you’re on an engine, you better have a spanner wrench. These are tools essential to your specific assignment on the fireground.

There’s nothing more embarrassing or unprofessional than an engine crew that can’t bust a cap off a standpipe connection or free the female swivel of a Siamese fire department connection because no one has a spanner wrench. A truck crew is unprepared when it shows up on a water job to find a sprinkler head flowing that needs to be wedged and a member has to run back to the truck to get one.

In the meantime, water continues to needlessly damage property. Even with shutting down the main sprinkler valve, drainage time can be considerable, and without a wedge, the open sprinkler head continues to cause additional water damage. And you’d better not use a forcible entry tool as a door stopper. That’s a waste of a valuable life-saving tool. Carry a door chock.

If you think about it, we really pay little, if any attention to what firefighters carry in their pockets. We think it should be common sense, but you’d be surprised. If we are masters at our craft, we need to show the new apprentices which tools are important to carry and why.

12-Month Inspections

The National Fire Protection Association Standard on Selection, Care, and Maintenance of Structural Fire Fighting Protective Ensembles, NFPA 1851, states in Section 4.3.1: “Advanced inspections of all personal protective equipment and ensemble elements shall be conducted at a minimum of every 12 months, or whenever routine inspections indicate that a problem may exist.The advanced inspections shall be conducted by members of the organization who have received training in the inspection of structural firefighting protective clothing and equipment.” 

  

In Seattle, we perform these inspections every six months. A training video is sent out to all the companies demonstrating the proper way to inspect turnout gear. Some of the things to look for are: soiling, contamination from hazardous materials or biological agents and physical damage to all layers, such as rips, tears, cuts, abrasions, thermal damage, charring, burns, holes, melting or discoloration.

Valuable Resources

If firefighters are our most valuable resource, then let’s protect them. Arrange to have gear repaired immediately. If it fails the inspection, condemn it and have a new set issued to the member.   

So what do you carry in your coat? I have to admit, my gear is pretty heavy. The guys on my crew who make fun of my weight say it’s heavy simply because the manufacturers had to use more material for my girth. Very funny. (I’ll drill those guys later.) Here’s my list:

• Helmet – ESS goggles with a Nomex cover to protect them; Pelican light w/ halogen bulb, bracket mounted to the helmet; four Passport Velcro name tags; and a 4mm Allen wrench.

The wrench tightens and adjusts the Pelican flashlight helmet bracket, but also serves to reset the majority of the automatic fire alarm pull stations I encounter. (This has been a very valuable tool, small and lightweight.)

• Turnout coat, left breast radio pocket – 800 MHz Motorola radio. Radio microphone is attached to the coat with a Gear Keeper retractable cord.

Outside this pocket I clip a small Velcro strap to hold my firefighting gloves, making them easily accessible. I don’t have to reach in my pockets trying to find my gloves. This strap prevents them from accidentally falling out of my pocket, and I don’t accidentally pull out and drop pocket tools while searching for my gloves.

Right-Angle Flashlight

• Right breast hook – attached is a Koehler Bright Star (Model 500305) right-angle flashlight. It weighs one pound, it’s waterproof and can survive a 30-foot drop. (Though I probably wouldn’t survive a 30-foot drop, at least my flashlight would still work.) It has a 60,000-candle power halogen bulb with two spare bulbs inside the unit with a burn time of five hours.

• Right coat pocket – battery cable cutters and three separate body loops. The cutters are the kind you buy at an auto supply store. Lineman cable cutters are OK, but they take extra effort to cut the larger gauge cables. These cutters have curved blades that bite into the cable without slipping. They’re a little heavier to carry, but are the only pliers beefy enough for the job. Multi-tool pliers are nice if you’re cutting light gauge wire for floral arrangements or hanging pictures, but they’re worthless if you have to self-extricate from entangled wires after a ceiling collapse. I insist that the new members on my crew carry these cutters.

Each body loop is one-inch webbing sewn to a 51-inch circumference. This webbing is used as a hose strap or whatever needs to be tied off or secured. Uses are limited to your imagination.

Multi-Tools

• Left coat pocket – two hardened, serrated (for grip), plastic door wedges; a Victorinox SwissTool (multi-tool and pliers); and a heavy duty plastic Mastergrip strap wrench.

Now don’t get me wrong. I didn’t say multi-tools are worthless; I said they are worthless for cutting heavy gauge cables for self-extrication and rescues. If you don’t believe me, try it. They are excellent for the uses they are designed for and probably the most valuable pocket tool a firefighter can carry. In fact, I carry two. One on the belt of my work uniform and the other one in my bunking coat so I don’t have to switch them out. There are usually two knife blades within the tool. I used to carry a tool pouch that weighed as much as a cannon ball, but I figure if I need a tool beyond the scope of the multi-tool, I can walk back to the truck and grab a big one from the tool box. The multi-tool definitely saves some weight.

The strap wrench is excellent for twisting off hose caps from standpipe connections, busting loose the plugs and female swivels from a Siamese sprinkler connection and can serve as a pipe wrench twisting any cylindrical object (water pipes, PVC pipes, sprinkler heads, monitor tips). It can also loosen many types of bolts that you would use a crescent wrench for and it saves on weight. If you need an actual pipe or crescent wrench, it’s probably not a life-threatening emergency, so you can walk back to the apparatus and get it.

• Inside coat pocket – a 3-by-5-inch memo pad and pen to write down occupant information for fire reports as well as a few business cards; one generic 3-by-5-inch emergency field guide with quick reference information on handling various types of emergencies; a 4-by-7-inch SFD Field Operation Guide; a self-made elevator key; and swimming goggles.

The Coolest Tool

This quick reference guide has information that is specific to our SOPs. It includes hydraulics charts, HazMat and WMD procedures, high-rise and marine operations, diagrams on setting up the various rope rescue systems, MCI, and USAR as well as other special information that’s hard to remember during the actual emergency. I wavered whether to carry it with me or keep it on the apparatus, but no doubt, the time I’ll need it, it will be sitting back in the cab. So I carry it.

The coolest tool I carry in this pocket is the elevator key. It’s made out of heavy gauge wire that has some strength to it, but is still bendable. This is wire similar to a clothes hanger or an aerial antenna off a car. One day I tried to scam an extra elevator key off an Otis elevator serviceman, and he showed me this tool. He said elevator keys vary in styles and lengths and don’t always work on every elevator. However, he found this bent wire works on 90 percent of the elevators he services. That was good enough for me. They are a lot lighter than elevator keys. I personally have used this wire to open elevator doors numerous times without fail.

I carry a set of swimming goggles because Seattle has a lot of waterfront and lakes.

• Second interior pocket – a Pelican “Little Ed” Series 3610 Recoil LED (right angle) flashlight. I have a rubber band holding the toggle switch in place to prevent it from accidentally turning on in my coat. This is my third light. It’s an excellent 32-lumen beam. This is my personal survival light with a burning time of 32 hours.

A Great Self-Rescue Tool

• Turnout Pants, right-side cargo pocket. This large pocket has 3 narrow fluted interior pockets as well. In two of the interior pockets are sprinkler wedges, and in the last pocket is an MXZ pocket saw, a great self-rescue tool. The saw has a case hardened aluminum, rust resistant handle and folding heavy duty tungsten carbide edge blade that never needs sharpening. It can saw through almost anything. I’ve used it to cut through chain-link fencing and a padlocked steel chain. This is an inexpensive personal rescue or rapid intervention pocket tool.

In the main pocket is a case hardened lightweight aluminum folding spanner wrench which can also serve as prying tool; a whistle; a Super PeliLite submersible flashlight, my fourth light; and my main Spyderco rescue knife.

Many night post-fire pick-up activities don’t require a turnout coat, but you still may need a flashlight, i.e. backing up apparatus. Having my main rescue knife in my pants pocket ensures quick access. Ladder belts and SCBA waist straps often make the coat pockets difficult to access.

• Left-side cargo pocket.

First, some important background. On Jan. 23, 2005, six FDNY firefighters fell from a fourth-story window to the ground. Two firefighters died, three became permanently disabled and only one returned to the line. Their story changed my life.

I have been taught the various techniques to bail out from a window, but you need to have the right tool, like a Halligan or an axe. Plus you need to quickly tie the right knot before you rappel out.

Sling-Link Has Many Uses

If you research the FDNY story, these guys literally had seconds before they bailed out. I can’t tie a knot that fast. And what if you don’t have the right tool? What if you’re carrying the pump can, tarps, or the portable lights? Can you drive these tools through the wall or the floor for an anchor point? Unless you’re wearing an axe, you’re screwed. (SFD carries a drop bag of 50-foot rope with two carabiners on the SCBA backpack assembly.)

This left-side cargo pocket has an interior liner separating it into two pouches. I carry two Sling-Link MAST (multiple application service tool) systems – one in each pouch. One Sling-Link is attached to a FESH (firefighter escape survival hook). The Sling-Link MAST is a series of 1-inch webbing sewn into five loops that are chained together. Total length is nine feet.

This chain link webbing meets NFPA 1983 (2001 edition) standards for a personal use or general use auxiliary harness with a minimum breaking strength (MBS) of 4,500 pounds. The Sling-Link has many uses, but I use one system as an escape ladder and the other system as a patient harness for a downed firefighter or civilian rescue. (www.sling-link.com)

The FESH hook is a 12-ounce hook that also meets the NFPA 1983         standard for anchoring systems. (www.emergencyresponderproducts.com) It has an MBS of 6,600 pounds at the arch and 1,140 pounds at the tip.

Depending on the situation (search and rescue or self rescue), I know which Sling-Link to grab. Both systems fit neatly into this pocket. The feature I like best about the hook and ladder system is that it is ready for quick deployment. It doesn’t require a hand tool or the need to quickly tie a knot.

Changes Over Years

The FESH hook has a 4-inch bite to go around a windowsill or a door. It can hook to a pipe or a ladder rung and can bite through sheetrock. Using the Sling-link like a ladder allows the entire company to use the system for escape. Other self-rescue systems require each firefighter to operate their own system independently. You can imagine how tricky this can be if four firefighters are trying to bail out the same window. If we have a crew of four, or we need to get down two floors below the fire, I can attach both Sling-Links together with a carabiner creating an escape ladder 18 feet in length.

Over the years, the contents of my pockets have changed. I’ve added things and discarded things. After 27 years on the job, my pocket tools are geared toward search and rescue or self rescue and survival.

If I need hand tools that are not required for life threatening situations, then I have some time. If the situation isn’t urgent, I can go back to the apparatus and get what ever tools I need. Better yet, I can send the rookie to run back to the rig to get them.

Editor’s Note: Raul A. Angulo is a 27-year veteran of the Seattle Fire Department and captain of Ladder Company 6. He is on the Educational Advisory Board for the Fire Department Instructors Conference and is on the Board of Directors for the Fellowship of Christian Firefighters. He lectures on fire service leadership, company officer development and fireground strategy and accountability throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico.