Check out any piece of fire apparatus, and you’ll find a wide assortment of tools for forcible entry, checking for fire extension, salvage and overhaul, and other situations where motorized or battery-operated tools don’t work well. These are the hand tools that engine and truck firefighters use daily in getting the job done.
Ryan Glover, marketing director at Ziamatic Corp. (Zico), says his company makes the QUIC-BAR, a halligan-type tool in both drop forged alloy steel and three-piece pinned steel versions in 30-inch and 36-inch lengths that give high-tensile strength, hardness, and resilience for maximum power. “The tapered pike is ideal for forcing padlocks or driving into material for prying,” Glover observes, “and our pry and wedge ends are narrower for faster and easier penetration. The greater width and curvature on the wedge provide powerful leverage for prying operations, and the QUIC-BAR is easily coupled with an ax.”
Ziamatic also makes the QUIC-AXE Super Tool, a lightweight multipurpose rescue and forcible entry tool with a pry point, cutting edge, and prying edge. “This 15-inch-long tool’s design makes it useful as an ax, hydrant wrench, hammer, nail pull, and gas shut-off,” Glover says.
Also, in Ziamatic’s line of hand tools are 6- and 8-pound flathead and pickhead axes that are available in either straight handle or ergonomic contour handle versions, Glover says, noting that 8-, 10-, and 12-pound fiberglass-handle sledges are also available.
Ziamatic offers pike poles and salvage poles in 4-, 6-, 8-, 10-, 12-, 14-, and 16-foot premade lengths and also will make custom lengths to meet a department’s special requirements. Also available, Glover says, are closet hooks in pike head with standard or Z-grip styles, fire rakes, trash hooks, and shovels.
1 Ziamatic Corp. makes the QUIC-AXE Super Tool, a multipurpose rescue and forcible entry tool, in pentagonal (shown) and square styles. (Photos 1-3 courtesy of Ziamatic Corp.)
2 This QUIC-BAR halligan-type tool made by Ziamatic sits on the front bumper of an FDNY engine, along with a closet hook.
3 Ziamatic makes a traditional pike head closet hook with a Z-style combination grip.
Fred Malven, president at Malven Fire Tool Works, says he got started designing fire hand tools when he consulted for Iowa American Fire Equipment. “I revised a design of a halligan tool they had, and when the company went out of business did another redesign of it and later came up with the newly-released All American Halligan,” Malven says.
The All-American is one of four entry bars that Malven Fire Tool Works makes available in 24-, 27-, 30-, and 36-inch lengths. The others, Malven says, are the classic halligan bar, invented in the late 1940s by Fire Department of New York (FDNY) Chief Hugh Halligan; a Monster Halligan that incorporates a wide symmetrical adz; and the Hayward Claw tool, often called the Los Angeles tool, with a narrow but stout claw and Cully lugs, used to open standpipe valves.
Malven Fire Tool Works also makes the Hawk Tool that is available with four ends—Raptor, Hawk, Hallux, and Fork styles. “The Hawk end has a longitudinal blade with wedge tip, a transverse blade, an adz, and rib, while the Raptor end has a pike, notch, and mallet face,” Malven says. “The tool has a chrome-molybdenum shaft and comes in our standard lengths of 34, 36, 42, 48, 60, and 72 inches, plus any measurement in between. The tool is designed to nest with a halligan bar so it can be carried like a married set of a flathead ax and halligan.”
4 Malven Fire Tool Works makes the Hawk Tool that’s available with four heads—Raptor, Hawk, Hallux, and Fork styles. (Photos 4-6 courtesy of Malven Fire Tool Works.)
5 The Malven Hawk Tool is available with a closed loop handle for greater pulling power.
6 A Hawk Tool married with an All-American Halligan tool, both made by Malven Fire Tool Works.
Richard Parker, vice president and business manager for Leatherhead Tools, says Leatherhead makes a wide variety of fire hand tools, including halligan bars, the Ultra-Force® ax, flathead and pickhead axes, pike poles, sledges, New York Hooks, New York Claw Hooks, and Lockwood Hooks. “Our halligan tool is drop-forged, high-carbon steel that’s ideal for forcible entry, overhaul, and ventilation operations,” Parker says. “It’s available in 24-, 30-, and 36-inch lengths. Our New York Hook is drop forged and heat treated for strength and durability and is great for prying, pulling, and lifting operations. It’s available in lengths from 2 feet to 17 feet.”
7 Two firefighters display the two ends of a Lockwood Hook made by Leatherhead Tools. (Photos 7-9 courtesy of Leatherhead Tools.)
8 A close-up of the business end of a Lockwood Hook.
9 A closet hook made by Leatherhead Tools.
Leatherhead’s Lockwood Hook was invented by John Lockwood, a firefighter and product development trainer for Leatherhead, who says he was a fan of the New York Hook and wanted to take its strengths and combine them with the halligan bar’s strengths. Lockwood says the tool’s “broad top edge provides for superior sounding of roof decking and delivers positive feedback through the shaft, while the working angles of the tool head provide extra lift to get materials pulled up and opened up quicker and easier.”
Lockwood notes that the Lockwood Hook’s throat is specifically designed for quick and secure marrying to a halligan “to get the firefighters where they are going without any delays or tool fumbles. It’s power-to-weight balance is due to slightly thicker walled tubing, making for the perfect weight for positive sounding and window sash smashing, without adding extra fatigue to the firefighter.” Lockwood adds that the top beveled edge of the tool will slice through drywall in long, clean cuts and provides extra leverage to pull lath and plaster.
ALAN M. PETRILLO is a Tucson, Arizona-based journalist, the author of three novels and five nonfiction books, and a member of the Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment Editorial Advisory Board. He served 22 years with the Verdoy (NY) Fire Department, including in the position of chief.
