May 2017
FireNuggets, Inc
your pull on the nails that are attaching these
boards to the roof rafter or truss. This saves us a lot
of trouble and effort. Work smart and control these
variables before they arrive. Pull the boards.
expanding vid
1. They can rocket through the ceiling and possibly
strike a FF or pierce the attack hose.
2. They fall in and land catawampus across the
bottom chord of the truss system or ceiling
joists, and directly in the way of the area of
ceiling you still need to breach to complete the
ventilation opening. A cut piece of plywood with
several layers of “comp” (composition roofing
paper) or shingles that was cut from a roof
system that had trusses or rafters at 24” o.c. (on
center) makes for a fairly heavy piece of board
that you now have to try to move out of the way
using your hook. Couple that with any heat and
smoke that may already be exhausting from your
opening and one could see why this is an
unenviable position to be in.
We always try to drive the pick of the fireman’s axe or
tines of the rubbish hook into the cut piece of board
nearest the rafter or top chord of the system and pull
the boards off of and out of the opening. Once the
saw FF has cut the opening, engaged the brake, and
exited the cut area, the hook firefighters or “pullers”
then enter and begin working the cut sections of
roof. By raising the tool over their heads and then
swinging the tool in a downward motion, the
“pullers” will drive the tines of the rubbish hook or
the pick of the firemen’s axe into the wood near
the rafter. Once the tool is buried into the
material, the puller will then forcefully and rapidly
yank the tool back up into themselves with the
hopes of defeating the nail from the rafter and
removing the cut sections of board. Driving the
hook near the rafter will maximize the force of
By Firefighters, For Firefighters
Systematically work the opening: We always try to
keep our momentum directed back towards our
escape route. This is the sounded path we took to
arrive to the involved area. We make all of our cuts
so that our head and bottom (final) cut directs our
forward momentum out of the work area and back
towards our escape route. So the cutting sequence
follows the letter “S”. By starting our head cut back
the way we came, we’ll systematically end up making
our bottom cut back to our sounded path as well.
The "puller" or hook firefighter then enters the work
area and pulls the boards in the same systematic
sequence that will keep the venting fire to his back
and never between him and the sounded escape
route (bearing wall).
To do this, the "puller" starts removing the boards
farthest from the escape route and eventually back to
the sounded path from which we came. He then flips
the hook and begins pushing in the ceiling farthest
away and back towards the escape path always
keeping himself between the fire and the escape
route. Again, it’s
about forward
momentum.
We encourage
use of j-hook
you to flip the
hook around
thus using the D-
handle to start
pushing the
ceiling in. This will minimize the chances of your hook
becoming entangled in any electrical wiring, utility
plumbing, or HVAC ducting. Whenever possible, we
try to locate our
bottom chord or
ceiling joist with the
D- handle by
inserting it until you
punching through vid
hit ceiling and then
swinging it
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