Going Interior? Keep the door closed until you make the push!

While there has been much discussion about interior stream vs. exterior or transitional vs. interior fire attack. This short post isn’t about rather you should or shouldn’t. To me there is a time and place for both. However if you decide to make the push interior, door control is essential until you have a charged line with adequate flow.

First arriving officer should assess the position of the front entry door. The officer should be looking for the following:

Front Door: open or closed?

If the door is open then the officer should identify the B-SAHF (Building, Smoke, Air Track, Heat, and Flame) indicators and if there appears to be any victim’s right at doorway. Then it is important to close the door until they are ready to make the push interior.

The following video is being used to discuss this topic and not criticize the department or Monday morning quarterback this department.

Special thanks to vfd173 for sharing this video.

The full video is below.

Stay Safe

Captain John Shafer