TRAINING Firefighter Topics Forcible Entry Maintenance

An article about Hydraulic Forcible Entry Tool (HFET) maintenance. Inspection and maintenance of all tools on your apparatus on a daily basis is vital to ensuring that they are battle ready and will not fail you when you need them most. One tool that requires special and frequent inspection and maintenance is the Hydraulic Forcible Entry Tool (HFET), more commonly known as the Hydra Ram. This tool is a great addition to your forcible entry tool cache and can come in very handy if you must force multiple doors and can be advantageous during zero visibility or tight spaces forcible entry operations. A lot of misconceptions about the checking procedures for the Hydra Ram exist.

An article about cleaning and maintaining firefighter's hand tools.

An article about the irons usually, normally consist of an eight-pound flat-headed axe (also known as a forcible entry axe) and a 30-inch halligan bar. These two tools can marry together (see photo 1) to be easily carried in one arm. When these two tools are carried together it gives the user the options of prying, cutting and striking.