CHOCKING DOORS

One very important and simple tool for use on the fire ground is the door chock. Door chocks serve a variety of purposes. We will focus on two of the simple ones, maintaining egress and keeping the door off the hose. The first use is for everyone’s safety by maintaining the way in and out of the building. Second, for the engine company and extinguishment process they keep the door off the hose, eliminating kinks, flow reductions or worse no flow. There are many other uses; however, we will focus on these two.

You can make your own door chock or use a commercially available model. The problem with commercial models is that they aren’t often strong enough to hold all of the doors you encounter and when used on the fire ground they often end up in someone else’s pocket (thus you lose money). So you spend a lot of money for someone else to “borrow”. The best alternative for a door chock is to make them yourself with scrap wood. Most of the time exact dimensions are not important; an effective chock should be approximately four to five inches long and one and a half inches wide at the tallest point. (Figure 1).

 

A good alternative type of home made wedge if you want an exact dimension is the “Wichita Wedge” which can be found by doing a search on Fire Engineering (www.fireengineering.com). There is a picture of this wedge below. (Figure 2 and 3)

 Each firefighter should carry at least one or two door chocks. I carry 6 in my pocket and a couple on my helmet. Since chocks tend to get left behind at operations, firefighters must re-supply after use to ensure chocks are available when needed. Chocks can be carried in pockets, attached to your helmet with a rubber strap, placed in the rabbit tool bag, standpipe bag or stuffed in hose beds to be grabbed when starting deployment of a fire line.

The first firefighter or officer to enter a building must chock open each door he encounters while to the fire--even “non” self-closing doors. Subsequent firefighters entering the building should check to ensure that each door remains securely chocked. The most effective way to chock a door is to place the chock between the door and jamb on the hinge side. (Figure 4) When chocking the door to the fire apartment or a door leading from the stairs and hallway on the fire floor, place the chock near the floor so you can safely withdraw it if required when the smoke, heat or fire is venting above your head.

If the main entrance door features a piano hinge, place the chock at the top in an inverted fashion. (Figure 5)

If no alternative exists the last placement option is at the floor. This is not normally recommended for the following reasons: It may get kicked by a passing firefighter and the door will close; it may get caught by a hose coupling, causing the door to close on an uncharged fire line; and the floor surface may be smooth and slippery, and the weight of a self-closing door may push the chock out of position. Chocks may also have to chock gates to courtyards and alleyways.

It is not good practice to use a tool as a chock. Flathead axes, halligan bars and "rabbit" tools are often found chocking doors open, but this prevents their use for other operations.

If no chocks are available be creative, a door mat, large potted plant, newspaper, chair or crushed soda container will work in a pinch.

Be safe!