Editor’s note: Not all responses involving protest demonstrations go as smoothly as the incidents described below. Recent bombing incidents in Atlanta involved secondary devices apparently intended to injure or kill emergency responders. Firefighters and other rescue workers are advised to use extreme caution.
At 8:44 A.M. on Aug. 7, 1996, the Englewood, NJ, Fire Department received a call for assistance from the Englewood Police Department. Such calls are not uncommon for the fire department, and typically they range from lockouts to gaining entry to buildings. When the dispatcher announced the address, however, we knew this wouldn’t be a routine job.
The location was an abortion clinic where a protest demonstration was underway. Five protesters had gained entry to the building and locked themselves together with horseshoe, or U-shaped, bicycle locks. Our job was to remove the locks so that police could arrest the protesters and remove them from the building. About 15 more protesters were across the street from the clinic, and police maintained a security zone to keep them from interfering with our operation.
Photo by Mike Johnston A whizzer tool hooked up to an SCBA bottle. Extra bottles should be available for responders using the tool to cut locks.
Upon our arrival, Captain Walter Clark, the officer in charge, met with the police to size-up the incident. It was decided that the fire department would cut the locks from the protesters (which were locked around their necks) and the police would remove them. The protesters were in a hallway at the top of a staircase on the second floor. This limited our working area to about five by eight feet.
Our major concern was the safety of the fire department members, the occupants of the medical building and the protesters themselves. Five people locked together; there were one group of three and a separate couple. Each person had a lock around his or her neck and the locks were connected together.
We determined we would cut the locks using a whizzer tool, a handheld pneumatic cutting device. Each protester was covered with a blanket. An air source was used from the fire department apparatus and one member stood by with a 2½-gallon pressurized water can. The couple were simply carried down the stairs and into a police vehicle while still locked together. The group of three, however, could not be removed in that manner, so each lock was cut and the individuals were removed by the police. The cutting of each lock took about a minute. The equipment was then packed up and members responded to the city jail to cut the locks from the couple who were removed initially.
Experience Helped
This response went smoothly because a similar incident at the same location several years earlier taught responders several lessons.
The earlier incident was one for which we were not prepared. Until that call, we had not come across the U-shaped locks and they proved very difficult to break, especially when secured around people’s necks. At that incident, we took apart a door to which about a dozen protesters had locked themselves. All of them were picked up together and taken to the city jail on a flatbed tow truck.
That time, we were unable to cut through the locks. The only tool that we thought might work was the O-ring cutter of a hydraulic rescue tool but the locks were too strong and the tool chipped. Any other tools would have been too dangerous to use. The police eventually obtained the keys to the locks and unlocked the protesters.
Photo by Mike Johnston Placing a turnout coat over the demonstrators protect them from injury while the locks are cut.
After that incident, we realized we needed the proper tools and training in this area. We contacted several police and fire agencies in the New York City metropolitan area to learn how they handled similar situations; we also performed our own experiments. We tried using a reciprocating saw but it proved to be ineffective and too dangerous, as did a circular saw with a metal blade. An oxyacetylene torch did not work, and it was too dangerous to use it near a person’s head. Another type of O2-assisted exothermic torch was tried; this worked well at cutting the locks but it also proved to be too dangerous to use near a victim.
Then we tested the whizzer tool, a handheld pneumatic cutter that is used with a thin oxide blade. The tool operates off of compressed air and can be used from a compressor or self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) bottle. The unit that we use has a 90-psi maximum operating pressure. (When using an SCBA bottle, note that the air supply is depleted quickly, so several spare cylinders must be available.)
The tool’s blade is six inches in diameter and made of aluminum oxide. The blade is approximately 1/16th of an inch thick. Avoid twisting the blade while cutting, because this could cause it to break. The tool cuts well and the amount of sparking is minimal. The tool and blades are relatively inexpensive, and can be purchased at a tool store. It has been used by this department on several occasions for forcible entry.
Lessons Learned
- At the August 1996 incident, the protesters were cooperative with the fire and police departments. They were at the location to make a statement, not to injure anyone. This, however, may not always be the case. Police are needed to keep other demonstrators from interfering with the fire department operations. A coordinated effort will ensure everyone’s safety.
- It’s important to keep spare blades with this tool. At this incident, the first blade broke and had to be replaced. The entire incident took place with no injuries due to proper training and coordination of emergency services.
- The locks that were used are commonly called horseshoe locks due to their shape. The sizes of these locks vary among different manufacturers. The locks that we are seeing are four to five inches wide and eight to nine inches long.
One manufacturer we contacted said these locks were not designed to lock up people. Some of these locks have over 12,000 pounds of breaking force. This puts conventional forcible entry and extrication tools out of the picture in many cases.
- The easiest way to get through a lock is with the key. Before cutting the locks, ask whether the protesters or others are holding the keys.
Mike Johnston is a career firefighter with the Englewood, NJ, Fire Department and volunteer captain in the Tenafly, NJ, Fire Department. He served as a firefighter in the U.S. Coast Guard.
