After my last Fire Team meeting the 2nd Mate said: “you must own stock in the Halligan Tool Company”. Well I don’t (such a company doesn’t even exist) but I am a big fan of the Halligan and insist that it’s carried on each vessel I work on.
Invented by Deputy Chief Hugh Halligan of the FDNY, it is the multipurpose tool of choice for firefighters around the globe and is used for tasks ranging from forced entry to overhaul. It also has some ISPS uses not disclosed by any manufacturer.
To give you a better idea about how it’s used watch the video below then view our pdf slideshow for the shipboard uses of the tool.
gCaptain Slideshow: The Halligan Tool
When interlocked with a flat-head axe they become “married” and are called “The Irons”:
Tags: · fdny, Gear, halligan
I don’t have many pictures of my father but I recently ran across this one posted on the website of his fire company “Rescue 3“. Following Vietnam and the Physician Assistant program at Cornell he joined the Fire Department of New York and was soon accepted into the department’s elite company Rescue 3.
These were the “War Years” and the bronx was burning. He didn’t talk much about the fires so when he did I hung on every word. One day he was discussing the severity of the situation in the bronx with an out of state firefighter and said “How many massive, fully engulfed fires with multiple casualties have you seen in your career? There are days we see 5 or 6 in one night!”.
What does this have to do with Marine Firefighting? [Continue Reading →]
Tags: · agent_orange, Communication, disoriented, elite_company, fdny, fighting_fires, firefighter, Firefighting, fire_company, marine_firefighting, mayday, professional_firefighters, rescue_3, tips, vietnam
