I am sure that this has been discussed before on here. But I am curious what tools you and your dept. use the most and find the most valuable to have on scene.
Being a Truckie for 13 years, my choice of tools were a set of irons, next would be a pike pole. Those three tools
are the most effective for forcible entery, opening walls, or ceillings, not to leave out ventilation by taking out
windows, opening in the roof etc.
As for me, a good chainsaw when I can use it, or the old standby, an axe. A set of irons is always awesome, but if you can only carry one, I grab the axe everytime. We have three different pikes and an L.A Trash hook (rubbish hook, ceiling hook, it has a ton of different names) as well that I use constantly.
My favorite tool ever period is a haligan tool. you can pry, destroy, forcible entry, purchase points. i love them and carry one everytime i come off the truck
COMMON SENSE is obviously the number one answer in this forum and should be across the nation. As far as hand tools it depends on the situation and what we are assigned to do. Personnaly I love the axe and the halligan. If Im on a roof I like the 8 or 10 foot pike...and of course that darned trusty axe. SCBA is an obvious tool of choice :). Im my bag it's probably my vise grips...1000's of uses. At a Traffic Collision...name it depending on what type of damage there is.
We got our first truck with roll up doors seven years ago, since then spec them on every new truck. Never have had a major problem, The Amdoors were a little stiff, but we put silicone lubricant on the seals and it loosened them up. Never once had them freeze up, and we're in Canada.