Reinforced Garage Door

We were sent on a box alarm at a workshop/storage shed on a golf course around 1:30 a.m. This facility stored all of the lawn cutting equipment, plus power and hand tools, acetylene and O2 bottles.


On arrival, E15 went out saying the entire building was fully involved and was going defensive. They pulled a bundle and requested saws to gain better access into the structure so they could flow water. L15 came with both the diamond blade saw and the combination blade saw (nugget blade).


The main door was a roll-up door. I sized it up like any other roll-up and began to cut using the diamond blade saw. My goal was to make a large square opening for the E15 firefighters to shoot water from the exterior without having to go into the structure. I started the vertical cut, meeting some resistance from the thicker braces on the inside of the roll-up. When it felt like it was cut, I rolled the saw downward and proceeded to finish the cut. The other L15 FF, using the combi-blade saw, made the horizontal cut. When that was done, nothing seemed to happen as far as the roll-up giving way. My Cpt. checked it out and noticed that the cuts were not completely finished to release the opening. The combi-blade saw was used to try and finish the cut, but it was not doing the job. I went back with the diamond blade and noticed that the blade guard kept getting in the way preventing me from fully plunging the blade, even with it completely pulled back. With some forcing of the tool, the cut was complete and we just pulled the door open.


After the incident was over. We looked at the door and found that it was heavy duty. The panels were metal with 2 sheets separated by insulation approximately 2-3" deep and the horizontal braces holding them together was approximately 3" thick steel.


Have you seen this type of door before? If you have ever dealt with this type of roll-up on an actual fire, let me know what you did different or what was your go-to saw.