Breaking In

I was working overtime at a station that I've only been to once before when we got toned out for a medical. Fortunately, it was on a major cross street and I knew how to get there without relying on the captain to navigate for me.

The call came in for an elderly female fall victim. It was also reported that PD was on the way as well. This didn't make sense to any of us. It sounded like a straight forward trip and fall. So, why was PD responding? We arrived right behind the police officer and made our way to the apartment where we found the apartment manager trying several different keys to unlock the metal security door. The woman inside was calling for help and scratching at the door.

So, that explained the cops being there.

The manager didn't seem to have the right key so we went back to the rig and grabbed "the irons" to force our way in.
While the firefighter and I went to the rig for the tools, the cop decided he would give the door a try. I don't know if he was trying to make a point that they didn't need to rely on the fire department and our forcible entry skills or if he just legitimately thought he could pry a metal security door open with his bare hands. In any case, when we returned from the rig we found him hanging from the top of the door with his feet up on the wall and yanking on the door like a monkey trying to escape it's cage.

He stopped doing that as we approached and the captain and firefighter forced the door with the irons then went to work on the apartment door.
The manager quickly spoke up that her keys might work on that door. The single minded firemen who really wanted to force another door had to stop and concede that we should probably try that first. This time her key worked and we made our way inside to the patient. She had fallen in her kitchen and had possibly broken her arm. Otherwise she was in good shape. The ambulance came in pretty close behind us, so other than a spinal assessment, history, and cursory exam of the arm I passed off patient care and treatment to them.

The crew did a great job on forcing the door too. The screen had a couple scrapes and a small dent but was still fully functional. Nothing like getting to break stuff without actually breaking it.