Scenario: It is the beginning of your day tour. You have assigned tools and riding positions. As you and your crew check the apparatus, dispatch comes over the station alert radio: “Ladder 1, respond to assist Medic 1 with a person down, possible forcible entry needed.” While en route, you confirm the tool assignments with your crew and discuss a variety of possible forcible entry concerns and solutions.
You arrive on scene to a residential dwelling and notice that the front door is open. You enter the residence to find distraught family members in the living room and the emergency medical services (EMS) crew in the hallway pushing on the bathroom door, which they can only open about eight inches. The medic tells you that the patient is unconscious on the floor directly behind the door and states that they need to get to him quickly.
Sizing up the situation, you note that you have an inward-swinging wood door that is blocked from opening. It is not locked, but it will not swing open enough to allow entry. Even if you could push the door enough to allow access to the bathroom, patient care and removal will be difficult because of the path of the door opening into the room. The medic crew backs away from the door, giving you room to work.
If you are a current subscriber,login hereto access this content.
If you would like to become a subscriber, please visit ushere.
