Why send an Engine company anyway?

Dispatched to a call for a "22 y/o female fell down the stairs with a head injury," I think first "Woohoo!" as the tones go off, then "Hmmm, this might be interesting," as the dispatch comes across. Little did I know how interesting.

The FDNY*EMS system is an entirely separate entity from the FDNY Fire system (and entirely separate from Fair Lady). They have different radio systems, different dispatch networks with different computer systems, different chains of command, and they don't even talk to each other. In fact, surprisingly, they also have different 10-Codes, which despite NIMS, both organizations are completely married to, and I would be surprised if "10-84" changes to "Arriving" anytime in the next 25 years (Nevermind that arriving is easier to say with one less syllable than 10-84).

Despite this, when the Citywide EMS system gets swamped, like it did last night, FDNY*EMS starts sending Engine companies to the serious medical calls. Since we're unaffiliated with FDNY completely, there is also the possibility of a dual dispatch if someone calls the University's Public Safety emergency line directly, and also calls 911, this also occurred last night. We arrived on scene to find the engine company, with their crew of CFRs, already tending to the patient. I dropped my partner and a Probie off at the front door, and went to stage the ambulance a little farther down the street. NYPD and Public Safety were also already on scene. After parking, I grab a stair chair and head into the building about 30 seconds after my partner entered. After I enter the foyer, I pass a firefighter who says, "You're going to need a backboard." I drop the stair chair, do the twirl, and head back to the the rig. Things progress nicely from there. My partner and the Probie do a nice job stabilizing C-Spine at the foot of the staircase, and we secure to a backboard.

I got the full story eventually from a friend who told me that the patient tripped at the landing on the top of the stairs and rolled all the way down to the bottom, head over heels. About 20 feet. Technically this is major trauma criteria, so even though the pt was negative for AMS, and PE revealed over some abrasions to her head and bruising to her arm, I called a notification to the trauma center, and we hustled to the hospital.

After we clear from the call, my crew sits together for a quick post mortem review. This is when my partner tells me that when she first arrived on scene, the FDNY firefighters had a 4x4 out and were pressing it against the pt's head. No manual stabilization of C-Spine, no collar out, no backboard. This suddenly struck me as odd since it was an FDNY firefighter that had originally told me that the pt would need backboarding to begin with. So, basically, the FDNY crew knew what needed to be done, but didn't bother doing it.