Gainesville Fire Rescue responds to construction site medical emergency – The

Gainesville Fire Rescue transported a psychiatric patient from an unfinished building during a medical emergency Thursday afternoon.  

The patient was standing on the seventh floor of a construction site located at 1225 West University Ave., according to the GFR report. 

Gainesville Police Department was called and officers evacuated the building, subdued the patient and sedated them. Then, GFR workers climbed a ladder attached to a firetruck to transport the patient safely down in less than 15 minutes, fire rescue captain Conrad Irving said. 

The other way to get the patient down would be through the construction scaffolding, which was not the option GFR was willing to take, deputy fire chief Joseph Hillhouse said. 

There were no significant injuries to the patient, Hillhouse said. The patient was in stable condition during transport. 

The situation took a little under three hours to resolve, according to GPD. GPD rerouted traffic until the patient was on the way to UF Health Shands Hospital.

Contact Siena at sduncan@alligator.org. Follow Siena on Twitter @SienaDuncan.

Siena Duncan

Siena Duncan is a sophomore journalism major and the graduate school beat reporter for the Alligator. When she’s not out reporting, she’s typically bothering her friends about podcasts or listening to Metric on repeat.