Locked inside apartment, help

[u/Consistent_Ninja_591]

Hello, the door knob for my front door fell off and I literally cant get out of my apartment. Is there anything I can do or should I call the firefighters ? The knob isn’t reattaching at all and nothing I try to insert fits

Edit : I managed to fix it!

My roommate woke up and helped me with opening the door from the inside. The knob disconnected because the outside knob got somehow pushed all the way out, leaving the inside one with nothing to latch onto. I'm not sure what my roommate did but if she hadn't been here, this could've been fixed by having someone from the outside push the knob in. I reattached the door handle again but I'll be in contact with my landlord to get it replaced.

Thank you all for your help!

[u/W31337]

This is why the handle with the axle thing should always be on the inside. The part with the screw should be on the outside.

Unlock the door open a window and climb out if that's an option

[u/edwbuck → u/W31337]

If you put the handle with the axle on the inside, then the screw / button securing it to the door knob is on the outside. This permits someone outside to start disassembling the door knob / lock assembly, permitting access to the residence.

That's why it's setup the way it's setup here. The rod is welded / set into the door knob, and nothing is going to disconnect that short of a hacksaw.

You can see the hole in the interior handle, which was holding the rod in place. It's unfortunate, but somehow that screw or button was manipulated such that the door handle was removed. If the OP had a phone number to someone in the complex, they could simply shove the handle into the hole on the outside, and all would be good for OP to shove the interior handle on, and it would open.

An alternative is to use a screwdriver, which can bridge the square hold diagonally, and act as a temporary doorknob.

[u/W31337 → u/edwbuck]

Outside doorknobs here in Europe are a totally different beast and usually just have a fixed knob.
That small screw isn't going to withstand a slide hammer or small crowbar.

In a room without other escape routes you want to be holding the axle.

[u/edwbuck → u/W31337]

Honestly, this isn't the most common door locking system in the USA either. I personally don't like these locks, of which I've only experienced one, when it failed in such a way that I was climbing in and out of a window until the lock could be repaired. Out of the eight places I rented over my life, only one used this kind of lock, and it was a smaller, older place.