Chapter 22
CHAPTER
Justin took one last look around, testing the wind.
Then he lit the torch he’d used to create a backburn.
This time, he turned it on an old wooden shed leaning drunkenly against a small tree.
The dry timber caught immediately, as he’d known it would.
The flames caught the straw he’d packed inside and, in seconds, he felt a flare of heat against his skin. He stepped back.
‘Let’s go.’
Jake was leading this group of trainees. He held one of the two hoses and the other was in the hands of Bree’s husband, Matt. Both stepped forward.
‘Now!’ Jake called.
By the truck, one of the stockmen Justin had met earlier pulled the lever that sent water flowing into Jake’s hose. By his side, another trainee did the same for Matt’s.
Jake and Matt kept their hoses trained on the fire. The small wooden shed was fully engulfed with fire and flames were beginning to dance among the leaves of the tree.
‘Shane, you and a couple of the guys deal with that.’ Jake pointed to a river of fire in the grass, moving away from the training area towards a fence.
The publican lifted an arm in acknowledgement. He pointed to two young stockmen who had joined the group this morning. The three of them grabbed shovels and began dousing the small offshoot of the main blaze with dirt.
With a roar of flame and a crash, the shed collapsed in on itself. The fire flared anew, but the steady stream of water from the hoses was too much, and the fire subsided in a cloud of smoke and steam.
When the shed was no more than a pile of charred timbers dripping with water, the last few flames flickered and died.
‘That’s it,’ Justin called.
The trainees stepped back and secured the hoses.
As they lifted the shields on their helmets, some were smiling and nodding.
The experience of putting out the fire had been satisfying and some of them were beginning to understand what being a firefighter was all about.
Jake and Matt were emerging as potential leaders of their local firefighting team.
‘Well done, everyone,’ Justin said. ‘That’s it for today.’
Around him, the group of trainees nodded and slapped each other on the back.
They wiped the sweat from their faces and set off for the cluster of parked cars, where there would be water bottles and a chance to catch their breath.
Justin stayed behind for one more check that their training fires were well extinguished.
Jake went with him, as Justin had known he would. Jake was his star trainee.
‘I think you’re ready to take the lead on any local prevention,’ Justin said. ‘There are a lot of places that could use some firebreaks. How do you feel about doing them?’
‘I can do that, if you think I’m ready.’ Jake paused and looked around. They were training on one of the properties fairly close to town. All around them the paddocks were baked by the summer heat, the grass brown and tinder dry. ‘I’d feel a lot better if we had some rain.’
‘We all would. Although there’s not much grass or undergrowth to feed a fire.’
‘Enough, though.’
Justin nodded. When it was this hot and dry, a fire didn’t need much to turn from a few sparks into a raging monster. ‘You’re ready for it now. Well, as ready as you can be.’
They turned away from the embers, damp and cool now and safe after the practice session.
As they approached the others, Ben appeared, phone in his hand. ‘The commander wants us back.’
Justin had been expecting the call; their time at Wagtail Ridge was always going to be short.
Such was the enthusiasm of the town’s residents, they had trained more than a dozen volunteers, and Jake and Matt were ready to continue to guide people in preparing their homes for fires.
If he was honest, they had done what they had come to do and there were plenty of other places that needed their expertise.
The problem was … Justin didn’t want to go.
He wanted to see Anna again. He needed to apologise for their disastrous date last week.
And for basically ignoring her when he’d dragged Ben from the pub the other night.
He’d reached for his phone more than once to ring her, but apologising was something he felt he had to do face to face.
Between work and his brother, though, he’d had little time.
Neither was it something he wanted to do when he was stressed or distracted or angry. And that seemed to be every day now.
He liked the Ridge. Accommodations at the fire station weren’t brilliant, but the town itself had grown on him.
The people were friendly and there was a great community feeling, which he liked.
His mother was here too. He wasn’t sure what was the right word to describe how he felt about that.
He thought he liked the idea of getting to know her better and healing the rift in the family.
But there was one enormous obstacle to that—Ben.
Despite Justin’s best hopes and efforts, Ben was no closer to forgiving their mother than he had been all those years ago.
Seeing her again and being this close hadn’t helped Ben let go of the anger he’d been nursing all these years.
In fact, it seemed to only have made it worse.
Of the two of them, Ben had always been the partygoer and inclined to drink more than was good for him.
But in these couple of weeks, he’d become much worse.
Justin was tired of dragging him home from the pub.
He was tired of covering for him if his hangover cut into their work.
But more than that, he was worried about his little brother.
Ben couldn’t go on this way. And if getting away from their mother and going back to Tamworth was the only way to get him to cut back his drinking, then that’s exactly what they would do.
Anna would understand. He hoped. After all, Tamworth wasn’t that far away. He would go and see her as soon as he could and talk to her. This afternoon, he decided. He would see her this afternoon. And nothing was going to get in the way.
Justin and Ben made sure all the firefighting gear was safely stowed, said their farewells to the trainees and set off back towards Wagtail Ridge.
‘I’ll be glad to get back to HQ,’ Ben said. ‘I’ve had enough of this place.’
Justin bit back his reply and increased speed slightly as the road climbed a ridge.
As they came over the crest of the rise, he slammed on the brakes.
Just ahead of them, someone was in serious trouble.
A big four-wheel drive lay on its side half off the road and behind it, a trailer had slid into a ditch, where it lay at a strange angle.
‘Look out.’ Ben’s warning was unnecessary.
As soon as their car slid to a halt, the men were out, running towards the wreck. Justin got there first. He saw a figure inside the car and crouched down to look through the smashed windscreen.
‘Are you all right?’
The answer was a weak groan.
Justin spotted blood on the man’s clothes. ‘Ben. We need an ambulance. And police. And get some warning lights out before someone else does what we nearly did.’
‘I’m on it.’
Trusting his brother to do what was needed, Justin dropped to his knees, trying to get a closer look into the car.
The driver was still strapped in. He was lying on his side, blood trickling down his face.
Justin could feel the engine heat from under the bonnet of the car.
This accident had happened only minutes before.
He reached out and turned off the ignition.
‘Hey. Can you hear me?’
The man attempted to move his head.
‘Don’t try to move. It’s okay. Help is here. We have to figure out how to get you out of there.’
As he spoke, a loud crashing and banging started in the trailer. The violence of it caused the car to vibrate.
‘Ben! Check the trailer!’ Justin shouted. He wasn’t about to leave the injured driver.
‘Ambo is on its way. Ken, too.’
‘Hear that.’ Justin spoke in a calming tone to the trapped man. ‘The ambulance is on its way. They’ll be here soon. Can you tell me your name?’
‘Paul.’
As a senior firefighter, Justin had received a good deal of first aid and emergency medical training, but he’d never faced something like this without ambulance officers leading the rescue.
Leaning into the cab, he could see Paul’s face clearly.
His eyes were closed, but he was breathing.
Without touching him, Justin looked for further injuries.
The man’s legs were still under the steering wheel, and Justin could see more blood seeping steadily from a tear in his jeans.
He had to try to stem the bleeding until the ambulance arrived.
Carefully, he reached inside and tried to release the seatbelt.
The clasp didn’t give way. Probably better that the driver not be moved now anyway.
Justin looked up. Ben had returned. ‘There’s a huge bull in that trailer. I don’t know how badly it’s hurt, but there’s a fair bit of blood and it’s thrashing about. The tailgate is jammed. It’s not coming out in a hurry.’
‘Okay. Call a vet. And get the first aid kit from the truck.’
Ben vanished, returning a few seconds later with the emergency kit from their vehicle.
Justin opened it and stared at the contents. It wasn’t designed to cope with situations like this. ‘How long till the ambos get here?’
‘Five, ten minutes?’
‘Right. We’re going to need to cut him out.
But first, I need to try to stop the bleeding.
’ Justin reached for some packets of large dressings, tore them open and folded them into a thick wad.
Bracing himself against the bonnet, he pushed his head and shoulders as far into the cab as he could.
The driver opened his eyes and tried to speak.
‘Paul, it’s going to be all right. But I need you to help me,’ Justin said. ‘This is going to hurt, but hang in there.’
He placed the dressings over the wound in the man’s leg. Paul tensed, then groaned as Justin applied pressure.
‘Sorry, but we have to stop the bleeding. Can you put your hand there? Good. Now you need to apply pressure. Can you do that, Paul? Come on, I need you to focus. Put pressure on that wound.’
The driver nodded his head and his face clenched with pain as he pressed down. Justin put his own hand over the driver’s and applied extra pressure.
‘That’s good. You have to hold that for me now. Just for a minute.’
Paul nodded.
‘Ben—a wide bandage.’
Justin took the bandage Ben offered and, as best he could, wrapped it to hold the dressing in place.
‘Paul. Keep your hand there. Keep the pressure on. We are going to have to cut you out.’
‘Okay.’ The man’s voice was weak.
‘Good. Now, when we start cutting, turn your head away and close your eyes. Have you got that, Paul?’
The man was barely conscious, but each time Justin said his name, his eyes flickered and he briefly seemed more alert.
As Justin slid out of the cab, another burst of crashing from inside the trailer caused it to shift a little where it was lying on the edge of the ditch. They needed to get that animal out of there. Hopefully the vet would be here soon. But the trapped man came first.
Ben was already removing equipment from the boxes fixed to the side of the RFS vehicle.
He had a circular saw, metal cutters and what the media liked to call the jaws of life.
Justin hated that term, however apt it might be.
The brothers had done this before and set to work cutting through the roof pillar on the passenger side of the crashed vehicle’s cab.
Then, together, they started to prise back the roof.
As they were working, the ambulance drove up, its light flashing.
‘His name is Paul,’ Justin said.
The first ambulance officer nodded and dropped to his knees beside the cab.
‘Paul. Can you hear me, Paul? We’re gonna help you.’ The ambo took a minute to check his patient then turned back to Justin. ‘Good job. Now carry on. Let’s get him out of there.’
It took another ten minutes to open the roof of the car enough to allow the rescuers better access to their patient. Then carefully, with help from Justin and Ben, the two ambulance officers pulled the driver free and placed him on a stretcher.
As he stepped back to let the ambos do their work, Justin realised Ken had arrived.
The police officer had parked his car with its flashing blue light as an additional barrier to cars trying to use the road.
There came another spasm of banging from the trailer and the angry roaring of an animal in pain.
Justin filled Ken in on the past few minutes as they walked closer to the trailer and peered in. Ken looked at Justin and shook his head. Justin wasn’t shocked. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen an animal lost at the scene of a crash.
‘We’re taking the driver to hospital now,’ the ambo officer said.
‘No, wait.’ Paul’s voice was a bit stronger. ‘My bull.’
Ken stepped forward. ‘Sir, the animal’s trapped and hurt. And he’s a danger to anyone who might try to help him. I’m sorry, but—’
‘No.’ The driver tried to sit up, but collapsed back onto the stretcher with a grimace of pain. ‘You can’t. He’s—I can’t lose him. Please.’
Before Ken could reply, another vehicle pulled up and Anna got out, every line of her face showing her anxiety as she hurried to join them.
‘Look. The vet’s here. I’ll let her make the call. If he can be saved, we will. Okay?’ Ken put his hand carefully on the man’s shoulder.
The injured man tried to raise an arm to grab Anna’s hand. ‘You’ve got to save him. My father’s legacy. My stud … Please …’ Paul’s voice trailed off as his eyes closed. His raised hand fell, freeing Anna from the need to answer his plea.
‘The drugs are taking effect,’ the ambulance officer said. ‘Probably a good thing for him. He’s in a lot of pain. We’re off now.’
Ken nodded. The officers slid the stretcher into the back of the ambulance and a few moments later, the vehicle pulled away, lights flashing.
‘Is he going to be okay?’ Anna asked.
‘I think so,’ Ken replied. ‘Not sure the same can be said for the animal, though.’
‘All I got was the message that an animal was hurt.’ As Anna was speaking, there was another burst of thrashing in the trailer.
Justin saw her face blanch.
‘What is it?’ Anna asked quietly.
‘A bull.’ Ben didn’t seem to notice her tension. ‘Bloody big bastard. I think he’s hurt. I don’t know how badly, but he’s pretty stroppy.’
Anna lifted her hand to touch the scar on her left cheek. The hand was trembling. Justin wished Ben had called some other vet. He wanted to tell Anna that it didn’t matter. She didn’t have to do this. But the fact was she did have to do something, because she was all they had.