8. Chapter Eight
Chapter Eight
Ash
A sh is checking the gear at the fire station when the alarm goes off.
It’s a call for a fire at an apartment building, and it sounds bad.
They are loaded onto the truck and out of the station in seconds.
The scene isn’t too far, about fifteen minutes away.
But fifteen minutes in a fire can mean life or death.
When they arrive, the right side of the three-story building is up in flames.
It looks like it may have been going on for a while before someone noticed.
Fires at night are always the worst because people are sleeping and it takes them time to wake up and figure out what’s going on, that’s if they wake up at all.
Ash, Sam, and the others move quickly. Hooking up the hose to the nearby hydrant and pulling on their helmets, and for those prepared to go into the burning building, breathing apparatuses. Ash is one of the ones going in, and as soon as the chief clears them, Ash, Sam and Ben are moving in.
The building manager told them the first-floor occupants were cleared out, but no word on the second or third-floor occupants.
The fire seems to be originating from the second floor, and Ben uses an ax to get through the door.
Ash sees the people first. A family of three, mom and two young kids, huddled in the hallway with the flames coming from the kitchen.
The smoke isn’t too thick as it’s billowing against the ceiling, so they are able to move the family out of the apartment and outside.
The mother confirms that no one else is in their apartment, but their elderly neighbor lives on the third floor, and no one has seen her come out yet.
Ash and Sam go back in. Sam takes the ax this time as they make their way up the metal stairs.
The front door’s handle is hot to the touch, which means the fire is close to the front door.
When Sam breaks the lock and pushes it open, a wave of flame knocks them both backwards a little.
Flames engulf the apartment, and the smoke is so thick it’s hard to see.
They move in, clearing the living room and kitchen.
The walls in the hallway have collapsed, leaving no room to get through, but Sam pushes on.
Ash knows it’s dangerous. The chief is talking in their ears, yelling through the headset to get out, that the roof is going to collapse.
But Sam is down the hallway and out of sight before Ash can try and pull him back.
A loud crack, and Ash is down. Knocked down by part of the roof that collapsed.
Her left leg is trapped but not hurt, and she knows she needs to get out quickly before the flames engulf where she’s lying.
She pushes, uses every bit of strength to dislodge the roof section, and twists her way out till she’s able to stand.
Looking down the hallway, she sees no sign of Sam or the apartment’s occupant.
“Muller is coming in to retrieve you, Grant. Hold tight.'' She hears the Chief's voice, but it doesn’t fully register. Sam’s in there, trapped in the hallway or the bedroom, and she can’t leave him behind, she knows he would never give up and leave her. She ducks down, army crawling her way through the hallway. She can feel the heat through her suit, pushing away fallen debris, no clear path in sight. She reaches the bedroom where there’s less smoke and sees the roof has collapsed, even worse here.
She looks up for a moment and can even see the night sky.
She doesn’t see the elderly woman anywhere.
Moving quickly, she begins to lift debris off the floor.
Sam must be in here somewhere, he has to be.
She sees a flash of yellow, his uniform, and grabs it and pulls.
His face appears, helmet lost in the pile of wood and sheetrock.
Breathing apparatus gone. She can’t tell if he’s alive or not.
She pulls off her mask and puts it on him, hoping the oxygen can help him.
Then realizes she can barely breathe without it in the thick smoke and knows she needs to move quickly if they are both to survive.
Ash pulls him out, he’s dirty but doesn’t appear to be burned.
Using her legs, she lifts all two hundred pounds of his six-foot-two frame and throws him over her shoulder.
She wobbles a little but straightens in a second, she’s got this.
She’s practiced carrying dummies and even her co-workers many times.
She’s as strong and stronger than some of the men she works with and can hold her own against any male firefighter.
She moves them, keeping him tight over her shoulder.
The hallway is still congested. Smoke and flames are so thick she can’t see anything.
It’s risky to take both of them down it.
But when she hears another crack and sees more of the roof behind her collapse, she knows she needs to move, now.
She goes quickly, taking a deep breath and moving, it’s the only way to get both of them through.
Practically running, as much as one can run in firefighter gear in a fire with two hundred pounds of a person over their shoulder.
She’s through the hallway, coughing her lungs out before she reaches the front door, where Ben is there coming through, followed by Lucas, another firefighter.
Ben ushers her through the front door as Lucas moves his mask to her face so she can get some oxygen.
“I couldn’t find the occupant. I couldn’t find her.”
Ben nods and moves Sam to his own shoulder while Lucas takes her arm and helps her down the stairs.
Normally, she’d shove him off, but she’s still coughing and feels a little like she can’t breathe and isn’t really sure whether Sam’s alive or dead.
She’s taken over to the truck and sits on the side. The Chief is there quickly.
“I couldn’t find the woman, Chief. I looked all over. The roof collapsed in the bedroom, and Sam was underneath the debris. I don’t know. I couldn’t leave him. I don’t know if he’s alive.”
Her voice cracks in a sob, and she puts her head between her knees and coughs, trying her best not to cry. There’s a pat on her back and words in her ear before she registers the sounds.
“He’s alive, he’s unconscious but alive.”
It turns out Sam has a broken femur and smoke inhalation, but no burns.
He’s released from the hospital two days later, and the first thing he does is have Ben drive him to the fire station so he can hug Ash.
The elderly woman was visiting her son, and no one was trapped in that third-floor apartment.
The Chief had been telling Ash to get out, but she’d saved him instead.
The full collapse of the roof meant no one would have been able to get in with the fire as bad as it was, and even though Ash put both their lives at risk by going down that hallway, she saved him.
He cries on her shoulder. Holding each other tight, he says ‘thank you’ over and over, and she says ‘it’s okay’. That’s what firefighters do for each other, they never leave another behind. He is her friend, her best friend, and he would have done the same for her.
“We’re going to be getting a couple of volunteers,” the Chief says as everyone groans.
Volunteer firefighters never really work out.
They end up being in the way more than helping, and even though Ash used to be a volunteer firefighter before she was a full-fledged one, she’s still annoyed by their presence.
“Now, now listen up, you SOB’s. We’re down a man with Sam being out, and even when he was here, we were down a man. Volunteers will be good, boost morale. We were short-handed at the fire, and one of our men got hurt. I won’t have that happen again.”
Everyone knows Chief’s word is final, so there’s nodding and dispersing of people. Ash is about to turn and go back to the kitchen when she hears the Chief call ‘Grant’, and she sees him standing tall with his arms crossed over his chest. Great.
“Grant, you’re the rookie, so you’ll be training the new boys.”
“What the fuck, Chief? I’m not a rookie.”
“Here at this firehouse you are. You may have been a firefighter for a few years now, but you’re still the newest, and that makes you the rookie and makes you in charge of training these guys.”
She huffs out a breath and clenches her fists. She doesn’t have time to be training a bunch of noobs. All her time at the fire station and especially on call is focused. Plus, she’s not the best teacher. Fuck.