AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Proceed with caution, engine twelve. The fire’s spreading in that direction, although it’s three floors up.”
“Might have already spread to the second floor, sir.”
“Copy. I see the window now. Engine twelve, you’re clear to proceed with hose support.”
And then I heard Liam’s voice: “Engine five team entering through the fifth-floor window.” He was speaking on my behalf.
“Watch your footing, engine five. That fire’s been raging too long already.”
The window wouldn’t open, so I used my ax to smash the glass. I turned away as I did; the rush of fresh oxygen increased the risk of a backdraft. When no new flames poured out of the window, I used the handle of my ax to clear away the glass from the pane and stepped inside.
I was inside the kitchen of an apartment. A bowl of salad stood on the counter next to an unopened bottle of dressing; the occupants had been interrupted preparing for dinner. There were no direct flames visible here, but tendrils of grey smoke rose up the walls, driven from the floor below. I gave the ground a heavy stomp. It held firm.
“FIRE DEPARTMENT!” I bellowed. “IS ANYONE INSIDE!”
There was no response, so I trudged deeper into the building. A timer was ticking in my head, like the fuse on a bomb. It was impossible to know for sure, but I estimated that I had five safe minutes. Maybe ten. The flow of the apartment was clear, and I found the front door easily. There was no glow underneath the door, so I opened it carefully, then threw it open further when there was no backdraft.
The hallway was filled with more smoke than the apartment where I had entered. To my left, at the end of the hall, it was billowing up out of an open door. That was probably the stairwell.
“FIRE DEPARTMENT!” I yelled again. “SHOUT IF YOU CAN HEAR ME!”
There came a muted response in the direction of the stairwell. The hall must have turned around a corner down there, because a woman suddenly appeared, crouching low and holding a cloth to her face. Others followed close behind—four, five, six people. One was a little girl, wailing in terror.
“There’s a ladder in the kitchen window,” I said, holding open the apartment door for them. Then, into my radio, I said, “Engine five. I’ve got six civilians coming out.”
“Copy. Sending someone to assist with their extraction.”
I grabbed the last man in the group. “Is anyone else inside?”
“I don’t know,” he replied, pausing to cough. “I think?”
“Mrs. Franklin!” a woman shouted urgently. “Apartment 514. I don’t know if she’s home, but she’s in a wheelchair.”
I directed them to the kitchen window, then hurried down the hall to the right, in the opposite direction of the stairwell. Apartment 502. Apartment 504. Apartment 506. I rounded a corner and found it. Not wanting to waste any more time, I lifted my boot and kicked as hard as I could against the door, aiming at the spot by the lock. Pain shot up my knee, but the door remained intact. I kicked again, and again, and on the fourth try the wood broke open in a spray of splinters, and the door swung open.
There was more smoke in here than the other rooms, though no direct fire that I could see. Movement caught my eye—a hand waving at me. I neared and found a woman in a wheelchair. She was wearing a robe, but nothing else.
“Mrs. Franklin?” I demanded.
“I… was in… the bath,” she said, wheezing horribly.
I hooked my ax to my belt and lifted her out of the wheelchair. “Anyone else inside?”
“No one,” she said, before succumbing to a fit of coughs.
With her thrown over my shoulder, I retraced my steps out of the apartment. Down the hall. There were direct flames down near the stairwell now, casting a hellish orange glow through all the smoke. I carried her into the apartment where I had entered. The last man from the first group was stepping through the window, helped by a firefighter on the other side.
“Do you know if anyone else is inside?” I asked Mrs. Franklin.
She tried to say something, but began coughing violently. She shook her head through the coughs.
I handed her off to my colleague on the ladder, then turned to look back inside. I wanted to keep searching, to bang on doors and make sure nobody was trapped. But the glow in the hallway was brighter now, and I knew I didn’t have the time. If I went back out into the hallway, the fire might spread and I would get cut off from my exit.
“Let’s get out of here,” said the person on the ladder over the radio. It was Ellen. “It’s getting dangerous.”
“My thoughts exactly,” I said. I had done all that I could.
I took a step toward the window.
