Page 60 of Flash Freeze

Making moderate haste, she returned to meet her crew out front. Waylon and Bobbie held charged hoses, ready to make ingress. Woods, with his boot cleats, jogged over to join them. “There’s one person unaccounted for,” he reported, “but those two don’t know if she’s inside or somewhere else.”

“Do they know what started the fire?” Flash asked.

“No. The florist across the street was in, making sure his flowers didn’t freeze, and saw the smoke. He called the bistro owner to report it and then 911. The owner, manager, and someone from the BBQ place over there all arrived before we did. The manager went in to check it out, but they haven’t seen her since.”

“OK, so we possibly have one victim inside,” Flash said.

“Do you want someone to vent the roof?” Waylon asked.

Flash’s features turned to stone. “No more roofs under these conditions, but we might have extension to the attic. Masks on,” she ordered. “Stay tight and look for the missing manager.”

She led the way across the veranda. Fortunately, not much ice made it under the covered roof, and the trek to the main entrance was easy. They dragged their lines inside, and Flash scanned the reception and dining area.

“Fire department, call out!” she shouted. No response. Now she detected the fire’s growl, coming from between the receptionist’s booth and the bar. Light colored smoke poured through the crack at the top of the closed door.

“Fire department, call out!” Woods echoed. Visibility was still good. No one moved. The stairs lay at the far end of the dining area, away from the source of the blaze. If the woman had gone up there—heaven knows why she would—she should be relatively safe.

“Do you want me to check upstairs?” Flores asked.

“Negative,” Flash replied. “We follow the smoke and stay on the flames.” Aiming the hose she and Waylon held, she turned the valve. Nothing happened. The empty nozzle hit Flash like a punch to the chest. Once before, during a severe drought, she’d opened a line and gotten almost nothing. They’d lost an entire warehouse before adequate water pressure could be restored. Flash recalled that the bistro, neighboring shoe store, and bar all shared walls. That meant their roofs would touch as well. If they couldn’t knock this out quickly, the whole block could go up.

“What the hell?” Waylon exclaimed.

“The nozzle’s probably frozen,” Flash said, “or we’ve got a kink somewhere. Woods and Flores, try yours.” She banged the nozzle against the hard edge of the bar, which was close at hand.

“It’s dry too.” Woods did the same, striking his nozzle against the hardwood bar.

Flores traced the hose toward the metal door. “If there’s a kink, it’s outside.”

Trying again, Flash turned the valve, and the hose sputtered to life. Water hissed against the hot steel, sending steam curling into the smoky room. “Try yours now,” she said. Two jets soaked the door and its frame before Waylon kicked it open.

The flames surged higher, fed by fresh air pouring through the open doorway. Unable to vent efficiently through the snow- and ice-covered roof, the flames lashed toward the new opening instead. The firefighters swept their streams across the ceiling and upper walls before driving them into the heart of the fire, beating back the waves of heat.

“Fire department, call out!” Flash yelled against the fury of the inferno. If the manager’s in here, she can’t be still alive, she thought.

Then Flash noticed a shift. Instead of gray tendrils streaming from the ceiling tiles, dark brown smoke blasted from the openings as if the attic puffed on a huge cigar. The roof trusses groaned overhead, and the smoke pushed lower. Then she heard a crack. It was up there alright, eating away the wood supporting the roof at a tremendous rate. The fire was winning.

Time stopped as a dozen thoughts roared through Flash’s mind at once. Captain Jake’s voice saying, “You’re a lieutenant now, and I’ll have no cowboy heroics out of you. You’ve got more than your own life on the line from now on.” Velasquez’s voice: “It’s tough to make the right call with only split seconds to decide,” then praising her courage.

The image of herself dashing through a wall of flames to rescue the woman in the hotel fire; the image of Woods slipping on that roof as a sheet of ice rolled out from under him. He fell but caught himself on the ladder. What if he hadn’t? The time she went back against orders to pull Woods from a blazing warehouse. The impossible situation in the California wildfire when she’d led her whole team out of a flare-up by jumping a blazing pine tree.

The ghosts of every life-threatening emergency she’d taken on warred in her mind. She was not one to back down, especially when it came to fires. The bistro manager might be in here somewhere, but, as much as she wanted to save her, her crew’s lives weighed heavier. “You’re a lieutenant now. There are more lives than yours on the line.” The words rang through her chest.

For a few hesitant seconds, she and her crew continued to pour water into the roaring inferno’s mouth, determined to quench it. When black drops rained down from the ceiling, she knew it was time.

“Everyone, fall back,” she ordered, taking a backward step toward the door they’d entered through.

“But the missing manager,” Waylon yelled through his mask. “There could be an office on the other side of this. We can’t leave her there.”

“The manager is an unknown variable, but this roof is coming down any second,” Flash declared. “Fall back now, and that’s a direct order from your lieutenant, Adams.”

She saw her reflection in his scowl and in the curses he muttered, because a month ago she would have done the same. No sooner had the four firefighters cleared the kitchen than the entire blazing roof crashed into the space they’d just occupied. The pain of loss accompanied the gratification she felt for making the right call. Still, it was a hollow victory until they knew the fate of the missing manager.

Freed from the kitchen, the flames raced across the wall and onto the bar ceiling. The firefighters immediately redirected their streams. The kitchen and whatever was above or behind it were lost, but they still had a chance to quench the blaze before it consumed the rest of the building.

Flash pressed a button on her radio while aiming the hose with her other hand. “Dispatch, can you spare another engine to this location?”

After a few crackling seconds, an answer came back. “There are currently no other engines available in that area. I can put you on a waitlist.”