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Chapter One
Ricky
You never know which call will end up being your last.
The adrenaline flooded throughout my body as always when this call came in. I’d been sitting around the table in the lounge playing some cards with my coworkers/friends and really enjoying the nice, relaxing day when the bell started ringing and we had to grab our gear and rush to the trucks. It had been a relatively slow week in the fire game, but you could never really let yourself relax and think that everything was going to stay that way for long. That’s the way it was, the nature of the beast. Sometimes we would go for days without a single fire and then we’d have a week where we’d have one or two calls a day.
Regardless, when the call finally came in, your chest felt like it was being gripped tightly by some invisible force and you would experience the fear that most people would never ever think of. They were lucky. It was the worst kind of fear. You were up against a formidable enemy, a brute force of nature, and you didn’t know if you would get out alive. And you weren’t sure if the people who needed your help would get out alive either.
I tried not to overthink as I grabbed my gear and put it on before heading hastily to the truck. But sometimes fear just grabbed you and it wouldn’t let go. That was a dangerous situation. In training and in practice we learned to respect the enemy, but never fear it. Fear would paralyze you, it would muddle your brain, make you second guess yourself, and make you hesitate. Those things cost lives. And one day it would cost you your own.
I couldn’t have that. I had Zoe to think about. Sweet Zoe, my eight year old daughter, my angel. I was all she had since her mother died a few years ago. Amanda… the love of my life. It had been over two years since she’d succumbed to the cancer that had ravaged her body. My sweet wife was gone, laid to rest, leaving Zoe and me alone. I’d tried to do the best I could for Zoe on my own, and most of the time I thought I did a really good job.
“We’re almost there! Get in the game!” Patterson, our foreman yelled. He was leading the charge on the scene today, which basically meant he directed everything right down to the most subtle of movements. He was basically the coach of the team and if you wanted to keep working and you wanted to stay alive, you better listened to what the thirty nine year veteran firefighter had to say without a question.
When we got to the blaze, even I was shocked by the magnitude of it. The entire house was up. Bright fire illuminated the windows pouring from the openings, practically melting the wood beneath, each mass of fire writhing in the wind like some kind of banshee wailing to be set free.
The truck stopped and we all hopped out. There was a crowd of people standing in front of the house - watching, and some screaming. It was important that we zeroed in quickly on the people who might have actually lived there. It was usually easy to tell since they were emotional and visibly upset typically.
Quickly, one young woman about twenty-five or so ran up to us screaming. “Amber is still in there! I can’t find her anywhere!”
“Do you know where she might be? How old is she?”
“She is twenty. I don’t know! I fell asleep!”
The woman was screaming so loud that I could barely make out what she was saying. But I had my orders. The rest I would figure out along the way. A couple of us grabbed an axe and chopped down the door. It was so hot that it splintered easily. As it did so, a flood of black smoke began pouring out the door. I adjusted my gear and ran inside, doing my best to see through my flame retardant goggles.
I tried to keep my head low as I entered. I was inside the living room. Most of the fire seemed confined on the floor above, but I could see the ceiling starting to give way. We had to move fast. Without waiting for a backup, I hurried up the stairs expecting each step to give under my foot and my body to go crashing through the wreckage of the staircase. But I made it to the top in one piece.
“Ricky! Wait!” Toby Guiger yelled from below.
“We don’t have time!” I yelled back. It is safety 101 that we don’t head off by ourselves during a rescue. This is how people get trapped and left behind. We work together as a unit, as a team in every single thing that we do. But if this girl was anywhere inside, we had to find her fast and we had to do it now. This fire was out of control, consuming everything in its path and turning to cinders.
I knew the house would not be standing much longer.
I glanced right and left and saw what appeared to be the bedrooms on the left side. “Amber! Are you there?” I screamed.
I heard nothing as I kicked one of the doors. I anticipated that a wave of fire would come roaring out of the door at me at any moment, but so far I was being lucky. During a stressful time like this, you often had to rely on luck.
The fi
rst door was a bathroom. I tried another. An office. Nobody there. Finally, I came to a bedroom. I didn’t see anyone at first. I was ready to move on, but then I heard a soft moan. I double checked and found a young woman lying down on the floor. She was propped slightly against the bed, as if she’d tried to get out but by the time she realized that there was a fire, the smoke had engulfed her too much.
She might still be ok, but I had to get her out of there immediately.
I knelt down and slumped her over my shoulders. Then I stood up under her weight to bring her out.
Nearing the doorway, I suddenly heard loud cracks and flakes of plaster falling in front of me. I looked up and I could see flames engulfing the ceiling. Any second now it was going to collapse on us.
I hurried out of the room. “Go! The ceiling is falling!” I yelled to Toby who was just at the top of the stairs coming to offer assistance. I hurried down the stairs with the girl on my back taking two at a time right on Toby’s heels.
