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“Got it,” I said. “I’ll make sure to call you if I need you on off days, but otherwise, consider yourself on my list on your days in.”
“Fantastic,” he said. “I’m glad you’re doing it. It’s been a long damn while since we had someone cooking in our kitchen and doing good things. I miss like hell how we used to do the cook-off. We had so much pride in the department back then.”
“Mark my words, we will again,” I said.
With that, I marched off to check on the guys who were now hosing down the burning embers inside and assessing the structural integrity of going further into the building to see if more could be put down or if we needed to let it burn out. That was one of the things I knew some of the people on the corner wouldn’t understand.
I wasn’t going to risk anyone’s life today.
As the fire was slowly put out, I sent two of the trucks on, a volunteer one and a backup that had come from a neighboring town. It left just our two trucks at the scene, and as we finished up, I let our media relations person know the details so they could handle the news trucks with reporters that were waiting for some kind of word from us.
I checked my phone for the first time in a while and saw that I had a text message. Excited and hoping it was from Sofia, I opened it up only to see Chief McDaniel’s name.
I need you to go to the Tennessee Lumber Company office and speak with their ownership. They’ve been bugging us for a while and this fire won’t help. It’s right down the road from where you are at the church. If you can get someone to drop you off, I’ll send someone to pick you up afterward.
I mapped the location he sent me and saw it was a couple of miles away. Still a bit far in all my gear. I would have to have the truck drop me off.
Relaying the request to the driver of one of the trucks, we got half the guys on and rolled out, heading over to the lumber company before they went on back. I changed out of most of my gear, leaving it on the truck with Stevens, and hopped off at the lumberyard. The door of the building opened, and two men stepped out, watching as the truck drove away and I walked up.
“Afternoon,” I said. “Name’s Kieran Duggan. I’m here to meet with the owners on behalf of the fire department.”
“Sure you aren’t here from the Shriner’s?” one of them joked. The other one just looked at him stone-faced, and when there was no laughter, he shook his head and looked back to me. “Come on in, Kieran.”
“Thanks,” I said, stepping onto the porch of the building.
I shook their hands and followed them through the door. Inside, the place was cool and modern-looking. A receptionist sat at a desk and briefly looked up, seeing I was with the two men and smiling.
“Deacon,” one of them said, offering his hand. “This here is Everett. We’re two of the owners here. The other one is off on a jobsite. Follow us to our office, if you don’t mind.”
“Sure,” I said.
“Can we get you anything? Coffee? Water?” the one named Everett asked.
“Water would be great.”
He nodded and disappeared as I followed Deacon into a room with glass doors and windows and sat down on a chair inside. Deacon took up a spot at a table across from me, and I noticed another table nearby with a nameplate for Everett. Interesting that both of them would share an office in a place like this. It looked plenty big enough for an owner to have his own space.
Everett returned with two bottles of water and sat them next to me on a small coffee table before going to his own desk to retrieve a coffee mug. A few chairs sat scattered around the large office, and Everett took up residence in one and peered at me with his intense but friendly stare.
“So, Kieran,” he said, “what brings you here today?”
“Well, I’m sure you heard about the church,” I said.
“We did,” Deacon replied, exchanging a glance with Everett. “We warned the old assistant fire chief that the place was a fire hazard and a tinderbox a couple dozen times. He never listened. Somebody could have gotten really hurt.”
“We do a lot of work out in the mountains,” Everett said. “We have our own fire containment system we have to use all the time because we’re out in the woods and can’t depend on the department to help out. So, we’ve become kind of de facto firemen on the side. All of us have. I think everyone here except the receptionist has been called out to help put out a fire at a site at one time or another.
