by Kay Gordon
“Detective Coleman, NHPD badge 4123. Dispatch units to a house fire at 902 Cedar Way. Four occupants inside, two adults and two children.”
I didn’t wait for her to respond. I shoved my phone into my pocket and grabbed the knob on the Morris’s front door. When it didn’t turn, I stood back and slammed my shoulder into the wood. Nothing happened, though, so I tried again. When it didn’t give, I turned my sights on the front window. With Keith’s favorite rocking chair in hand, I swung at the glass.
I used the chair to knock out the bigger pieces that were still attached to the frame and then tossed it behind me. I climbed over the sill and dropped into the living room that was filled with thick, dense smoke. The smoke detectors were beeping loudly from all directions but there weren’t any flames that I could see.
A hacking cough from near the stairs caught my attention and I rushed over as fast as I can. Through the haze, I made out Ruby’s lithe form. She was standing with one of the kids, Jade, and the two of them were coughing uncontrollably.
“Ruby!” I yelled, grabbing her shoulders when I got to her. She and Jade both looked up at me. “Where’re Keith and Grace?”
“Evan, thank goodness.” She hugged Jade to her chest and shook her head. “Jade came downstairs on her own but Grace is still up there. Keith went to get her.”
I gently pushed her and Jade towards the front door. “Get outside. I already called nine-one-one. I’ll get the other two.”
She unlocked the deadbolt and the fresh air hit me hard when she opened the door. I inhaled several deep gulps of it before turning to head back to the stairs. The walls of the isolated staircase had flames licking it and saw Keith’s weak form lying on his stomach near the top.
I moved up the stairs and grabbed him under his armpits, hauling him back to my own chest. He coughed several times and his eyes flickered open to look up at me.
“Evan. Gracie is still upstairs.”
I nodded and dragged him back towards the front door. “I know, Keith. Let me get you out and then I’ll go in for her.”
“I tried,” he croaked weakly. “I tried to get to her.”
“I know. You did a good job.”
Sirens could be heard when I got him out to the front yard where Ruby was sobbing while clutching Jade in her arms. Emergency vehicles were just pulling up as I laid Keith on the grass but that didn’t stop me from dashing back towards the front door.
The smoke was even thicker and was choking me before I made it back to where the stairs were. They’d just come into sight when I dropped to my hands and knees, trying to find any oxygen I possibly could. I crawled up the first two steps and felt a wave of dizziness hit me. Pain licked my right shoulder but I didn’t stop trying to climb.
I was suddenly pulled back, soaring through the air, and I felt someone pat my shoulder quickly as someone else took my other arm and slung it across his shoulder. That’s when I realized they were firefighters, two of them, and I leaned against the one next to me when I realized how incredibly weak I felt.
“She’s upstairs,” I yelled, letting him drag me a couple of steps before coming to a stop. He turned his head to look at me and I pointed up. “My niece. She’s seven. She’s upstairs.”
He nodded his head and I could hear him talking under his mask but couldn’t make out what he was saying. He tugged on me again to make me move and all I could think about was Grace.
Chapter Five
Tori
I sat in the back of the truck and sighed. We had just finished working a vehicle accident that had been a mess. It took us more than an hour to clear the scene and I was just happy that there hadn’t been any fatalities.
It was near one in the morning and I was excited to get back to the house. I was really regretting getting that drink after the game with the guys twenty-four hours before. The lack of sleep Friday night combined with how busy our shift had been all day Saturday had me ready to crash.
The thought of climbing into my bed and closing my eyes was all too appealing. I let my eyes shut as Lennox drove us through the dark streets and I would have nodded off if Christos hasn’t nudged my knee with his.
“What?” I growled, turning my head to glare at him. He tapped his headset and I pulled mine on just as Lennox flipped the truck around and Owens triggered the lights and sirens.
“… Reported by an off-duty officer. Believed to be four occupants inside.”
“Roger,” Owens said through the headset. “Company 21, Engine Company three minutes out.”
A crackling could be heard and then Captain Stevenson’s voice sounded, too. “Company 21, Ladder Company en-route. ETA is ten minutes.”
“Damn it,” I grumbled as all thoughts of sleeping turned to ashes. I reached down and started situating my radio in my ear. Our department had an amazing communication system that put other radios to shame. The speaker with the built-in microphone wrapped up behind our ears and then sat inside the ear canal, enabling us to wear them with or without our SCBA gear. We had only had them for a couple of years but I loved them.
The minutes flew by and we were suddenly pulling up in front of a two-story home in an older neighborhood. The second story was engulfed in flames and my stomach sank. I only hoped that whoever lived there wasn’t still upstairs.
A police car had also just arrived and I saw people on the front lawn but I had no idea who was law enforcement and who were occupants. With any luck, everyone had already made it out and we could just focus on the structure.
“Lennox and Trujillo, set up the hoses and try to get me as much vertical ventilation as possible. Christos with Jones in front. I’ll take the back, wait for me to do a three-sixty before entering. We’ll breech the perimeter and check for remaining occupants. No one goes upstairs without my say. I’ll be right behind you.”
We all jumped out of the truck and I followed behind Christos as we rushed to grab our equipment. Once our SCBA tanks were on our backs, regulators attached, and our masks were sealed, we both headed towards the front door. After Owens had broken a window in the back, we were given the all-clear to head inside.
“We’re a go. Reports of two occupants still inside,” Owens said through the radio in my ear and Christos hit the switch on his coat to transmit through his mic.
“Got it. Jones and I are heading in now.”
The front door was open and thick, black smoke was leaking out of it. We stepped inside and despite the power still being on, it was hard to see through the haze. I looked around but didn’t see flames or people. It wasn’t until we made it to the stairwell that I saw both.
A man was about halfway up the stairs, coughing uncontrollably. He wasn’t wearing a shirt and there was blood streaming down his arm from where something, probably a picture frame, had fallen and impaled him.
Christos reached out to grab him at the same time I pulled a terrycloth swatch out of my pocket and pressed it against his wound. I watched as my co-worker eased the man back down the stairs and steadied him against his side.
“We have one vic in here,” I told anyone listening on the other side of the radio. “Adult male, seems uninjured. Minor smoke inhalation.”
The man was yelling something at Christos and I stepped closer so I could hear him.
“My niece. She’s seven. She’s upstairs.”
“Fuck,” Christos muttered. “We have an occupant upstairs. A child. Seven-years-old.”
I moved towards the staircase and immediately stepped backwards when I saw how the flames had advanced. “Stairs engulfed. No entry that way until we ventilate the second story.”
“Damn it,” Owens replied through the crackling. “Bring him out and we’ll try to figure out how to get in another way. Ladder Company will be here any minute.”
I moved to the other side of the man and helped him out. He struggled slightly, yelling about his niece, and I could feel his desperation as if it was my own.
When we made it o
utside, an ambulance was already there and treating two other people and a little girl. The man we’d brought out batted away the oxygen that the EMTs tried to place over his nose. He stared at me and Christos with a pleading expression as we removed our own masks. His face was dirty, his hair was a nightmare, and he was an all-around hot mess. Something about his eyes looked familiar, even in the dark.
“You have to get her. You have to find Gracie.”
Christos nodded his head. “We’re working on a plan to get to her, sir. You need to take in oxygen.”
“We have to go back in for the kid,” I said quietly and Christos shook his head.
“The only entry is from upstairs and we don’t have a ladder. We need to wait.”
The man ripped himself away from the paramedics. “I have to get her.”
“Sir, you need to calm down.” Christos pressed on his shoulders gently. “We’ll do our best.”
Suddenly, a loud noise shook the area and I turned just in time to see the roof collapse on the west side of the house. Behind me, a tortured sound seeped into my veins.
The older woman was sobbing and she pointed towards the house. “Gracie! Her room is on the other side! You have to get her- Now!”
When I turned to look at the family, the anguish on all of their faces did me in. I had never been a parent or aunt and the thought of loving someone more than life itself was a foreign concept to me. In that moment, staring at the face of the broken, dirty man, I felt the love they all had for that child and I knew that losing her would destroy them.
I thought about the little girl, barely old enough to go to school, and my stomach hurt at the thought of her in those flames, possibly dying alone while we stood out there doing nothing.
I was always a rule follower. There was a line that clearly separated what we did and didn’t do and I never crossed it. So, when I ran back towards the house, no one was expecting it.
I held the record in our station house for the fastest when it came to getting my SCBA mask on and sealed, so I managed to get it resituated just as I stepped into the living room.
“Jones!” Owens yelled into the radio, his voice full of anger with a hint of panic. “What the hell are you doing? Get your ass back out here. That’s an order!”
“I’m sorry, Lieu,” I replied, moving fast just in case one of them came in after me. “I can’t stand there and do nothing.”
Captain Stevenson cursed in my ear. “We’re here, Jones. We can have the ladder up in five minutes.”
“Five minutes is too long, Cap.” I stopped at the stairs, which were still completely engulfed, and used a foot to test the stability. I was going to have to move up them quickly. Ignoring everyone yelling in my ear, I stepped up and breathed a sigh of relief when it held.
As fast as I possibly could, I ran up the stairs, keeping to the left against the wall. I was almost to the top when a stair gave out, causing my foot to go right through the wood. I managed to catch myself on the top landing but fire licked at the sleeves of my coat.
I pulled my foot free and heaved myself up until I was in the hallway. Flames lined the walls and the smoke was thick. Where the roof had collapsed must have been an enclosed room because there was a build-up of gasses in the hallway.
“There’s no ventilation up here,” I murmured into the radio as I moved down the east side of the hallway, crouching as low as I could. There were three doors- two open and one closed. I had my thermal imaging camera but it was quicker just to search for her manually. I just hoped the little girl was behind the closed door because that meant her smoke exposure would be limited.
No such luck.
Her room was at the end of the hallway with the door open. In the middle of the floor was a small body. She had obviously woken up and tried to leave her room but the smoke inhalation had gotten to her before she could.
“Found her,” I said as I crouched in front of her, pulling the glove off my left hand. I put two fingers to her neck and concentrated, begging the universe to give me what I wanted. When I felt the slight thumping of her veins, I let out a small sigh. “She’s unconscious but she has a pulse. We’re in a bedroom on the east side of the house.”
The smoke was thick and we desperately needed to give the gasses somewhere to go because the buildup was getting worse. If we didn’t vent soon…
“Damn it. Break a window or something,” I growled as I pulled the little girl into my arms. Lennox was the one who responded that time.
“Windows on the south side are broken. Still nothing?”
I shook my head even though he couldn’t see me and tried to decide if I could make it back down the stairs with the little girl. I tried to close the bedroom door, to limit the gas invasion, but the wood was swollen and it wouldn’t shut.
“No. The pressure is heavy, too. She needs oxygen.”
Cradling her small body to my chest with one arm, I reached up and fumbled with my mask until it was off of me. I covered her smaller face with it, hoping she’d be getting some of the compressed air that was left in the bottle on my back. At the very least, it would protect her little lungs from inhaling anymore of the smoke, even if my mask was almost swallowing her face.
Once she was situated, I crouched in the bedroom and considered all of my options. I needed to get us out. The smoke was already choking my lungs in the short two minutes I was exposed to it and I knew it would take me down soon. I coughed and adjusted her against my chest.
“We need out. What’s the plan?”
A lot of firefighting was intelligence and anticipating how fire actually worked. Another chunk of it was instinct, though. I had just finished speaking when a feeling nagged at my gut and I fell to the floor, covering the little girl’s body with my own, keeping the mask over her face. Less than three seconds later, several loud noises sounded all around us- the roar of fire, the sound of exploding debris, the screech of shattering glass.
The heat felt like it was burning my skin, even through my gear, but I didn’t flinch as I kept her as covered as possible. Something heavy hit my shoulder while another did the same to my leg. I didn’t dare look to see what it was until the rush of heat had subsided.
My ears were ringing when I lifted my head. The first thing I noticed was that her room was now engulfed in flames but the smoke had thinned out. A large hole in the wall was where a window had been and I could see outside perfectly, the dark night illuminated by the emergency lights that surrounded the home. The air was still tinged with smoke but I inhaled a gulp of the clean oxygen.
The ringing in my eardrums made me feel dizzy while it subsided and it took me a moment to register the sound of voices in my ear.
“Jones!”
“God damn it, I need the ladder up now.”
“Answer us, Jones!”
“Tori!”
“Her PASS isn’t going off. Jones, can you hear us?”
It was a few seconds to move my right arm so that I could reach the button for the mic that was currently between me and the little girl.
“I’m okay,” I mumbled quietly, causing everyone to shut up. “I covered her before it happened.” I tried to stand and but quickly realized something was holding me down. “I’m pinned.”
“We’re coming, Jones,” Owens said and seconds later, a beam of light blinded me. When it moved, I could see Owens stepping off of a ladder and into the room, quickly followed by Christos, Hughes, and Simpson.
“Where the fuck is your mask?” Christos demanded as he and the others began shifting things around. The feeling of weight lifting from my shoulder was magnificent and I sighed in relief.
“She needed it more than me.”
The rest of the debris was removed and strong arms pulled me to my feet. I leaned against Christos and watched as Owens lifted the little girl into his arms, letting the mask that was attached to me fall away.
Quickly, Simpson moved down the ladder, followed by Owens, and they both d
isappeared from view. I tried to pull myself from the strong grip I was in but only managed one step before searing pain ran up my leg.
“Shit,” I moaned, allowing Christos to pull me back to his chest when my balance teetered. “It’s the same damn ankle I hurt two years ago.”
“There was a fucking beam on your leg, Jones,” he replied, exasperation obvious in his tone. “You could have been killed, idiot.”
We hobbled over to the ladder where Hughes was standing at the top. He held his arms out protectively as Christos turned me until I was descending down the rungs with one foot. When we made it to the bottom, Hughes helped me down and wrapped his arm around my back.
“That was stupid and badass, Jones,” he said quietly, turning to give me a smile. “If that little girl makes it, it’s because of you.”
Chad Hughes was an immature pain in my ass but a damn good firefighter. He had been one of the ones who worried me the most when I first transferred in but despite his moronic tendencies, I knew he had my back.
My lungs were on fire. My shoulder hurt like a bitch. The pain in my ankle was intense. But I was alive. Even as I coughed violently, feeling like a lung was going to come up my esophagus, I knew I wouldn’t have changed a thing.
Multiple trucks were on the scene at that point and I recognized guys from other station houses running around in an orderly fashion. My eyes immediately went to one of the ambulances, though.
A small body was on a stretcher, being lifted into the back. The other lady and the other little girl got in after them and the door was shut so they could pull away.
They were loading an older man on a stretcher into the other ambulance. I recognized the man we’d pulled out earlier as he was helped in by a paramedic, his hand desperately clinging to the older man’s. Owens shut the doors and beat on them twice before the ambulance pulled away, too. When he turned around, his eyes settled on me.