Mac bounced up and down on her toes. “I am, at that.”
Sarah was laughing and shaking her head. “How did you know to do that?”
Mac shrugged, holding her hands up. “Well, after all these years of working with men, you learn a few tricks here and there. I just got lucky today, was all.”
A shrill bell sounded just as George came running around the corner of the building to where the group was. “Laundry’s on fire! Two contractors are still inside. Hurry!”
Mac ran over to Tony. “Give me the coat and hat. You and your mates grab the fresh extinguishers from over there and follow me.”
Mac tossed her navy jacket to one side and donned the turnout coat and helmet. She had several of the men with hoses pointing the water spray in through the laundry entrance door. She knelt down next to them. “Stay low to avoid the heat. Aim the hose in through the door and out to the window to help vent the fire.”
Next she turned to George, who was standing next to her with an extinguisher. “Have you called the fire in?” George nodded. “How many inside?”
“Two of the contractors. They were welding in the new lines. There was an explosion and then it went up in flames.”
Mac looked around at the building. Thick black smoke was starting to billow out. She was trying to remember the layout of the laundry rooms from the plans. The fire hadn’t yet taken hold. Looking at the smoke, Mac knew there was only a small window of time left to do anything. She turned to George, grabbed the extinguisher he was holding, and yelled, “Get another hose line in here and try and keep the doorway free of flames, in case someone comes out. When the fire truck arrives, tell ’em what you told me.” Mac quickly did up the collar of her coat, pulled her helmet on snug, and ran through the door into the laundry. As Mac went through the door, she vaguely heard someone scream out her name.
The first room Mac ran into was filled with smoke, but flames hadn’t yet reached this part of the structure. She ducked down low and called out, “Can you hear me? Call out.” She started coughing. She knew it was risky running into the building without her full protective outfit, particularly her breathing gear, but that was on the fire truck and she didn’t think she could wait for it to get here, if these guys were to have a chance. She coughed, took another breath. “Can you hear me? Call out.”
She reached a doorway, dropping down on her hands and knees as the smoke got thicker. She could feel the radiating heat starting to build up. The smoke was thick and her eyes were stinging and watering so badly she could only take small blinking glances before it got to the point where she couldn’t see any more. “Can anyone hear me? Call out.” In front of Mac, off to the right, she could hear moaning. “Call out. Where are you?” With every breath, she coughed. The smoke was getting thicker.
“Here! I’m here.”
Mac crawled over and felt out with her hands. She found a man lying on the floor. “Are you hurt? Can you walk?”
“I’m okay. Have you seen Jimmy Lee? Where’s Jimmy?”
“I haven’t found him yet. Where was he?”
They were both coughing. “In the next room.”
Mac took a breath and coughed. “Jimmy? Jimmy, can you your hear me?” She looked at the man in front of her and made a decision. “Come on, buddy. Let’s get you out of here and then we’ll find Jimmy.” Mac put her arm around the man and together they half stood in a crouch and stumbled to the front doorway. She pushed him out into the waiting arms of the men on the hose line, turned around, and headed back in.
Mac couldn’t see much at all. Crawling back to the doorway where she found the first man, she could feel the heat and see the flames starting to crawl along the ceiling, spilling out of the back room where the fire had obviously started. “Jimmy!” She coughed, and sucked in hot air. “Jimmy! Can you hear me? Jimmy!” She could hear parts of the back room starting to collapse as it became fully involved in fire. I don’t have much time.
Mac crawled on her stomach with her hands outstretched, blindly feeling in the dark. It was getting harder to breathe. She could feel her thoughts starting to slow. Every breath hurt, and her eyes stung so badly they were closed shut. Have to get out. Too hot. Can’t last much longer.
Mac spun around and started to head back, crawling and coughing the way she came, when her arm felt a foot. She stopped. She ran her hand up a leg and up a thigh, pelvis, chest, and head. She’d found him. He was partly wedged under a dryer which had fallen on him, probably in the explosion. Mac rose up to kneel, flinching as she felt the intense heat coming off the ceiling, searing her face and neck. The dryer was metal and red-hot. She leaned in to the dryer, but it wouldn’t budge. She shoved harder. The effort was using up precious energy and strength. She was running out of oxygen. She couldn’t afford too much more time. She was about to give it one more shove when there was an explosion, lifting her and throwing her into the dryer with such force that it was dislodged from the prone Jimmy.
Mac rolled over, then slowly got up and grimaced. She felt like she’d been kicked, but there was no time to worry about it. She had to get them out. She grabbed Jimmy by the collar and dragged him out to the doorway. Get to the door…the door. Her arms and legs felt like lead weights. She could barely move them. Find the door…Her thoughts were barely registering. Can’t breathe. She was coughing so hard, she stumbled. She vaguely registered the sirens outside. Can’t. Tried. Sorry.
Without air, her body couldn’t go any farther. Mac finally felt the door frame just as a spray of water hit her on her face. She collapsed on the threshold.
*
Sarah stood behind George, from Maintenance. She’d gotten there just in time to see Mac run into the burning building. She stepped forward and screamed her name as George’s arms wrapped around her and held her back. They all stood helpless outside while they watched the smoke thicken and grow like a greedy billowing monster as it began to pour from the windows and out from under the eaves.
More men came with hoses, and a bucket line started with staff from every part of the hospital helping out. Sarah got herself in the queue and was passing the buckets when she saw two dark silhouettes appear in the doorway of the laundry. One figure was pushed from behind and stumbled out. Several of the front people ran forward to pull him out to safety. The second silhouetted figure turned and disappeared back into the smoke.
Sarah felt like she had been partially separated from her body, as she stood there frozen, knowing that was Mac who’d gone back in. George grabbed her by the shoulder and shook her. “Doc! Doc, we need your help.”
Sarah’s working brain snapped on. She looked over to where her team were standing with a gurney. She waved them over. “Put him on the gurney. What’s your name, sir?”
He was coughing badly but managed to rasp out, “Peter, Peter Chesterfield.”
“Okay, Peter. I’m going to put this oxygen mask on. I want you to take some nice deep breaths for me, okay?” She turned to her crew. “Get an IV going and wash his eyes out. Take him straight through. I’ll call and tell Don you’re on your way.” The nurse nodded and whisked Peter away after the IV line was in place. Sarah picked up her phone and dialled the triage desk. “Hi, Alice, it’s Sarah, put Don on, please.”
Within seconds Don was on the line. “Hey, Sarah.”
“Don, first one is headed your way. His name is Peter Chesterfield. There’s still two inside.”
“Do you need me out there? Claudia’s come in early, she can handle the first one.”
Sarah closed her eyes. She was terrified for Mac. If anything happened to her…“Yes, please come.” Sarah hung up. She couldn’t give voice to her fears, or they would consume her alive. She heard the sirens, then saw the flashing lights. It had felt like an eternity ago that the fire had started before the fire truck arrived, but surprisingly it had only been a matter of minutes.
She saw a man who fit the description of Mac’s partner, John, jump off the truck and run over to George for a briefing. He turned and
yelled at the crew who were already out of the truck and pulling out and hooking up hose lines to hydrant outlets. “Two inside. One of them is Mac. Let’s move!” As he put his mask on and turned to face the laundry entrance, an explosion ripped from inside the laundry and blew out the doorway. Those in front stumbled from the percussive wave of force.
Sarah heard someone scream out Mac’s name and realized the sound was torn from her own throat as tears coursed down her face.
Everybody froze in shock before John’s voice rose above the noise. “Move it!” Just as they charged the line and started to spray into the structure, a helmeted figure, crawling on the ground, emerged out of the smoke-filled doorway. As the figure was sprayed with water, it collapsed.
Mac.
“There, in the doorway.”
“Quick, wet the door!”
Three men ran over and pulled Mac from the doorway. She had a grip on an unconscious figure. John loosened her grip and put his hands under her arms. “I’ve got you, Mouse. Hang in there, babe. I’ve got you.” He dragged her out, clear of the building, and gently laid her down.
The other two men dragged the unconscious man—the man Mac had risked her own life for—out, laying him off to one side of Mac. Sarah and her team rushed forward.
John gently took off Mac’s helmet. “Hey, Mouse, you’re out now. Good job, little buddy. I got you.”
Mac rolled to her side and coughed, struggling to breathe. Sarah waved for the oxygen as she knelt down next to Mac, opposite John. “Hey, sweetheart. I’m going to put this oxygen mask on to help your breathing.”
A gurney appeared beside John. Mac was instantly surrounded by firefighters who gently picked Mac up and laid her on the gurney. As the medical team stepped in, John and the men took a silent step backward. Sarah quickly looked to her team. “Let’s get her inside.”
Chapter Twenty
The two gurneys rolled into Emergency, one after the other, and were parked next to the gurney that Claudia was working on. Sarah looked up at Claudia. “How’re you going there?”
Claudia nodded. “All good. Some smoke inhalation and minor contusions, but other than that, pretty stable. I want to monitor his breathing for a while, to keep an eye on his airway. We’re just waiting on a bed upstairs so he can stay overnight for observation.”
Sarah nodded. “Good. How about you, Don?”
Don didn’t look up. “Low sats, looks like we’ve got a mix of partial- and full-thickness burns to about forty-five per cent, and I’ll need head and chest X-rays.”
Alice was busy wrestling with Mac’s heavy turnout coat. Alice cursed under her breath, and Sarah looked down at the noise. There was blood covering the left side of Mac’s light blue shirt. The team quickly rolled Mac and removed the jacket. Alice and another nurse set to cutting Mac’s shirt and trousers off, which revealed a large piece of shrapnel embedded between her ribs.
Sarah winced. She watched as Mac’s trouser legs were removed. There were burns along her beautiful legs, blisters were starting to form on Mac’s hands, as well.
At the head of the bed, a nurse was washing out Mac’s eyes and dabbing her face. Sarah watched as pools of soot and saline soaked the pristine white sheet below. Sarah made out the redness of Mac’s face and noticed that Mac’s hair was shorter and singed on the edges. Oh, honey, your beautiful hair.
Mac opened her eyes briefly and saw Sarah looking down at her. Sarah brushed a stray lock of hair behind Mac’s ear. “Hey, sweetheart. Do you know where you are?” Mac nodded. Sarah noticed she was taking shallow, short breaths. “You got both men out, honey. They’re in here with you too.” Sarah had her hand on the top of Mac’s head. “It’s hard to breathe because of the smoke you inhaled, and it looks like you have a bit of shrapnel in your side. We’re going to need to take some X-rays to see what’s going on.”
Mac nodded and whispered something into her oxygen mask. Sarah lifted the mask and leaned in. Mac gave a little cough and tried again in a raw whisper. “Feels like I’ve been kicked by a horse.”
Sarah put the mask back down and glanced over at the monitor to see what Mac’s vitals were doing. She was stable enough that they could give her some morphine to take the edge off the pain, but not too much, because they still needed to monitor her breathing. Only time would tell if Mac had sucked in enough hot air to burn her airways. They would know soon enough. So far, Mac appeared to be okay, but it still was too early to call.
Sarah turned to Alice. “Push five of morphine, please, Alice.”
Alice nodded, turned and loaded the syringe, then pushed it into Mac’s IV. Sarah stroked Mac’s fringe back off her forehead.
“Sarah,” Don called, “I need your help over here with this man’s airway. Claudia, can you look after Mac for a minute?”
Sarah didn’t want to leave Mac’s side for even a second.
Mac pulled down the oxygen mask and signalled for Sarah to come closer. Sarah leaned in to catch Mac’s hoarse whisper. “Go. I’m fine. He needs you.”
Tears started to fill Sarah’s eyes. Mac signed, “Go.”
Sarah nodded, leaned in, and kissed Mac’s cheek. “I won’t be long.”
Mac nodded and closed her eyes as Sarah reluctantly went to help Don.
It was a good three hours before Sarah got back to Mac’s side. Jimmy had been taken upstairs and was being admitted to the burns unit. The dryer that fell on him cracked his sternum and he had a concussion. His legs and one arm were burned, but the dryer had shielded his torso and face from the worst of the heat. He had started to develop some pulmonary oedema from breathing in hot air, but the burns unit were cautiously optimistic for him. The main concern was over one of his legs. From the knee down, the burns were extensive and looked to be full thickness.
Mac had been settled into a semiprivate room upstairs. The second bed in the room was unoccupied, which was just as well, as there were several beefy firefighters sitting on it. Sarah couldn’t help but think how tiny Mac was next to all these men. A woman in her mid to late sixties was sitting in the chair next to Mac with her hand on her arm. It warmed Sarah’s heart to know that so many people had Mac’s back.
A half-hour later, having changed into fresh scrubs, Sarah stood in the doorway and looked around, pleased to see that Mac was resting. She still had the oxygen mask on and her face was shiny, the cream they had applied glistening in the room’s reflected lights. Her hands were bandaged and resting on the sheets either side of a protective cage hiding under the bedcovers, protecting her legs. An IV pump ticked away rhythmically next to her bed. Sarah knew the pump contained antibiotics, saline, and morphine, all working to keep Mac comfortable and hydrated and to help fight off any potential infection. On the other side of the bed a monitor measured Mac’s pulse, blood pressure, and oxygen levels.
Sarah stepped into the room. A man near the spare bed, wearing a similar uniform to Mac’s, approached her. “Hello, I’m Captain Thomas O’Reilly. This wayward lot call me chief.” He shook her hand.
“Hello, Chief O’Reilly.”
“How’s our girl doing, Doc?”
Sarah grabbed Mac’s notes and looked them over. She closed the folder and smiled at the fire crew in the room. “She’s doing well. She’ll need to stay in for a little while, just so we can monitor her breathing and get some antibiotics into her, but all things considered, it looks like she got lucky. She has a number of stitches in her side and she’s going to be a bit sore for a while. It looks like she tried to take home a part of one of the dryers. It embedded itself in her side, but other than muscle and tissue damage, it appears to have missed the major organs. She has some burns to her legs and hands, but they will heal with a bit of time. What she needs most of all now is some rest.”
The relief in the room was palpable. The woman in the chair looked to the captain and they exchanged nods. The chief handed Sarah his card with his contact details on it. “Don’t hesitate to call if she needs anything.”
Sarah put the card in
her pocket and patted it. “Thanks, Chief.”
He turned to his men. “You heard the doctor. Mac needs rest.” He thanked Sarah again and kissed the woman sitting next to Mac’s bed. “You know where I am.”
The woman nodded. “I do.”
The room was strangely empty after the men filed out, echoing with the noises of the pump and the vitals monitor. Sarah pulled a chair over from the other patient’s bed area and sat on Mac’s opposite side. The visiting woman looked at Sarah and leaned one extended hand out across the bed. “I don’t believe we have met. I’m Martha.”
So this was Mac’s Martha. Sarah got up out of her chair and came around to Martha, then leaned down to briefly hug her. When she finished the embrace, she knelt next to her chair. “Hello, Martha, I’m Sarah. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, although I wish it were under different circumstances.”
Martha touched Sarah on the cheek. “It’s nice to finally meet you too, Sarah. Now tell me, how’s she really doing?”
Sarah closed her eyes and gathered herself. This was the first time she had stopped all day, and the enormity of what had occurred began to wash over her. Before she could stop them, the tears came.
Martha gently pulled her into her lap and rubbed her back soothingly until the worst had passed. She handed Sarah a clean hanky to wipe her face.
Sarah straightened up. “I’m sorry, Martha. She’s fine, really. She’ll be fine. It’s just…”
Martha patted Sarah’s shoulder. “I know, dear. My husband, Leonard, was a firefighter. I know what you’re feeling. But you said it yourself, she will be fine.”
Sarah smiled weakly. “Yes, yes, she will.” Martha patted Sarah’s hand and stood up stiffly, grimacing. “Don’t get old, Sarah. There isn’t anything graceful about it. Give her my love, and tell her I’ll be in to see her tomorrow.”
Sarah nodded. “I will.” Mac was right, Martha was lovely. “Thank you, Martha.”
Martha tutted at her and waved a dismissive hand. “You try and get some rest too, young lady. I will see you both tomorrow.”
Twice Lucky Page 17