Break the Rules (The Flanagan Sisters Book 1)

by Claire Boston

  Around her the fire tender were being readied. “Everyone swiped on?” Everyone on the plant carried a swipe card so their movements could be tracked. The fire station counted as an assembly point and all the technicians had to swipe in to get an accurate head count. As she looked around they all nodded. “Any casualties?”

  “Don’t know yet.”

  She radioed the gatehouse. “Prep the ambulance.” She hoped they didn’t need to use it.

  Jumping into one fire tender, her team headed into the smoke and flame.

  The heat was hideous, coming toward them in waves, and the smell of burning oil came through her breathing apparatus. They pulled up as close as they dared and unhitched the hoses.

  Bridget left them to it as she scanned the area, checking for other hazards and for people. “We got a head count yet?” she barked into the radio.

  “Ten missing, Bridge,” Ken said.

  Her stomach was lead. She turned to the nearest man. “Go fetch the ambulance.” If there were people missing they were most likely injured. To Ken she said, “Call the nearest medics. Inform them we may need transport to the hospital.” He knew the drill.

  “Bridget, one of the missing is Jack.”

  Her body froze for a split second. No. She couldn’t bear that. She had to find him, had to find all of them. “Give me the names.”

  Ken read out the list. She peered into the destruction but the smoke and flame made it so hard to see.

  “Roger that,” she said, numb. “Which unit were they tagged on to?” she called over the radio.

  “Four were swiped on to the cat reformer, two in the cracker and the other four were working in the crude unit.”

  Bridget relayed the information to her team and sent guys to each unit to search. She desperately wanted to ask which unit Jack had been tagged on to but it didn’t matter. Everyone needed to be found. What had he been doing out in the plant? What would he have been checking?

  “Set up a five-man fog attack,” she ordered. “We’ve got to get the fire under control.” They’d need all the fire tenders to do so.

  Movement caught her eye and Joe, the shift supervisor, stumbled toward them through the smoke. She grabbed her nearest team member and ran over. He coughed as Bridget reached him.

  “I’ve got you,” she said. “Was anyone else with you?” Was Jack?

  He nodded, trying to speak. It came out as a croak.

  “How many more? Hold up your fingers.”

  He held up two fingers.

  “Where?”

  He pointed. “Tower,” he rasped.

  Together Bridget and her team mate carried him out of the smoke and into the safe zone. The ambulance was just pulling up. She left the driver to give Joe oxygen and turned to the other man. “Take a couple of guys, go up wind and find them.”

  He nodded, grabbed the guys and they moved around the flames into the plant. Bridget wanted to go with them but she couldn’t. She had to stay in control, to direct the response. She radioed the team she’d sent to the cracking unit.

  “We’ve got Mike,” someone said. “He’s unconscious but breathing. Looks like the damn fire ball made it this far.”

  “I’ll send the ambulance.”

  “Great. We’re still searching for the other guy.”

  Bridget jogged to the ambulance. Joe was sitting inside wearing an oxygen mask. “Go around to the cracker. We’ve got one unconscious,” she ordered the driver.

  He nodded and after making sure Joe was secure, he drove off.

  “Bridget, we’ve found three here.” It was the other team at the catalytic reformer. “Two conscious but with head wounds and burns, one unconscious. I think he’s broken his leg.”

  “Do you need a stretcher?”

  “Yeah, and an ambulance. I’ll keep the guys under the safety showers until it gets here.”

  “All right. There should be one more guy in that unit. Do you need more men to help search?”

  “Yeah, send a couple.”

  She sent three more guys out. “Ken I need three ambulances,” she said into her radio. “We’ve got concussion, burns, smoke inhalation, and broken bones.”

  There were three still unaccounted for, including Jack. Where the hell was he? She couldn’t let her fear for him take control, she had to lead the response.

  Four people emerged from the smoke. She frantically scanned them, looking for the familiar face. Her heart fell. They were the responders she’d sent with the men who had been with Joe. They were disoriented but unhurt. There was a truck nearby and Bridget checked there were keys in it.

  “Take them to the gatehouse for first aid.” The gatehouse was also the medical center and the security guards were all trained medics. The injured were loaded into the truck and sped to the plant entrance.

  Still no Jack.

  Her heart raced but her mind was clear, focused on the task at hand. She had to find the remaining men and get them to safety, and she had to protect her team.

  “We’re going to need some more fire tenders,” she radioed to Ken. The men she had on the hoses were not making much progress. “Put a call out to our neighbors.”

  There were other oil refineries in Houston and they had a mutual aid agreement to help each other out in an emergency. They were going to be needed.

  Her radio barked to life. “Bridget, what the hell is going on out there?” It was Kevin.

  “We’ve got the mother of all fires,” she said. “We can’t get close enough to determine the cause yet. I’ve got men hosing it down to stop the spread and others searching for our three remaining missing people. Anyone know what work they were doing?”

  She rattled off the names of the missing. Only silence in reply. She swore.

  “Bridget, Jack might be at the sleeping hut.” Anthony came on the radio. “I told him he had to close it today.”

  “What sleeping hut?” There wasn’t such a thing as far as she knew.

  There was a pause before one of her team said, “I know it. I’ll check.”

  Bridget didn’t have time to hope. She continued monitoring the fire, checking in with her team members and praying like mad.

  The ambulance arrived back with Joe and Mike on board. She sent them straight to the gatehouse. Mike was now conscious and could be checked there before going on to the hospital. She was still waiting for the other ambulances. “Ken, where are my ambulances?”

  “Two offsite ambulances have arrived.”

  “Send both straight to the catalytic reformer and order another two. We’ve got three missing still. Get the guys in the truck to show them where to go.”

  Her biggest concern was the unconscious man and her three missing people. “Found anyone else at the cracker?” she called through the radio.

  “No, Bridge. Area’s all clear. No one else is here.”

  “Hell.” She needed to set up a bigger search. If the man had been foolish enough to cut through the alkylate unit he could be in serious trouble. The unit was full of hydrofluoric acid and no one was supposed to enter it without a hazmat suit.

  Bridget grabbed five team members she knew worked in the alkylate unit. “Get in full hazmat suits. I need you to search the alky unit.”

  They nodded and jogged away.

  She turned to check her remaining numbers. “We’ve got three missing men. We’ve got to do a methodical search, starting from the cat reformer and working back to the crude unit.” It was too hot and dangerous to start near the fire and there was still one operator unaccounted for in that unit.

  “Yes, ma’am,” they said and headed out.

  Bridget turned her attention to the fire. It was not abating.

  “Bridget, the fire trucks have arrived.”

  “Direct them my way,” she said.

  “Bridget, we found one. He’s in a bad way, major burns. Need an ambulance to the north side of the alky unit.”

  “Who is it?” Bridget’s heart stood still.

  “Chris. We’ve got
him under the safety shower. He’s unconscious and his breathing is weak. He must have been walking back to the control room when it happened. He’s been knocked into the alky unit but I can’t see any signs of acid burns.”

  Hydrofluoric acid would eat through skin and bone quickly and if the man had fire burns, the acid burns might be hidden. He needed to get to the hospital immediately.

  “Ken, you got that?” Bridget called.

  “Yeah. Another ambulance just arrived. Directing it now.”

  She breathed out deeply. She couldn’t worry about one person. There were still two more. Two more people to find and one of them was Jack. He had to be unconscious, because he knew to get on to the closest emergency channel to let her know his position.

  Her skin tightened and for a moment the fear threatened to overwhelm her. She fought it back. Jack would be fine. He knew how to protect himself. He had to be all right. She wouldn’t consider the alternative.

  The fire trucks pulled up and Bridget directed them to where they were needed. Then she stood back and scanned the unit, searching, trying to find some sign of Jack and the other missing man. He’d said he wanted her to monitor the startup but he hadn’t said what he was doing. It was her fault. She’d not had a chance to ask him, not after he’d been so angry at her denial of their relationship.

  She shaded her eyes, looking up, and radioed her team. “What’s your status?”

  “Chris is in the ambulance. We’re making our way closer to the flames.”

  “Was there no one at the sleeping hut?”

  “I’m here, Bridge. A piece of steel is blocking the door,” one of the guys said. “I think I can hear someone inside.”

  She didn’t let the hope take over. She needed to focus. “What do you need to move it?” Bridget asked.

  “We might need a crane. Give me a minute, I’ll let you know.”

  “Get confirmation someone’s in there.”

  “It’s noisy as hell here. All I can hear is knocking.”

  The whole damn unit was creaking and groaning and the roar of the fire was above it all. Bridget waited impatiently, straining to hear any message over the radio. She paced up and down. The tenders’ engines purred and the plant still hummed.

  “Control room, when is this plant going to be down?” she asked.

  “We’re under orders to only do the emergency shutdown on that unit,” came the reply. “The others are doing a controlled shutdown.”

  White hot anger seared through Bridget. “Who the hell ordered that?”

  “Kevin.”

  She knew he was listening in to the radio feed. “Kevin, there are men’s lives at risk here. ESD the whole damn plant. It looks like a goddamned warzone out here. A pipeline could burst at any moment.”

  “You’re not qualified to make that judgment.” Kevin snarled.

  “Like hell I’m not. I’m looking into a wall of flames and the metal is groaning in protest. You don’t shut down this plant and you could kill all my team and the firemen who have come to help, not to mention cause an explosion the whole city will feel.”

  Bridget took a breath and directed her next comment to the control panel technician. “Do an emergency shutdown, Tim.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “You order that and your job is gone, Bridget,” Kevin spat out. “You’re not in charge.”

  A calm settled over her. “Check your emergency response procedure, Kevin,” she said, still watching her team. “I’m in charge until the emergency is over, and it ain’t over.”

  “Plant shutting down,” Tim said.

  One of the other control panel technicians said, “Copy that. We’ve hit the ESD too.”

  Bridget breathed a sigh of relief. The alky unit nearby creaked and groaned but that was normal for an emergency shutdown.

  “Guys, how’s it going with that beam?” she asked.

  “It’s too heavy, Bridget. We’re going to need a crane.”

  “Nothing in the area?” she asked.

  “It’s damaged.”

  “Who’s got their crane license?”

  One of the guys on the fire hose said, “I do.”

  She walked in and took the hose from him, being careful to keep it pointed at the flames. “Someone tell me where the nearest crane is to the hut,” she called over the radio. After a moment the reply came. “On the south road.”

  The crane driver headed in that direction. “I need someone to take over this hose,” Bridget said. “And confirm how many are inside the hut.”

  A few minutes later one of her team members replaced her and she moved north of the unit to see where the search team was.

  “Bridge, I think they’re both in there,” the searcher said over the radio.

  Bridget hoped to God he was right. Spotting the men, she moved into the crude unit toward them. She had to see for herself. She had to know where Jack was.

  It was hot as hell and it was going to be an awkward lift, but they couldn’t rush this. She had to keep her team safe. The “hut” was hardly more than a half-sized steel door. “Could two people fit in there?”

  “It’d be a squeeze but it’s possible.”

  The steelwork around her screeched, the heat from the flames was intense. Puddles of oil had formed, probably from the relief valves venting. If it got hot enough those puddles would ignite. They had to do this fast. It was getting hotter by the minute.

  “We only need one person to attach the chain to the steel,” Bridget said. The metal needed to be lifted high enough to open the door. It wasn’t much. “I can do it. I want the rest of you to clear the area.”

  The two men looked at her. They knew the risks.

  “Move,” she yelled. “Get me a fire tender to the east side of the crude unit.” The area needed to be foamed. She glanced up and noticed the oil streaks ran all the way down the tower. Had the relief valves closed or were they stuck open? If the flames got into the tower the explosion would kill them all. She couldn’t even calculate the blast zone.

  The technicians moved away and Bridget turned her attention to the steel and the crane. She had to be quick.

  The crane jib moved toward her, the chain dangling from the edge as it inched its way lower. Grabbing on to it she gave the driver the signal to stop and hooked the chain around the steel, making sure it was secure before motioning for it to be lifted.

  The steel lifted slowly, inch by inch, until it was clear of the door. Bridget flung it open as the chain slipped, causing the steel to fall onto the open door. It didn’t matter, it was open.

  All she could see was a pair of pants and boots. “Get out,” she called as whoever it was started to crawl backward.

  “Get out of here,” she radioed to the crane operator. “It’s not safe.”

  The fire tender hadn’t arrived yet and it was getting hotter. She hoped they’d clear the area before it heated to ignition point. She stood back to give room to whoever was crawling out so he could stand. It was one of the operation technicians. He reached back in and started to drag someone else out.

  Jack.

  Bridget’s heart pounded heavy in her chest, almost in slow motion. His head was covered in blood and his arm was at an unnatural angle. He was unconscious.

  Now was not the time to panic. “Help me stand him up,” she told the technician, who was a little unsteady on his feet.

  They got Jack to a semi-standing position and Bridget picked him up in a fireman’s lift over her shoulders. Goddamn, he was heavy. She shifted him a little, hoping she wasn’t doing further damage, and nodded toward the safe zone. “Go!” she ordered the technician.

  The fire tender arrived and started spraying the whole area.

  Gritting her teeth she moved as fast as she could, following the technician out of the bund as metal creaked and groaned around them. She climbed the small flight of stairs, her muscles screaming. One step in front of the other. She couldn’t stop now.

  “You’re almost there, Bridge,” someone
called encouragement over the radio.

  She grunted. With every step, Jack seemed to gain five pounds. They hit the road and Bridget nodded. “That way.”

  Next to her a spot fire ignited.

  Chapter 21

  She moved with a burst of speed, willing her legs not to fail her. Her pants were soaked with foam as someone dowsed the flames near her. A couple of men ran forward to help the technician who was struggling, and to take some of Jack’s weight.

  She reached the ambulance and the medics took Jack off her shoulders and laid him onto a stretcher. She spun around to check how far away they were from the plant and the flames. The fire officers had saturated the whole area in foam and the spot fire was out.

  “We’ve got Jack and Roger,” she yelled through her radio. “Is everyone accounted for?”

  “Yeah, Bridget.” Ken told her. “That’s everyone.”

  Relief swept through her and all her breath seemed to leave her. She turned back to Jack. He was being loaded into an ambulance. She raced over.

  “How is he?”

  “He’s critical,” the paramedic said. “No burns, but that gash on his head is serious. We’ll keep you informed.”

  Before she could check him herself, they shut the ambulance and drove away. She turned to the technician who had been with Jack.

  “How are you?”

  “All right. Jack took the brunt of the impact. I was behind him.”

  Bridget couldn’t spend time finding out what happened now. She waved to one of her team members. “Take him to the gatehouse, make sure he gets checked.”

  She turned back to the burning plant and spoke into the radio. “Fire teams give me a status update.”

  One by one they reported in. The fire was contained but it was going to be a long time before it was out. She breathed a sigh of relief. What was next?

  “Anthony, you need to call the families of all the injured and let them know what’s happened. I want all non-essential personnel to go home. We need to clear the plant. Send twenty at a time. I don’t want a traffic jam in the parking lot.”

  “Anthony’s already doing it,” Ken said.

  That was one less thing to worry about. Over in the plant the plume of smoke was thick and black, reaching far up into the sky like a mushroom cloud. The repercussions of this were going to be felt for a long time.