A Day in the Life of an Ordinary Hero (649 hits)
Category: NoneRating: -0.91 on 10 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Tracer0351 (View user info) at 2006-02-02 11:41:36 EST
So, It's about 2:30 am, on Wednesday, July 14, 2004. There am, sitting at my friends computer, in his kitchen. Why am I setting in someone else's kitchen at 2:30 playing video games, on a weekday no less, you ask? Because I'm currently unemployed and homeless, and Joe is a great friend. I'm also munching on sliced cucumbers topped with ranch dressing, and washing it down with warm Coke. Remember this, it will come again later.... Literally.
Suddenly, a piercing wail cuts the still night air, and a voice yells from my hip, "Station 11, Station 8, Station 12, Station 20, You're being set for a mobile home on fire. Reports of heavy flames showing. Reports of children trapped inside the structure."
SLAM! The front door bounces against its frame after it rebounds from the porch rail. Missed the porch, missed the stairs, missed the sidewalk at the bottom SPLAT! Socks strike damp grass, no time for shoes. Don't need them anyway. SPLOSH SPLOSH SPLOSH, wet socks slap against cooling black top as I dash the half block to the station. (Oh yeah, homeless jobless, and my truck was broke down.) Still the first one in the door.
Mumbling and muted curses as we dress, then the rumble of a diesel engine coming to life. Doors slam and the wail of the siren cuts the night. "Central Fire, 806 in route." "10-4 806." 36000 pounds of steel, water, and adrenalin scream through the night, tach well past redline, lives hanging in the balance.
"Central Fire, 1103 on scene, we have a single wide mobile home, heavy fire showing, confirmed reports of multiple children still inside. 1100 will have command."
"10-4 1100"
"1100, 806. We're next due chief, assignment?"
"806, pull a line and go for the back door, start a search."
"Copy, handline to the back door, primary search."
Doors pop, then the breaks do too. We're on the ground before the truck stops moving. Assholes and elbows we go, for the rear of the structure, dragging fire hose. We hit the door and I relies my helmets fallen off somewhere along the way. Fuck it, it's a trailer. Nothing overhead heavy enough to hurt anyway. In we go.
It's jet black in here, even with our hand lights. Down the hall, feeling our way along, searching, but preying we don't find anything. The nozzleman yells back "I've got one!" The hose hits the floor and we start to drag. Damn this kids heavy. We hit open air and we can see the kids in bad shape, but still breathing. "MEDIC!" The rest of the crew heads back in, while I sprint around front for an EMT.
"Doc, we've got one around back"
"Are they alive?"
No you fuckwit, I just thought you might enjoy seeing a dead child. "He's still breathing, but it doesn't sound good." He stands and stares at me until I grab his arm and start to drag him. Shock I guess. Didn't find out until later he was watching about 6 firefighters trying to get a 16 year old girl out the window behind me. All goes well until I trip over the curb and face plant the street. That seems to bring him around and he heads over to the patient, where a second boy is being brought out.
I rush back in to find my crew, but about 5 feet in I'm handed about a 7 year old little girl. "Here, take her, we've got more." Says the figure looming out of the smoke and heat at me. Back out the door I go.
My first thought as I cleared the door again was 'Where am I going to put her, the ground is already covered in bodies.' Some one else had brought out 2 more while I was inside and now the area was full of victims, EMT's, and firefighters. I gently lay my precious load in the grass and grab an EMT.
Remember what I said about the cucumber-coke-ranch dressing combo coming up again later? Yeah that's about now. Between all the running, dragging and carrying I'd been doing on a full stomach, and lets face it, mixing Coke and Creamy Ranch is basically a non alcoholic cement mixer, and heat, I had stomach cramps. I crawl away from everyone, pry off my mask, and laying in the grass in the fetal position, start to heave. Someone is standing in front of me, asking me if I'm alright. I weakly push them aside. Don't want to have to wash someone's boots. Again they ask if I'm ok. My mouth is a little busy right now, so I just give them a thumbs up.
By the time I'm done redecorating the lawn, the fire is out, and we're trying to get a count on victims. The neighbors are giving conflicting reports on the number of occupants. Anywhere from 7 to 13 people. 13 people in a single wide? WTF? We've got 5 people on the ground, and reports of 2 who made it out on their own. So we start overhaul and secondary searches.
I'm in the living room, checking for hot spots that might flair up, when I see something that makes my blood run cold. Two cribs, badly burned. I can't look inside, but I have to. Oh shit, something in them. Thank God, it's only a slightly melted set of matching rubber dolls. Swallow heart, back to work. Got a little fire behind the bookshelf next to the cribs, pull out the book shelf, wet it down. Keep searching.
"Interior, Command."
"Go Ahead Command. This is Interior."
"We have a report of two infants unaccounted for. May be in cribs in the living room."
Oh Fuck, NO!!! I tell my partner to check behind the couch. I look back in the cribs. Sure looks like melted rubber. I touch one. It's melted alright. But it ain't rubber.
"Command, Interior."
"Go Ahead."
"Chief... We've got them."
"Roger. I'm sending someone in, you guys keep digging."
"10-4"
About two hours later....
We now know that there were 11 people inside when the fore started. The boy who started got out, woke his mom up by knocking on her window, and she got out the window. The neighbors we're able to pull one more out a window. Of the eight that were still inside when we got there, we were able to get four out alive. One coded at the hospital the next day, and one on the way to the hospital. Four were pronounced on scene. All told, 4 injured firefighters, all minor. 3 people in ICU and burn wards for months. And six dead, ages one and two months to 16 years. Time to pick up what we can and go home.
I walk in the door at Joe's place, and Joe turns from the computer... "I found the door open, food out, and the computer still running, with you getting your ass kicked. Must have been an important call, Huh?"
"Yeah, but I can't talk about it yet." I'm asleep with in seconds of my head hitting the couch. No dreams, just blackness. BEEEP BEEP BEEP "Station 8 Hubert, You're being set for a Motor Vehicle Accident on Parkertown Road. Dump Truck Vs. Train."
"Oh Fuck! Are the bodies ever going to stop?" Here we go again.
User Reviews
Submitted by DirtyHarry (user info) at 2007-03-29 16:18:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
cause you're an idiot
Submitted by FartSmeller (user info) at 2007-03-27 13:40:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Just for fun.
Submitted by earth_collapse (user info) at 2007-03-26 14:23:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Fire!
Submitted by Tracer0351 (user info) at 2006-06-28 16:05:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I never volinteered to experince anything like that. Anyone who does should be taken off the steet for the good of the world and themselves. And those of use who have experinced it and keep coming back... We should probably be in the padded cell next to them.
Submitted by fatgirl (user info) at 2006-06-28 14:05:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I know what you do...and I know that what you saw was real and terrible...kudos to you for VOLUNTEERING to experience that.
Submitted by Tracer0351 (user info) at 2006-02-02 16:35:40 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Thank you two for rating, and thanks for the advice HighVoltage. I was kinda going for confusing and choppy, as most of the story only took about 10 minutes real time, and was utter chaos. Guess I overdid it. got to say I expected a lot more hits, and ratings for a story about a bunch of children dieing. Not to mention a -2nami for a first post.
Submitted by DCWoody (user info) at 2006-02-02 11:57:32 EST (#)
Ranking: -1
Not bad for a 1st attempt.
Submitted by HighVoltage900 (user info) at 2006-02-02 11:47:49 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Length is fine man, don't worry about that.
Submitted by Tracer0351 (user info) at 2006-02-02 11:43:07 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Sorry about the legnth, But I just couldn't do justice to the story if I had cut it any shorter.
Submitted by HighVoltage900 (user info) at 2006-02-02 11:43:03 EST (#)
Ranking: -1
This was choppy and confusing in parts.
Work on it.