It was dawn in Toronto, the sun rose over the horizon, bathing the city in a golden light. Three homeless men were squatting inside an abandoned warehouse, "Hey," one said to the other across the small fire they built in a barrel, "Gimme some of that."
The other man, who was eating a burger chucked into the dumpster outside, shook his head, "Finders keepers."
The man leapt across the fire, knocking the barrel into a pile of crates and wrestling the man.
"Uh, guys," the third homeless man said, "Fire."
The crates had quickly gone up, the men ran out of the building, "Shit," the first man said.
Dawn in Toronto and already the fire services were already hard at work, getting ready for another shift.
Leah Kerns walked into the briefing room of Station Three Hundred Thirty Two, known as the South Command. As she rushed in, the team looked up, six men and one female consisted of the team at the table. One of the men was standing at the head of the room, appearing to be talking.
"Leah, nice of you to join us today," Captain Andy Montag greeted as he looked up from the briefing. Everyone else looked up as well.
Leah nodded back as she took a seat, "Sorry Captain, I got caught up in traffic."
"Ah, that crazy downtown traffic," Montag shook his head, "Very well then," he said rubbing the stubble on his chin as he looked over a few files, "Training later this afternoon if we don't have any emergencies or people stuck in traffic," he cast Leah a meaningful glance, "We'll patrol this morning."
"Yes sir," everyone at the table said as they stood up, suddenly the alarms blared and the dispatcher's voice came over the PA system.
"Gear up. Smoke reported in a warehouse on Queen's Quay Avenue," the dispatcher listed off directions and the team burst into action.
Leah quickly pulled on the flame resistant heavy jacket and buttoned up, the other woman on the team was getting ready next to her, "Time to save a few kittens from trees," the blonde quipped as they slid down the pole.
"Wouldn't have it any other way," Leah answered as she slid down next to the woman, "Let's go."
The team piled into Platform 432, Captain Montag kept up almost constant dialogue with the team, "Alright, we have a floor plan?"
"Sending it over to your phone now sir," the dispatcher said as he clicked the send button on an email.
Andy glanced down and nodded, "Alright, we have a few doors up here, plenty areas for the fire to spread," he sighed angrily, "I hate warehouses. Flashover risk is high, take caution in entering."
"Yes sir," Leah and the others said.
The man driving the truck sped up and swerved onto the street, "Almost there."
"Thanks for that Snowden," Andy huffed as he straightened himself out, "Let's go save some lives."
The driver, Johnny Snowden, whooped out loud and pulled to a stop in front of the warehouse. Tendrils of smoke rose from openings in the roof and broken windows. Leah took a look with the rest of the team, "No visible flames, must be coming from the inside of the warehouse."
"Warehouse is abandoned," Matt Wilson said, "Homeless guys probably use it as a place to squat, pretty chilly out here."
"Start a fire to keep warm, it gets out of control," Kim, the woman, shook her head, "All Hell breaks loose . . ."
"Come on," Andy said, "Let's find the source. There might be homeless people in there as well. Leah, Johnny, Ben and Jake, you guys enter the building and search for the source. If you guys separate, stay in pairs, we're not losing anyone today. Kim, Matt and Greg, stay out here and see if there are any outside sources."
"Yes sir," they all said as they moved out to their positions, Jake connected the hose to the hydrant as Leah, Johnny and Ben moved to grab tools from the truck. A series of explosions rocked the building and the team ducked as flaming debris came down all over them.
Shouts and yells rent the cold air and the loudest was Andy, "What the HELL was that?" he screamed at the team. Flames were bursting out of the windows.
"There's probably still gas running through the pipes, the place is a bomb," Jake said as he finished hooking up the hose, "We've got to get the fire under control."
"Change of plans," Andy said, "Leah, Jake, you two handle the hose. Johnny, Kim you two will search the warehouse for victims. This situation is volatile and the structural integrity of the building is questionable. If you guys feel it's too big of a risk, then get out of the building fast."
"Yes sir," they all answered, Andy ran into the cab of the truck and grabbed the radio.
He spoke calmly and evenly into the radio, "This is Ladder 432, requesting assistance at a warehouse explosion . . ."
Leah and Jake stood to the side of the door as Johnny and Kim glanced at the space between the door and the ground. Tendrils of smoke were puffing out and back into the space.
"Flashover," Kim said, referencing the dangerous situation where the fire had taken up all available oxygen in a room and now was waiting for a fresh source. This would be an open door.
"Three, two, one," Kim opened the door quickly and backed off. A few seconds later, a burst of flame shot through the door way, just where Kim had been standing.
Leah sprayed the hose at the ceiling of the room in short bursts, cooling the air around the fire so it had no place to spread. The flames in the room were finally controlled enough for Johnny and Kim to enter quickly. Johnny carried an extinguisher with him and Kim had the axe.
Visibility had been reduced to near zero in the building, suffocating smoke had filled the air but Leah and the rest of the team had their oxygen tanks and masks on. Leah and Jake systematically went through the building, checking doors and rooms for the fire. They saw the main blaze within the main floor of the warehouse.
"I don't like the looks of this," Jake said to Leah as they started spraying the area around the fire, "Looks bad, the fire's hot enough to melt the steel," as if to accent his point, a beam groaned and gave way in the intense heat, collapsing part of the ceiling.
"Yeah," Leah said, the room was hot and sweat was pouring down her face, "Alright, let's fall back. Kim? Johnny?"
There was no response on the radio.
Suddenly they heard the high shrieking noise of PASS alarms going off off, "Shit, "Jake muttered, he turned and ran off in the direction of the noise, "Cap?"
Andy's voice came over the radio, "Yeah Jake, what's going on in there?"
"I heard the PASS go off, might be Johnny or Kim," Jake said as Leah ran behind him with the hose, "Leah, go for the direct attack on the main blaze," Jake said.
Suddenly the radio crackled, "Jake! Leah!" Kim's voice interjected over the radio, "A part of the ceiling collapsed on Johnny! I can't see him anywhere, I got hit in the arm pretty bad. We need help here."
"Copy that," Jake said as he saw Ben and Matt run up behind them, Leah handed Matt the hose as Ben stayed by him.
The two ran up to the area where the PASS alarms went off, "Kim! Johnny!" Jake and Leah shouted over the noise of the fire and the groans of the structure.
"This is bad, this is bad, bad, bad," Jake muttered as he located the owner of the PASS device, "Kim!"
"I'm okay," Kim grunted and winced as her arm throbbed in pain, "Alright, maybe not okay."
Leah took a look at it, the material of her jacket had withstood the force of the collapse but her arm was bent at a strange angle, "Your arm's broken," she said as she took the debris off of Kim, "I'll help you out. Think you can hold your own Jake?"
"Yeah, I'm good," Jake said as he looked around for Johnny, "Just get some help in here quick, okay?"
"Got it," Leah said as she helped Kim walk out of the building.
As they neared the exit, the heat got intense to the point that fires were flashing up from when the materials reached their flashpoint. Leah kept walking as she sweated more and more, dehydration, despite it being the middle of winter, was a very real risk.
Suddenly she heard a high pitched whistling noise and she also saw the door, "Run!" she yelled as a storage tank of gas began shaking from the heat, it was about to explode.
Leah and Kim were both followed by a huge fireball as they jumped out the door and landed on the cold asphalt. A few other firefighters ran up to them, men that Leah had recognized from Company 12. Their back up had arrived.
"Kerns!" a man shouted as he helped her up, "You okay?"
"Yeah, good," Leah said as she stood up and began walking to the truck, "Jake needs help in there, southeast corner."
"Got it," the man said as he ran into the building.
Kim grunted in pain as another firefighter helped her to an ambulance, Andy ran up to both of them, "What the hell happened in there?"
"There must have been good fuel, the place was a nesting area for the homeless, the fire grew hot and fast. It compromised the structure of the building," Leah said, "Southeast corner collapsed."
Andy sighed and rubbed his temples, "Jake and Johnny. Are they still in there?"
"Yeah Cap," Leah nodded as she looked at the burning structure, "They're still in there."
Andy put his helmet on and pointed to the staging area, "Get there and get some water, you look like Hell."
Leah walked to the staging area where the South Command chief was taking over as incident commander, "Get the media to another area," he shouted to some of the police who had gathered there to keep control of the crowd, "I need hoses on that east wall, get that fire under control!"
He looked over at Leah, "What's it like in there?"
Leah told the chief what she had told her captain, the man shook his head and started ordering another captain, "Get those men out of the building," he said, "I don't want anyone in or out until the fire's under control and the engineers say we can reenter."
"Yes sir," he said and he walked away, speaking into his radio, "Everyone get out of there . . ."
Leah looked over at the ambulances where Kim was fighting with the paramedics. One of them was trying to keep Kim on the stretcher, "Ma'am, your arm is broken, we can't let you get back out there."
"Just splint it and give me some pain meds," she argued, "I've got to get back to work!"
"You can't, you're in no shape for working now," the paramedic said calmly as he forced her back into a laying position, "Now let us get you stabilized before you hurt yourself anymore."
Kim growled and finally signed in defeat, she glared at her feet as the paramedics bandaged her up and rolled her into the ambulance. The paramedics slammed the doors shut and as the ambulance screamed away, Leah heard a giant crack from behind her.
Over the din of the fire, shouting, hoses and sirens, Leah could hear the groan of the steel protesting under the intense heat. The structure was collapsing, it was like slow motion. Firefighters ran out of the building, shouting to each other and to the air. One of them had tripped and another one rushed passed, grabbing his jacket and dragging him to safety as the building began to crumble.
Leah scanned the faces of the terrified firemen who ran out of the building, Jake and Johnny were nowhere to be found.
Anyway, there needs to be some good Leah fiction here and I wanted to mess around with some of my own OCs, :) Win-win situation.
I don't own Flashpoint and I will own nothing except my OCs for the duration of this fan fiction.
