A/N: In this story, the girls are 21 years old and have jobs in the same building that Will's mom worked in.
Disclaimer: I don't own jack squat except for the epic plot.
W.I.T.C.H. Survives Disaster: Fire
Monday, May 5, 2014, 10:05 AM
Downtown Heatherfield
Taranee Cook and her friends Irma Lair, Will Vandom, Cornelia Hale, Hay Lin and Elyon Brown had jobs at a local office building.
They worked on the tenth floor of their building, and enjoyed their jobs. They also had no idea that today would become a fight to survive.
Four floors below, a maintenance crew was working on electrical equipment in the ceiling. They finished their task and moved on, failing to notice a shorted wire near their work area.
The wire started throwing sparks and smoke until the materials around them burst into flames.
In the office, everyone looked around in confusion as the fire alarms began to sound. "Is this a drill?" Cornelia asked.
"Cornelia, you never know, it could be real, you can't just assume that it's a drill." Taranee replied. Irma and her other friends grouped together as the evacuation began.
Three floors below them, the fire that started just seconds ago was raging in a storage room.
In the office, the floor marshal and security personnel started getting people out.
Taranee led her group towards the stairway, but stopped when she saw the glass and carpet of the stairway.
"Hold on, that's not an evacuation stairway, we gotta go that way." she said as she pointed towards the evacuation stairway.
They went in and started heading down. Taranee stood by the doorway while the others went into the stairway. "Last one?" Taranee asked Elyon.
"Yeah." Elyon replied as she went in, Taranee right behind her. Taranee closed the fire door and followed the others.
In the burning storeroom, a group of cleaner containers ignited as the flames spread. As the fire grew, the flames got closer to a group of containers filled with flammable liquid.
Suddenly, as the flames hit the containers, the fluids ignited, triggering an explosion that caused flames to rush through the hallways towards the evacuation stairway that Taranee and the others were in.
Taranee heard the roar of the approaching blast and realized that the group was in danger when she saw smoke rushing out from under the door.
"WHOOAA, BACK! BACK! BACK! BACK!" she yelled out as she turned around and motioned for the group to back up.
BOOOOM! Flames burst through the door and on the landing.
The stairway filled with smoke in seconds. Taranee and her friends lowered their heads to avoid inhaling the smoke.
"CLIMB! CLIMB! GO! KEEP MOVING! KEEP MOVING!" Taranee commanded as the group continued climbing. Other people in the crowd started to panic as they rushed down the stairs, straight towards the fire below.
"Hey, listen up, put your shoulders against the wall, left hand on the rail, right hand hard-pointed to the person in front of you!
Keep your chin down, stay tight, we're gonna fight through this like a bulldozer! Let's go!" Taranee ordered as she helped her group get through the panicking crowd.
She led the group as they climbed back up the stairs. After getting up to the tenth floor, Taranee knew that they were high enough to be safe from the fire for the time being.
She checked the door for heat and, finding none, led the group through.
After they closed the door, Will noticed that Elyon was coughing quite a bit from inhaling some smoke. Everyone in the group knew that the building had to have another evacuation stairwell somewhere. "You guys ready?" Taranee asked as the group finished recovering.
They nodded and got themselves ready to move on. "OK, let's go!" Taranee said.
As they moved on, they were forced to keep their heads down to avoid inhaling the smoke that was filling the hallway. They heard a ding that could only be the elevator.
"Oh no! They're gonna get themselves killed!" Irma said. "Hey, don't do that! DON'T DO THAT!" Taranee said as she ran towards the closing elevator doors.
They all knew that taking the elevator was a very bad idea, sometimes even a sure way to get killed in a fire.
It was too late, the elevator doors shut and the elevator car began moving down.
When it stopped the people inside prepared to exit the car, only to be incinerated by flames that surged in as the elevator doors opened.
Nearby, Taranee found an evacuation map on the wall. "Irma, take a picture of this with your camera phone." Taranee instructed.
Irma took out her phone and used the camera to take a picture of the evacuation map. "I got it." Irma said after she took the picture.
"OK, stay tight, let's go." Taranee said as they continued on. They got to an office area when Taranee had them stop.
"OK, we need to gather supplies before we go any further. We're gonna put stuff in bags that we're gonna need for the rest of this evacuation." Taranee instructed.
"Oh, I see what you're talking about, just like the 'go bags' that the special ops guys use." Elyon said.
"Yeah, but instead of bullets, grenades or anything like that that the special forces use, ours are gonna have water and supplies for signaling firefighters." Taranee replied.
The others started gathering supplies from the office spaces nearby. "We'll also need stuff to mark out our route, like thumbtacks, post-it notes, pens, anything we can use to mark where we're going, and-" Taranee said as the lights suddenly went out.
"What's happening?" Hay Lin asked as the emergency lights went on. They continued gathering supplies.
"Cornelia, go into the janitor's closet, see what's in there, especially flashlights. Divide up the water between us, make sure the bags have an equal amount." Taranee ordered.
Cornelia went to the janitor's closet and started searching. "I found three flashlights!" Cornelia said as she came out with the flashlights in her hands.
"Great, bring them here, one flashlight per pair." Taranee instructed. Taranee, Irma and Elyon each took a flashlight as they put the go bags over their shoulders.
"OK, these are gonna get us to the second evacuation stairwell." Taranee said as they got ready. They continued making their way across the building towards the stairway.
Outside, fire trucks and ambulances were already arriving on the scene. Inside, Taranee and the others were on the move.
"OK, hold up here, hold up here, we need to prepare for the fact that we might be going through some stuff that's really hot.
First, we need to get rid of anything metal: rings, watches, belt buckles, because they conduct heat." Taranee instructed.
Everyone in the group began removing the described items. "Next, if you have ties, pull them off but hold on to them, you can use them as a filter over your mouth. Also, roll down your sleeves and roll up your collars, do anything you can to cover up exposed skin." Taranee instructed.
The others did so in a quick yet thorough manner. "OK, now we're gonna form an efficient team that will help us get through this." Taranee explained.
"Elyon, you're gonna be our point man, you'll be leading this group. You'll be keeping an eye out for anything that might be a danger." Taranee explained.
"Irma, you'll be our navigator. You'll use the map you photographed earlier to help us get from here to the second evacuation stairwell. Go ahead and bust out that camera phone and get that map up." Taranee instructed.
Irma got out her camera phone and put up the map photo on the screen.
"Cornelia, you'll be our communicator; we need to let someone outside this building know who we are, how many of us there are and where we're at. Every time we change course, every time we go up or down, you need to send a new text with that information." Taranee explained.
Cornelia got out her cell phone and turned it on.
"OK, Hay Lin, you'll be rear security; every ten to fifteen feet, or every course change, you need to stick a post-it note at knee level and mark an arrow on it indicating the direction of travel. This also works for if we need to backtrack, we can see those notes, change direction and move right back to a safe path." Taranee explained.
Hay Lin took the notes and markers.
"Everybody ready?" Taranee asked. Everyone else nodded. "OK, let's go!" Taranee said as they got up and started moving again.
Hay Lin left a note and Cornelia sent out a text every time they changed course. "OK, Elyon, what do we have up there?" Taranee asked.
"There's an intersection ahead." Elyon replied. "OK, when we go through here, we come to the outside of the turn." Taranee explained.
"OK, now we go left from here." Irma said. Cornelia sent out a new text after the group made the turn, and Hay Lin left the post-it note. They eventually reached a door at the end of the hallway.
"OK, when we come to a door, we don't just go through, we don't know what's behind it, so we need to check it." Taranee said.
"How do we do that?" Cornelia asked. "Simple, you take the back of your hand, start at the top and do a quick zig-zag going down." Taranee explained as she demonstrated the technique.
"OK, next you give the knob a quick tap. In this case I didn't feel any heat, so we're good to go." Taranee said.
"Now, when you open the door, put your foot against the base of the door and your shoulder against the door, slowly open it in case it blasts in, and we're clear." Taranee explained as she opened the door and the group went through.
They saw that the sprinklers weren't working.
"We gotta figure out why the sprinklers aren't working." Taranee said. Irma picked up a nearby screwdriver and climbed onto a desk to try and get the sprinklers to work.
She used the screwdriver to pry out the fusible link within the sprinkler head.
She got it out, but nothing happened. "Damn, it's probably been out of commission due to construction work, which means that this fire is gonna spread three times as fast." Taranee said.
The group continued moving towards their goal.
As they went into the next hallway, they saw flames roaring along a wall. They rushed into a nearby bathroom to prepare themselves for the blistering heat.
"OK, get your upper layer of clothes soaking wet, use the toilets, don't worry they're fine, this is gonna save our lives." Taranee instructed.
"Also, get your hair and those ties wet as well. Also, fill those water bottles, we need as mush water as possible." The others did so and got ready.
"OK, Elyon, get us ready to get out of here." Taranee ordered. Elyon checked the door and got ready.
"OK, Irma, which way are we going?" Taranee asked.
"We gotta go left." Irma replied after checking the map on her phone.
"OK, let's go!" Taranee said as they went out the door and turned. They found themselves in a hall with flames all over. Elyon went to check the first door they came to.
Will checked the next door, while Irma checked the last door. The other end of the hallway was filled with flames. "It's hot!" Elyon said. This one, too!" Will said.
"This one's cool, we can go through!" Irma said as she opened the door. The group went through and into an office space.
"Oh my God, this is nuts!" Cornelia said. "OK, take a knee, don't start panicking now!" Taranee said.
At this point, it seemed like they were trapped, but Taranee had a plan: they would have to go through a wall to escape. "OK, we're gonna have to bust through this wall to escape." Taranee said.
"OK, how do we do that?" Elyon asked. "With this." Taranee replied as she picked up a chair with wooden legs. She smashed the chair repeatedly onto the floor and broke one of the legs off.
"Here, grab these off the wall, the last thing we need is for one of these to fall down onto your head." Taranee said, pointing to some pictures that were hanging on the wall.
After they were removed, Taranee started punching into the wall with the chair leg. After checking to make sure it was clear on the other side, Taranee continued, making the hole bigger.
Will and Elyon then stepped in and started peeling away the drywall. After a minute, they managed to make a hole large enough to crawl through.
Elyon went in first to see what was on the other side. The others went in after her, one at a time.
"OK, get to the next wall!" Taranee ordered. The others went to the wall on the other side and got ready. After finding a suitable location, Will started punching into the wall.
After making a 5-inch hole, Elyon went to check it out. "It's clear!" she said, and Will started making the hole bigger.
Eventually, they got through and were in another hallway, which was filled with smoke.
"OK, stay down, that's where there's any breathable air! Low crawl, elbows and knees!" Taranee instructed as they crawled under the thick smoke.
They ended up in another office space. "It's a dead end!" Elyon said. Taranee got up to check out a window leading to another office space.
Inside, the office furniture was smoldering, and all plastic items were melting, the temperature had to be at least 500 degrees. She realized that this was a flash-over waiting to happen.
"Freeze! Freeze!" Taranee said when she realized that it could burst into flames any second. Everyone froze in place.
"TAKE COVER! TAKE COVER!" she commanded as she took cover behind a desk. The others followed suit as they waited for the inevitable.
Suddenly, just as Taranee feared, the room burst into flames, all at once. The whole room was instantly completely engulfed in flames, from floor to ceiling and all four walls.
The flames surged through the window and dangerously close to where the group was taking cover. Ceiling tiles fell all over from the force of the flash-over.
Unfortunately, Will's left arm was exposed and was now on fire. "AHHHHHHH!" Will screamed in pain as the flames spread.
She lay still, in too much pain to move as Taranee and Irma rushed to put the flames out. Taranee took off her jacket and used it to pat out the flames.
After ten seconds, the fire on Will was out, but she was seriously burned. "OK, we're gonna roll her onto our forearms so we can get her out of here." Taranee instructed.
The others got ready. "3..2..1...and roll!" Taranee commanded as Cornelia and Irma rolled Will onto Taranee and Elyon's arms.
The others got ready to lift her up. "OK, 1...2...3...and lift!" Taranee commanded as they all lifted Will up.
They carefully carried Will into a nearby kitchen and gently set her down on her unburned side.
Cornelia checked Will's breathing and made sure her airway was clear. "Is she breathing alright?" Taranee asked.
"Yeah." Cornelia replied. "OK, get something to support her head." Taranee ordered. "Elyon, get some scissors, we need to cut this away." Taranee instructed.
The whole left sleeve of Will's shirt was scorched, and the skin underneath was badly burned. Cornelia placed a tissue box underneath Will's head to support it.
Elyon came back with a pair of scissors and handed them to Taranee. Taranee then started to carefully cut away some of the fabric from the burned areas.
Irma, Elyon and Hay Lin cringed when they saw the full extent of Will's burns.
Nearly two-thirds of her left arm, including her hand, as well as part of her shoulder were covered in second and third-degree burns. "OK, now we need to try to cool this off." Taranee said.
Irma got out one of her water bottles out of her go bag and soaked a nearby rag with the contents. She then let the water drip onto the burns.
Will winced as the water hit the second-degree burns, causing her pain. "Will, I know it hurts, but it's cooling it down to help with pain management." Taranee said to try to keep her calm.
"OK, now we need to put some gauze in between her fingers to prevent them from fusing." Taranee said. Cornelia got out a pair of gauze packets from her personal first-aid kit.
Taranee gently placed the gauze between Will's fingers. She then placed another piece over Will's hand. "Now we need a towel to keep her warm, believe it or not." Taranee said.
"Why?" Hay Lin asked.
"She's lost so much of her skin that she's lost the ability to regulate her temperature, and if her body core temperature drops, she will go into shock, and that's another problem that we don't need." Cornelia explained.
"OK, we've done everything we can for her at this point, if we try to move her, we might kill her. If we try to move with her, we'll slow down too much. I know you guys hate it, I hate it too, but it's the greatest good for the greatest number. The best chance of her surviving is all of us getting out and getting a follow-on rescue to her. Remember, we're not in a hostile country, we're not in a war zone, we're not behind enemy lines, OK? This is what we have to do given the current situation." Taranee said.
"Cornelia, get on your text, tell them that we're gonna be leaving her up here." Taranee instructed.
"Now, we need a fire extinguisher, we're gonna be going through some serious flames." Taranee instructed.
"I really wish we still had our Guardian powers." Irma said. "Don't we all? Yours especially would be handy in this situation." Taranee replied.
Elyon found a fire extinguisher mounted on the wall nearby. "How far to the second stairwell?" Taranee asked.
"Just a few more turns." Irma replied as she checked the map on her phone. Taranee checked the door and found it to be hot.
They had no choice; they had to go through.
"OK, it's hot out there, stay tight, stay low, stay on us. Right on my right shoulder, let's go!" Taranee instructed as she got ready to open the door.
"1...2...3...let's go! Let's go!" Taranee said as she opened the door. As they went in, they were blasted with a wave of heat from the flames.
"Come on, come on!" Taranee said as they went in and closed the door behind them.
As they went through the burning hallway, Elyon used the fire extinguisher to take out flames that were in their path.
Eventually, they reached the door leading to the second evacuation stairwell. Their hearts sank when they saw that it was full of flames a few floors below them.
"Hold up, hold up! That's not even an option anymore, it's completely blocked by flames." Taranee said.
The second evacuation stairwell was their best hope, but it was full of flames. They were still determined to find a way out. Taranee led them to an office just down the hall.
They went up to the large exterior window and saw the emergency vehicles on the ground below.
Taranee knew that they were way too high for a firefighter rescue, but saw that the lower roof was low enough for them to get rescued, if they can get to it.
"Is there something on one of the corners that shows that it's tempered?" Taranee asked.
Irma and Elyon looked and found a marking that said "16 CFR 1201-II solid tempered" on the lower left corner.
"OK, we're gonna make a rope, let's go!" Taranee said as she led them to another room just down the hall.
It turned out to be the mainframe room, the center hub for all computer activity throughout the whole building.
Taranee knew it was perfect because under their feet was miles and miles of Ethernet cables. Taranee lifted up a floor tile, revealing a group of different colored wires.
"See these? Start following it like a river and start pulling it out." Taranee instructed.
The others started pulling out the colored cables.
"Irma, I need you to come over here. See these? They're all anchored in there, grab it and yank it out." Taranee instructed, referring to the server units to which the cables were anchored.
Irma started yanking out the cables by the handful. "OK, start doing that everywhere, it's gonna help the others pull it out." Taranee said.
Eventually, they pulled out several long strands of cable. Taranee knotted one end and handed the other end to Elyon, who took it and went out as far as the cable would go.
"OK, let's twist it together, make it nice and tight." Taranee instructed. Cornelia started pulling back on the cables and twisted them together, moving down the length of the cables.
After a few minutes, Taranee used a flashlight to inspect the rope. "OK, that's good, that's definitely gonna support our weight." she said.
"OK let's get it out of here." Taranee said as they put the rope over their shoulders and carried it to the office.
At this point, with all the stairways blocked by flames, this window escape was now their only hope, and they had to hurry; the fire has surrounded them and was closing in fast.
Taranee, Irma and Elyon cleared a desk that they would use as an anchor. "OK, get it on its side and get it out that door." Taranee instructed.
Irma and Cornelia lifted the desk, tilted it on its side and wedged it against the far side of the doorway.
Taranee took the knotted end of the rope and fed it underneath the desk.
Hay Lin then took the end and slipped it through the strands to hold it in place.
"OK, find me any kind of a power cable, a printer cable." Taranee commanded. "What for?" Hay Lin asked.
"We're gonna use them to make a Swiss Seat." Taranee replied.
A Swiss Seat is an improvised harness for climbers that uses only one rope. After finding the cables and making a rope out of them, Elyon put the rope around her waist like a belt.
Taranee helped her put the ends under her legs, and wrapped them back around her legs. She then tied the Swiss Seat to the main rope.
"OK, we'll lower you down, all of us, just relax, alright?" Taranee said.
"OK, let's break this thing." Taranee said as she grabbed a stapler. She aimed at the center of the window with all her might.
She swung and smashed the window into small shards, which fell out, leaving almost no glass left in the window frame.
"OK, now we need something to signal." Taranee said as Irma grabbed her flashlight.
Taranee picked up a cord and tied the flashlight to it. "What are we doing with this?" Irma asked.
"We're making what's called a buzz-saw, the military uses it when working with aircraft, what you'll do is spin that light really fast, making a huge halo of light that can be seen for miles." Taranee explained.
Irma grabbed the light and let it dangle four feet from her hand. She then started spinning it as fast as she could while Taranee watched for a reaction from the ground.
Taranee saw a firefighter look up at them and call into his radio, and knew that he saw the signal.
"OK, they're picking up on it, let's go!" Taranee said.
She picked up the blotter from the desk and placed it over the edge, creating a chafe guard, which allowed the rope to go over without being cut.
"OK, sit there on the ledge and put your hand on that knot." Taranee instructed.
Elyon did so as the others took the slack out of the rope. "Go ahead and put one leg over, then the other." Taranee instructed.
Elyon nervously did so and the others carefully lowered her down onto the lower roof. Elyon breathed a sigh of relief as she touched down.
"OK, untie yourself, good job!" Taranee said. Elyon did so and the others pulled the rope up. Irma was the next to go down.
Irma put the rope between her legs and wrapped it once around her foot.
She went over the ledge and lowered herself hand-over-hand to where Elyon was standing. Cornelia went down next, followed by Hay Lin.
Taranee was now the only one left. She decided to use the classic German technique called the Dulfersitz.
She wrapped the rope around her body, between her legs and over her shoulder, grabbing the rope on both sides of her body to control her descent.
She went over the edge and lowered herself down. "OK, let's go!" Taranee said after she got down.
They went over to the edge and saw a rescue air bag being prepped on the ground for them.
"That's for us." Taranee said. "Yeah, looks like a hell of a jump." Irma said.
"OK,that thing's good for one-hundred feet, seven floors, which is right where we're at." Taranee said.
"OK, we're almost out of this, all you have to do is step off and lean back like you're sitting in a chair." Taranee said. The others were clearly nervous.
"Relax, this is made for this, it's ready to go. You're first, Irma, Elyon, you're next, then Hay Lin, Cornelia, then I'm last." Taranee said.
They got ready to make the jump that will save them from a fiery death.
"Remember, just sit into it, land on your butt and your back." Taranee said as Irma stepped into the edge.
Irma gulped as she stepped off and made the jump.
Three seconds later, she hit the air bag with a WHOOP! Firefighters helped her get off of the air bag and onto the ground.
Elyon stepped off and jumped next, followed by Hay Lin and Cornelia. Here I go! Taranee thought as she jumped.
Upon landing, she found the on-scene commander.
"Captain, we've got a badly burned woman up on the tenth floor in the kitchen, we gotta get someone up there to her." Taranee said.
The on-scene commander radioed for a crew to go to rescue Will. "Thank you." Taranee said as she joined the others.
"OK, Cornelia, whoever you're texting, let them know that we're out safely and that a rescue's been sent to go save Will." Taranee instructed.
"Right, the last thing we want is for a firefighter to go in looking for us when we're already out safely." Cornelia said in agreement as she got out her phone to send the message.
Twenty minutes later, the rescue team came out with Will and got her to a waiting ambulance.
She was then taken to the burn unit at Heatherfield General Hospital, where she would make a full recovery from her burns.
None of them expected to be caught in the middle of a towering inferno, but fortunately, they knew what to do, they kept calm even when things went from bad to worse, they worked together as a team, and survived.