Point of Ignition

**This story immediately follows "Lucky No More"**

"Revealing the truth is like lighting a match:

it can bring light or it can set your world on fire."

Sydney Rogers

CHAPTER 1

Why in the hell is it always in the middle of the night? Matt grabbed the phone beside his bed and answered. "Houston."

"Hey, it's Rich Holt. We've got a big fire down in the East 30th – South San Pedro area. I think it would be a good opportunity for you to get some on the job training – plus it looks like I'm going to need some help. Would you come down?" The fire inspector sounded desperate.

"Yeah – East 30th and South San Pedro. Got it. Be there quick as I can." Matt rolled out of the bed, grabbed a pair of jeans and t-shirt, and quickly dressed.

"What's going on?" CJ sat up cross-legged in the bed.

"Rich says he's got a big fire and needs some help." He zipped his jeans and leaned over to kiss his wife. "Love you."

"Love you. Be careful." She watched as he headed out of the bedroom and down the hall, then flopped back in the bed and heaved a big sigh. They had been married for over a year and half and she still couldn't get used to him getting called out in the middle of the night. She looked at the clock – 4:00am. "Well, that's not as bad as it could be." After spending a few more minutes trying to go back to sleep, she went on and got out of bed and headed for the shower, making sure to carry her cell phone into the bathroom – just in case.

Matt drove through the pre-dawn streets of Los Angeles after hitting the 405 south then the 10, and exiting at the 18th Street off ramp. He headed south on Maple and it wasn't very long before he could see an orange glow in the sky. He hung a left on 28th Street then a right onto South San Pedro and parked about two blocks away from the engines. As he climbed out of the truck he popped the back door on the crew cab and reached in to pull out his Nomex/Kevlar blend turnout gear and suited up. He grabbed his clipboard and headed up toward the scene where he spotted Rich who was wearing similar gear and talking to the battalion chief who was in command. The fire marshal pointed to Matt and waved him over.

"Chief, this is Matt Houston. Houston, this is Battalion Chief Mark Weston." Rich looked back at the blaze.

"Nice to meet you." Matt followed Rich's gaze to the clouds of black smoke coming out of the building.

Rich looked back at Matt. "I thought maybe you could use a little on the job training – plus I can use another set of eyes. Well you remembered to suit up and you brought your clipboard: what about the rest of it?" Matt opened the clipboard to reveal a camera, pen, pencil, as well as paper and then pulled evidence bags out of his pocket. Rich grinned. "Told ya so." The chief pulled a five dollar bill out of his pocket and handed it to Rich.

"Did you think I'd forget something?" Houston grinned.

"Nope, but the chief here had his doubts." Turning back to the fire, the man pointed to the building. "This is a six story residential hotel. Old as Methuselah. In my opinion it should have been torn down forty years ago. But my opinion and a couple of bucks will buy you a cup of coffee."

"Unless it's from Starbucks." Matt grinned. "So do we have any idea why there's so much black smoke? Mattresses maybe?"

"You've been paying attention in class. Good. Yeah, I talked to one of the maintenance guys already. They've been replacing the mattresses for the past two days. A dumpster was supposed to have been brought in to handle the ones they're getting rid of, but it didn't show. They've been stacking them out in the hallways." He sounded thoroughly disgusted.

"Not a good idea. Not only could it block the path it's more fuel for the fire." Matt could see several residents who were receiving treatment for smoke inhalation. "Is everybody accounted for?"

Rich shook his head. "No, not at all. I've got a feeling we're looking at several fatalities here. Now when our folks get the flames knocked down a little bit more, you and I are going to go in and see if we can find the cause of it. About seventy people have already been rescued – both residents and employees. Come look at this." The fire marshal walked over to his SUV and opened the passenger door. He opened a laptop and showed Matt the building plan. "There are four sections to the structure. North, east, south, and west. We're on the east side. The west side has two parts to it – see the alleyway here? It's a service entrance. Now the first floor on both the north and south sides is businesses. This side is the main entrance of the hotel." He turned and pointed at the building behind them. "Reports from our folks inside lead me to believe that it started on either the second or third floor in this side. From what I've been hearing on the radio, our best bet when we go in is the entrance down on the southeast side – it's just around the corner there."

"Okay." Matt looked at the computer screen and the front of the building.

"We're going to stick together in here. We'll walk down the hallways, you take the right side, I'll take the left. We can cover ground quicker that way and still be safe. Buddy system you know."

"Yep, makes sense."

"Now the reason I say this is simple: this is a very old building and a very hot fire with lots of fuel and dense smoke. We not only have to look for possible points of ignition, we have to be on the lookout for hotspots and other dangers, like floors or ceilings caving in – or walls for that matter." He closed the computer and the truck door and they made their way back over to the chief who was ending a conversation on the radio. "You boys can make entry now. Engine 32 has a tank you can use, Houston."

"Thanks, Chief." Matt followed Rich over to the engine where one of the fire fighters removed a tank and mask from the truck, helping Matt to put it on and adjust the mask to fit his face snugly. While getting the gear secured, the PI heard the voice of TV reporter Tamara Placer above the din of the engines, water, and all the other equipment being used. That woman has got to have the biggest mouth in the state of California, he thought to himself. After making sure that the tank was working properly, he and Rich headed toward the building while pulling on their gloves, Matt glad to be getting away from the reporter that he was growing to despise.

The two men entered the building and stepped over a couple of fire hoses that were snaked inside. Rich pointed up and put two fingers in the air and Matt nodded. They started up the stairwell that was just to the left of the door and carefully made their way up to the second floor, where the smoke was much denser and the heat was stronger.

Rich signaled to Matt to begin looking for the fire's point of ignition. The private investigator nodded and began the search. The end of the hall where they started didn't have any mattresses stacked against the wall, but as they got further into the building they began seeing what was left of the mattresses and box springs – which wasn't much more than some springs and twisted, partially-melted frames. Matt noticed that the doors to most of the rooms in close proximity to the stacks of old bedding were destroyed by the fire. He stopped to look at one and was amazed at how thin the wood was. Rich noticed what he was looking at and Matt pointed out how thin the doors were and the damage that had invaded the rooms because of it. He also pointed out that the doors didn't have self-closers. The fire marshal gave him a grim nod.

Continuing to work their way up the second floor hallway, Matt looked into another room as he started by and tapped Rich on the arm before entering the room. On the far side next to the window he could see a bare foot sticking out from behind the bed. The two men entered the room and found a lady of about 70 lying on the floor. Matt removed a glove and checked for a pulse but there wasn't one. Rich keyed his mic and informed the battalion chief of the room number so that the body could be removed by a search team.

Replacing his glove, Matt followed Rich out of the room and they continued up the hallway. Four rooms past the one where they found the body Matt stopped in his tracks. There on the door, floor, and extending up to the ceiling, was a large v-shaped pattern indicating that there had been a localized plume caused by the mattresses. He tagged Rich and pointed to it and the fire marshal nodded. They proceeded up the hallway and the destruction from the fire was even worse, as was the heat. The turn-out gear that the men were wearing was warm under the best of circumstances but was now causing Matt to break out in a heavy sweat. He could feel it running down his neck, back, chest, and legs.

Rich tapped his shoulder and pointed to an electrical outlet on his side of the hallway, then to another a few steps away on Matt's side. There were arc marks where the outlets had shorted out. They continued to make their way up the hallway and Matt noticed that the smoke marks on the walls were moving from the area where they had entered in the direction that they were following. He pointed them out to Rich who nodded.

The two men ran across another body in the hallway that was lying underneath what appeared to have been two mattress and two box springs. Rich notified the command about it and they made it to the end of the hallway, then turned back. As they approached the area where the outlets had shorted out they stopped where the large v-shaped plume mark was. Rich signaled Matt to take pictures of it and the plume mark as he collected a sample of residue on the wall. When he was done collecting the sample, Rich tapped Matt on the shoulder and pointed to his left wrist and then to the tank on his back, letting the private eye know that they needed to head back out before their air supply got too low. Houston nodded and they headed back down the hall.

When they had made it twenty feet from the stairwell that they had entered through, both men heard a loud groan and felt the building shudder. Suddenly the ceiling collapsed on the pair and a fire fighter who had been working on the third floor crashed down on top of them, knocking Rich to the floor and Matt into one of the doors. Water, smoke, and debris rained down on the three men.

Matt grabbed Rich by the arm and helped him to his feet and both of them grabbed the firefighter who had tumbled onto them. As they headed for the stairwell, the PI noticed that not only was Rich limping badly, but his air tank was hanging at an odd angle and pointed it out to him. He nodded and made a cut motion across his throat: he wasn't getting air and was holding his breath. Taking off his helmet, Matt drew in a deep breath and handed his mask to Rich. They both continued on to the stairwell carrying the now unconscious firefighter with them. After two more stops on the way down to gulp down some air, they made it back to the door that they had used to enter the building and made it out to a waiting ambulance where paramedics took custody of the injured firefighter and began working on him.

Easing his injured friend to the ground, Matt knelt down, ignoring the irritating voice of Tamara Placer asking a dozen questions. After removing his gloves, he checked the leg that was causing Rich problems. Above the noise he yelled at Rich. "I think it's broken, bud. Hang tight." He waved over another paramedic who began working on the fire inspector's leg.

"This is going to have to wait…I dropped my samples inside when that guy fell on top of us." The inspector was trying to regain his feet but Matt kept him down. "I'll get it – you stay put." He took back off for the building knowing that Rich had gotten them out of the building earlier with plenty of time to spare on their air supply. He knew he had enough to run back in and grab the evidence bags and run back out.

Moving at a much faster pace than he had earlier, Matt quickly worked his way back up the staircase to the second floor and spotted the dropped evidence. As he reached down to pick it up he heard someone coughing and looked up to see an elderly man fumbling his way down the hall, choking on the black smoke. Shoving the bag into his pocket, he made his way to the man who was near collapsing. He took a deep breath from the tank before putting the mask over the face of the elderly man. Putting the man's left arm across his shoulders and grabbing it with his left hand, Matt wrapped his right arm around the man and led him to the stairwell, inhaling smoke as he ran out of breath. As they began the trip down the stairs the man passed out and the coughing private investigator put him over his shoulder and carried him out of the building, laying him on the ground next to Rich who's right leg was now in an air splint. A paramedic rushed over and began giving the senior citizen oxygen as the PI continued to cough. Another paramedic came to help him and began giving him oxygen and removed his air tank and turn-out coat, then started an IV on him. Matt began to protest but Rich reached over and grabbed his arm.

"What did you learn in class, Houston? The polyurethane lets off hydrogen cyanide gas – you've got to get treatment started right now. Don't fight with him." Rich continued to hold his arm until he saw Matt nod.