She sees the fire as she and her training-officer are driving by on their normal patrol. The blaze tears indiscriminately through a three-story office building.
Though it is only her second day on the job in LA, she had worked as a police officer in NYC for two years prior. Having seen quite a few fires up there, she knows this is a bad one.
As her training officer throws the car in park, she puts a call out on the radio to have dispatch alert the fire department––though she suspects they have already been alerted and the dispatcher confirms this––and then she bails out of the car. For a moment, she simply stares, trying to assess the situation.
Even from the street, she hears the shouts from inside and sees the flames quickly spreading, tongues of fire flicking through windows, walls, and doors.
She is painfully aware that this place may go before the fire department can arrive and evacuate everyone.
Biting her lip and clenching her fists, she makes a decision, shouts to her training officer that she's going in, and runs into the building.
The heat hits her like concrete wall and the smoke rushes into her throat and burns her eyes. Regardless of the danger she knows she faces, having neither turnout coat nor oxygen mask, she runs to the third floor. Once there, she begins checking each door for signs of backdraft before kicking it in or shouldering it open, systematically checking for occupants. She finds that most of whoever was in the building had made it out, but in one room, she finds two people that she has to help to the fire escape. She then runs back again, doggedly continuing to check for occupants.
The last of the people that she finds upstairs is a mother, a nine-year-old girl, and her two-year-old brother. The petite mother had turned her ankle and was trying to get her children out but was having difficulty walking and her children refused to leave her.
Without hesitation, she assures the two frightened children, then picks the mother up on her back and quickly travels down the warping steps and out the front door, setting down the woman and making sure the children are okay.
Coughing heavily and eyes alternately stinging and burning, she runs into the building once more and to the second floor, the roar of the flames drowning out the sound of the approaching fire engines.
The second floor is almost entirely engulfed now, flames dancing all around it.
As she forces open a door, her jacket catches fire at the sleeve and she quickly throws it off, exposing her uniform shirt. She would have preferred for the sake of some fire protection that the jacket could have remained, but it seems luck is not with her today.
She continues her search even after her shoulder and hip ache, her knee protests, and her eyes and lungs burn. Still, she refuses to stop.
Nearly halfway down the hall of the second floor, she hears a terrible creaking sound.
Almost as if on instinct, she knows and leaps toward the wall, making it just before a large section of the ceiling falls. Even still, one of the support beams lands on her torso with an almost sickening crack, a raw scream tearing from her throat as she fights the sudden assault of black that tries to close in on her vision.
She knows the beam had not landed entirely on her as some other rubble halted it, but it landed with enough force to break several of her ribs. She can only pray that none of the broken ribs punctured a lung or anything else vital.
Unable to turn, she knows she is effectively trapped, the weight of the rubble being much too much for her to lift alone. Her breathing quickly becomes more and more forced.
She desperately needs air. Clean air.
Realizing that a hazy, frightening blackness is closing in on her, her prayers change from not having a punctured lung to the fast arrival of the fire department, and almost as if on cue, a firefighter emerges through the door that led from the stairs, and two others follow behind him.
The one who had first entered sees her and rushes forward after getting the attention of the two other men.
He kneels beside her, checks her pulse, and then takes off his facepiece, putting it on her instead.
In a heightened voice, he says, "Now, ma'am, you just relax and me an' my buddies will get you outta here, alright?"
She weakly nods and the firefighter begins shouting to the other two. Almost immediately, they run over to join them and the three of them lift the burning beam. The one without the mask kneels once more and grabs her under the arms, pulling her clear of the lifted beam as carefully as he can, praying she does not have any spinal injuries.
Once she is clear, the other two firefighters set down the beam and go to their team member and the injured woman.
"The people outside told us someone had been helpin' to get people out and I assume that was you," the mask-less man begins. "Is there anyone else upstairs?"
Briefly removing the facepiece, she shakes her head.
"No un… ups'airs… 're... Ou'side…"
"Thank ya," he replies, giving her a reassuring smile before replacing the mask on her soot-covered face.
"Cap! We need to get her outta here!"
"Then do it! We'll finish checking here and downstairs!" says a man with a white stripe down the center of his helmet.
The young firefighter nods and then looks to her again.
"Ma'am, now I need you to relax and I'll getcha outta here in a jiffy."
He carefully lifts her and takes off as fast as he can carry the rather tall and athletic-built woman, down the stairs and out the door, soon emerging into the fresh air.
The fireman rushes her over to where the medical station is set up and gently sets her down before removing his gloves and opening a box to reveal a radio.
Fading in and out of consciousness, the officer hears only fragments of the conversation.
"Rampart… victim… mid-twen—… inhalati—… fractures… burns…."
She soon registers a light being shone into her eyes and she winces, turning away and groaning.
Only moments later, the smoke inhalation, exhaustion, and pain get to her, the nothingness cascading down upon her and remaining.
Next she remembers, she wakes in a hospital room with a doctor hovering over her.
"Well, I see you're awake."
She tries to respond but finds her throat to be raw, merely nodding instead.
The dark-haired doctor smiles understandingly before frowning.
"Ma'am, that was a brave thing you did but it was also very foolish. If those firefighters hadn't reached you and extracted you when they did, I can't say that we would still be having this conversation."
Once more she nods her understanding though a slight scowl works its way onto her face. Forcing herself to speak, she rasps, " 'y job… 'lp people… 's'n't sure… buil'in' 'uld hol'… long 'nough…"
"Be that as it may, Ms. Rossi, you've come out of this with three broken ribs and a minor concussion, to speak nothing of the damage from smoke inhalation."
"Now, Kel," says a soft voice from the doorway where stands a beautiful blonde nurse. Walking over to the other side of the young police officer's hospital bed, she smiles down at her.
"Sweetheart, you should be thanked for what you did. Several people that we've treated with minor injuries credit you with getting them out."
The young officer smiles in return, though she finds her lips chapped and sore.
" 'ank you."
The doctor sighs.
"And I don't argue that point, but do you know why the police are called 'blue canaries' by the fire department? Because they'll rush into a burning building with all the best intentions but without the proper gear, and the fire department usually rolls onto the scene with a police officer also in need of treatment. The police are not meant to run into blazing infernos, Dix. That's the job of the fire department."
Ignoring the doctor—though she knows the truthfulness of his words—she looks at the nurse.
" 'medics... an' firefigh'ers... 'at got… me ou'… Who?"
The woman smiles. "They would be my two favorite paramedics in the whole wide world. John Gage and Roy DeSoto. I understand that the third man that was there to help was their captain."
"Where're they… out 'f?"
"Station 51. LA County."
Making a mental note, she nods and leans back again.
"Well, I suppose Dix and I will leave you be for the moment. A nurse should be in shortly with pain medication."
After another nod from the patient, the two exit the room, leaving her to her thoughts.
Fin.