Squad 51 arrived at the burning single-family home seconds before Engine 51. Paramedics Roy DeSoto and John Gage shouldered into their turnout coats as they rallied around Captain Hank Stanley for their assignment.
"LA, Engine 51. We have a fully involved two-story frame house. Continue first alarm assignment. Engine 51 out two hours," Captain Hank Stanley advised into the radio.
"Chet! Marco! Grab an inch and a half and hit the east end. Roy, John, grab another inch and a half around back. Watch for spot fires," Hank commanded.
The four assigned to hose duty ran to the bed of the engine to grab their lines. Mike Stoker swiftly made the final feeder line connection to the engine and released the clamp. As the guys ran to the burning home, Mike connected their lines to gated outlet valves. Watching the hose crews carefully, he charged the lines the moment the guys were ready. With moves like practiced ballet, Mike throttled up the engine, engaged the pump, and adjusted the pressure to the lines.
A chair flying out of a second story window on the west end of the house caught Captain Stanley's attention. A man yelling for help immediately followed. "HT51, this is Engine 51."
"HT51," Roy answered.
"We have a victim on the west end, second story window. I need you two back here." Hank collapsed the antenna on the handy-talkie, dropping the radio into his turnout pocket and ran to get the ladder off the engine.
"10-4, Cap," squawked Hank's pocket.
Johnny and Roy ran to the front of the house where Hank and Mike had just leaned a ladder to the window. Hank Stanley anchored the ladder as Johnny climbed towards the frantic man. Roy stepped onto a low rung, watching his partner.
Smoke billowed out of the broken window as Johnny wiped away the remaining glass from the window frame with gloved hands. "Everything is going to be okay. We'll get you down." Johnny noticed that the man's hands and forearms were burned. "Are you hurt anywhere else?"
"No," the man coughed out. He looked down at his hands and arms as if just noticing his injury.
"Let me help you down, so we can take care those," Johnny indicated the man's reddened hands and arms. "Here, lean over my shoulder," Johnny instructed.
"No!" the man cried between coughs, giving Johnny a wild-eyed look. His mouth moved, as if speaking, but all that came out was more coughing. He appeared disoriented; taking a step away from the window, then back, nearly turning in circles.
"We have to get you out of here now," Johnny insisted. He put one leg through the window and grabbed the man's shoulders, steering him to the ladder. The man twisted and turned in Johnny's grasp. "Calm down, man. It'll be okay. I'm right here, I won't let you fall." Coughing spasms shook the man's body, until he collapsed into Johnny's grasp. Johnny struggled with the now semi-conscious man, getting him across his shoulders as quickly as possible.
The man started to come around again, and Johnny felt him tense across his shoulders. To counter, Johnny clamped his hands down hard on the ladder rails. "Hey, calm down. We're almost down now. Everything is all right," Johnny assured him. The man swung his feet from Johnny's shoulders, pushed on Johnny's head, and tried to climb over the paramedic. "Roy!" Johnny gasped, as he tried to get his head out from between the ladder rungs.
Roy climbed the ladder and grabbed the man's legs and pulled him onto Johnny's back. The frantic man, screaming hoarsely, threw his arms around Johnny's neck to stop his backwards movement.
"Roy!" Johnny had to gasp again; his head was now free from the ladder, but his airway was quickly being closed off. The man's thrashing toppled him and Johnny off the left side of the ladder.
Hank quickly threw all his weight on the opposite side of the ladder to keep it from tilting and throwing Roy off as well.
Johnny grabbed a rung with both hands, the frantic victim still around his neck.
Roy quickly climbed up and leaned over to pry the man's arms from around Johnny's neck, trying not to irritate the man's burns any more than necessary. Several firefighters from 60s were there to help lower the man to the ground; it took all of them to hold him there while Johnny dropped the remaining five feet to the ground, gasping grateful gulps of air. Roy climbed down and ran to the squad to get a backboard.
"My baby, she's still in there!" the man cried, having calmed down enough to be understood. "Oh, God, please get her out. She's only six months old!"
Johnny knelt down next to the man. "Where is she?" he asked, his voice a little raspy.
"Bedroom…" the man pointed to the broken window as another coughing spasm shook him.
Standing, Johnny gave an anxious glance at Hank.
"Make it quick, Pal." 14s ventilating the roof should buy enough time. Hank eyed the smoky burning building warily as Johnny retrieved his SCBA and climbed the ladder.
Johnny entered a long hallway extending the length of the west end of the house. The smoke was extremely dense, despite the broken window and a ventilation hole in the roof. He dropped to his hands and knees to regain some visibility and started down the hallway. Right side door, bathroom; clear. Right side door again, linen closet; clear. The heat radiating off the floor worried him. This feels like it could flash over any time!
A window-shattering blast shook the first floor of the house as dense smoke and heat flashed into an explosive fireball that roiled out the windows. Upstairs, Johnny stood to enter a door on the left side of the hallway when the downstairs blast carried him towards the door. He tucked his shoulder as he impacted the old wooden door; pain flashed through his shoulder and head, and then everything went dark.
###
Roy glanced up from the victim after the blast, eyeing the west end of the building where Johnny was headed to rescue the baby. No involvement showing yet, he sighed to himself. He saw Hank help Chet and Marco up from their knees, directing their spray pattern; then forced his attention back to his patient, securing the IV with extra tape.
###
Johnny was dazed for only a couple of seconds. "Damn…" he said, shaking his head to clear it. He looked around before getting up; he was now lying just inside a room, instead of the hall. He twisted around to look behind him and saw the door was no longer on its hinges; looking down, he saw it beneath him. Better hurry, the heat and smoke are really building up in here!
He shook his head again and peered into the smoky room. The outline of a crib appeared ghostly against the far wall. Johnny pushed himself up, a twinge of pain shooting through his left shoulder, and rushed to the crib. He found a limp and virtually lifeless baby girl, still in her little pink one-piece pajamas. He pulled off his right glove to palpate a brachial pulse. He didn't realize he'd held his breath until he let it out when he felt a weak pulse. Johnny then placed his hand on her tiny chest, but detected no movement. He immediately scooped her up, took a deep breath, removed his mask, and puffed two quick breaths in the baby's nose and mouth. He continued breathing for the infant girl, snagged a pink plaid blanket from between the crib rails to cover her as he broke the glass from her window with his helmet. As he cradled her in the crook of his left arm, his injured left shoulder jabbed him with sharp fingers of pain. He quickly cleared the remaining glass from the window with the sleeve of his turnout coat.
Johnny leaned out the window into the relatively fresh air, continuing to breathe for the baby. Chet and Marco were still down on the east end of the building. "Hey! Guys! Hey, anyone, over here!" His raspy voice didn't carry over the raging fire below him. He could feel the heat building in the room behind him. Stealing a quick glance behind him, he swallowed hard as the fingers of fire licked at the open doorway. We're going to have to jump for it, little lady.
Quickly and carefully, he shrugged out of his SCBA, not disrupting his respiration effort on the baby. Impulsively, he carefully sat the discarded air tank upright against the wall below the window. Johnny tucked the pink plaid blanket snugly around the baby, hugging her close against his body. Quit stalling and get it over with. He closed his eyes for the briefest of moments, trying to find the resolve to jump to safety. What he saw when he opened his eyes made a smile spread across his face.
Mike Stoker stood at the bottom of the window. "Johnny," he yelled, and positioned himself to catch the precious bundle. From his station at the engine, Mike had seen movement at the far west second floor window; a cold chill ran down his back, putting his feet in motion before he had time to even think about it.
Johnny let the baby girl slip from his hands. Mike skillfully caught the baby, swinging down to one knee to avoid jarring her too much.
"Mike," Johnny yelled hoarsely. "Respiratory arrest!"
Mike unbundled the baby's head and immediately started breathing for the baby girl, taking a second to make sure her chest rose with his puffs of air, then jogged for the squad.
Johnny hesitated a moment as he stepped up on the windowsill. A rumble behind him overwhelmed his fear of jumping; he took flight, the flash blast at his back. When his feet contacted the ground, he attempted a standard tuck-and-roll maneuver, but the blast had knocked him off balance, creating a painful drop-and-flop result.
Chet and Marco came running with their hose when the second flash blast caught their attention - in time to see Johnny drop to the ground with a twisting roll, turnout coat smoldering. After thoroughly dousing the paramedic, they turned the hose to the window that Johnny had just vacated; flames were now shooting out of it.
Captain Stanley jogged over to his downed paramedic. "Gage, what have you done now…" he mumbled to himself.