L is for Lightning
The crew of Station 51 had pulled off the front lines of the brush fire for a rest and hydration break. Johnny and Roy were standing by with an eye wash station that they'd rigged up to rinse the smoke and soot particles from their eyes. No matter how well their goggles fit, some irritants always managed to find their way through.
Captain Stanley was the first one they took care of as he need to report to the Battalion Chief. Once he was finished, Roy called over for the other guys to come one and found that both Chet and Mike were watching Marco carefully. In fact, they flanked him on the way over and insisted that Marco was next in line. The weakness of Marco's protests had both paramedics looking at their friend closely and they didn't like what they saw.
With the assistance of Chet and Mike, they stripped Marco out of his turnout gear before getting him to a shaded area and Roy encouraged him to drink as Johnny contacted Rampart. After getting the symptoms and preliminary readings from the paramedics, Dr. Brackett agreed that it sounded like Lopez was suffering from the first signs of heat exhaustion and authorized an IV to help with rehydration.
Coming back to see one of his men on an IV, Captain Stanley hurried over to see what was wrong. Roy reassured him.
"Marco will be fine. Chet and Mike noticed he was acting a little strange and got him right over to us."
"That's a relief - good job on looking out for one another, guys. Chief says the brush fire is now over 90% contained and he's starting to cut loose the stations that have been here the longest - that includes us. There's another paramedic team handling rehydration and eye washing, so that means all of us are heading back to the station."
Looking up from Marco's side, Chet wiped a little of the soot from his face.
"Cap? They ever figure out what started this?"
"Yep. It's been confirmed that a lightning strike to a dead tree did it."
"Oh good."
Johnny gave Chet a look.
"What difference does it make really? I mean, we fight the fire no matter how it starts."
"I know, but I feel better about it when it was something nobody could have prevented. I guess I equate it to the difference between getting hit with a branch that happens to fall out of a tree and a guy walking up to me and hitting me with a baseball bat."
Sitting back on his heels, Johnny thought about that for a minute and then grinned.
"Or maybe like the difference between getting caught in a rain shower or getting nailed by a water balloon?"
Marco chuckled at that, and after a minute, so did Chet.
"Touché, Gage. You have a point."
"And I see yours now too, Chet. Someone deliberately setting a fire in the forest is worse that Mother Nature kicking up her heels."
Almost as if Mother Nature had been listening in, a rubble of thunder followed Johnny's words. Looking up at the line of dark clouds starting to roll in, Captain Stanley looked at Marco, then to his paramedic crew.
"Is Marco good to move? We should get out of here before the storm coming in breaks since we've already been cut loose."
"Sure. We'll have him ride in the squad with us so we can keep an eye on his drip. Doctor Brackett would like him to drop by Rampart for a quick check up, but that shouldn't take long. Johnny and I can take the time to refill our supplies while we're waiting for him."
"Good idea, Roy. I know you have to be getting low on saline after doing eye washes all morning. Do a call out to Rampart and we'll meet you back at the station when you're finished."
"Right, Cap."
As expected, Marco wasn't in the examination room for long. Doctor Brackett had him lie down and wait until the IV bag he was on emptied, then took him off of it entirely with the instructions to continue to drink plenty of water and to avoid caffeinated drinks for the remainder of the day. Marco groaned slightly - he was very fond of his coffee. Sympathizing as he was a bit of a coffee addict himself, Dr. Brackett revised his order to limiting the coffee intake instead of cutting it off completely.
Since they had to wait until Marco's bag was empty, Johnny and Roy took advantage of the time to grab showers at Rampart, changing into scrubs that Dixie provided them with until they could get back to the station for their spare uniforms. Marco approved as that meant he would be able to hit the shower immediately when they returned since Chet, Marco and Captain Stanley would already have taken theirs as well.
The rain was coming down slow and steady by the time the three were leaving Rampart. Roy looked up at the clouds and gave a contented sigh.
"Perfect rain for helping finish off what was left of that brush fire. Mother Nature might have started it, but at least she's pitching in to finish it as well."
Marco nodded as he climbed into the squad.
"Dr. Brackett said that, counting me, less than a dozen firemen had to be treated past the eye washings and no-one was seriously injured."
Johnny felt like he could go back to the station and sleep for a week.
"Well then, if there's such a thing as a good brush fire, I guess this was it. No loss of life, it was contained quickly enough that no homes were threatened and it probably won't last part the ten hour mark.."
Picking up the squad's mic, Johnny keyed it.
"Squad 51 to Dispatch."
"Dispatch, go ahead 51."
"Squad 51 leaving Rampart and heading back to station."
"Roger, 51. Dispatch out."