Chester 3

When the Squad backed into the bay they noticed the chief in the office with their captain. Chief McConnike was sitting on the corner of the desk talking on the phone while Captain Stanley sat in his chair listening in on half of the conversation while reaching down on a regular basis to give the dog's ears a scratch.

As soon as the doors to the squad opened Cap hollered, "Gage, can you come here please."

John stepped into the open door way with both hands on the door jam.

"Rodger Jackson, wants to know how his sister is doing," Chief McConnike handed the phone in John's direction, "and then he wants to talk medical treatment for his pup here."

"This is firemen paramedic John Gage," Johnny answered the phone. "Yes we took the best of care of your sister, she's having some trouble with her neck," "Apparently she's had some neck surgery that their worried about, they're going to keep her in the hospital for a while and put her in traction to see if they can alleviate some of the pain she was in." "She's at Rampart General in Room 510,"

"Yes he has some mild second degree burns on the pads of his feet. Old Chester B here is one amazing dog, to have found the boys like he did and stick with them until they were able to get them down and then he sat with two of the boys to keep them calm until we could work on 'em, then he ran over and jumped at the chief and pointed out a flair up behind the fire line."

"Yeah, yeah, Okay just a minute." Johnny turned around and looked at his captain. "Where is the dog's duffel bag?"

Hank handed John the bag and Johnny went directly for a pocket on the side digging out a couple of tubes of medicine. "This is same stuff I put on him earlier, , , are you sure the shoes won't irritate the burns. Humph, Okay I'll give the phone back to Chief McConnike."

Johnny stepped out of the office with an amazed look on his face,

"What's going on?" Roy asked once John met up with him at the side of the squad.

"They've gotten a hold of our newest Chester B's daddy; he wanted to know how his sister was doing and what cream I treated the dog's feet with. It's the same stuff his Vet prescribes for the dog."

"Dose the dog get burns on his feet often?" Roy was surprised, "I've never met a dog that didn't run from fire."

"You have now," John responded again amazed, "the back paw that I thought was burned before; he got that while pulling a man out of a burning building by his turn out coat. That's why he has special fire proof shoes for the dog, and a special turn out coat too."

"You've got to be kidding,"

"That's what the guy just told me." Jonny shrugged his shoulders, "The dogs got the burn scars to prove it."

"So what are we going to do with the dog?" Chester B, the two legged, asked, finally daring to step out of the kitchen.

"I don't know," Johnny responded before leaning against the compartments of the squad, "I think that's what their trying to decide now."

Two cups of coffee later their Captain and their Chief walked into the kitchen together along with the captains four lagged shadow. But there was something different about the shadow this time. His tail was going so fast it served as an instant fan.

"It looks to me that someone was told he was going to get ice cream," Roy commented with eyes on the dog. "You must have let him talk to his master over the phone."

The two superiors turned to look at their newest charge and then at each other and smirked. "That he did," the Captain responded, "it was fun to listen to him woof and yap while I held the phone to his ear."

"From what I've heard and some of what I've already known," the Chief took over the conversation, "I think what we really have here is a fire fighter in a dog costume. You should have seen how the pooch here perked up when we told him he was going on duty."

"On Duty?" four of the five other fire fighters questioned in unity, the fifth just raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah," the Chief continued as Hank Stanley rubbed his jaw with his hand, "it seems that this fellow has been known to do himself injury if he's tied up and can't respond to an alarm. Rodger is one of the speakers at the convention he's at and really can't pick him up till tomorrow morning and none of us in the decision process want to put him in a shelter where he'll be kept in a cage. Headquarters has approved, so we're treating the situation as a cross training exercise."

"The Chief's stood us down for fifteen minutes so we need to hurry." Captain Stanley spoke once the chief gave him the go a head look. "John you seemed to understand the special bandages he needs under his shoes can you and Roy go get his duffel off my desk and get him a locker then help him into his uniform."

"He has a uniform?" John questioned but the whole station turned stunned stairs at their captain.

"I kid you not, he has a uniform, complete with a badge and turn out gear," Hank confirmed.

"A badge?" John again questioned.

"A Badge," Hank confirmed, "Real and official. Now let's get him situated. Mike, let's you and I go figure out where he's going to ride on the engine. I don't want him on the tail board we can't see him if he were to fall off."

The Captain and Engineer left the room with a four legged shadow and a chief bringing up the rear. John and Roy headed for the office to retrieve the duffel bag and then stopped by the engine on the way to the locker room.

"Come on boy let's go get you dressed," John called.

The dog wagged his tail and danced on his paws but his eyes were on the Captain and soon so were the eyes of two smiling paramedics.

Scoffing and shaking his head Hank looked at the dog. "GO with them and get into uniform." He pointed in the direction of the locker room, "Or I'll put a reprimand in your file," Hank added with a laugh for good measure.

There was a quick Yap and the dog was at Johnny's side and the three of them were off to the locker room.

"Watch out for that tail partner, he's whipping it so fast it just might do damage," Roy joked as they moved.

In the locker room John removed the bandages he had applied earlier and after applying more cream applied a tube type of bandage that closely resembled socks; he then reached into the bag on the bench at his side and found four of the most unusual shoes he had ever seen.

"It's a good thing these are labeled or I might get them on the wrong feet." John commented as he looked at the tag on the inside of each shoe.

John and Roy worked together to get the four shoes on and encouraged the dog to walk around some to make sure they had them on right. Then came the uniform. It was blue like their own, but was more of a vest that slipped over the dog's back with straps that went over his shoulders and under his chest then had to be buckled into place. And yes there was a badge, all silver and shinny and attached near the left shoulder just off the side of the neck and it identified the dog as a certified firefighter.

"This must be like dressing one of your kids," Johnny commented as he fumbled to work his buckle.

"This is what it's like to dress one of my kids after I've told them I'm gong to take them to the park." Roy clarified, "I can't get over how excited he is."

"Yeah," Johnny gave one of the biggest crocked grins he had to offer, "He must really love his job."

The sound of four shoes walking on the bay floor sounded unusual enough to pull every eye in the station to the thigh high uniformed firefighter coming up the side of the Engine.

"Fire fighter Chester B reporting for duty," Johnny called out for the canine since he couldn't talk but he did follow up with three short quiet barks.

"I guess he seconds that motion," Hank smiled at his newest crewmember.

"Well I'll be," Mike exclaimed at the sight before him.

"This is some turn out coat he has," Roy commented as he held it out for the Captain to take. "He has his own helmet too."

"While I was talking with Rodger he said that they keep the coat on the deck between the two linemen, the dog is trained to step into the four sleeves with each foot and then the linemen work together to pull it up and fasten in on top of his back while in route."

The first Chester and his side kick Marco stepped up to see what it was that they were going to be responsible for and marveled at the design. "It's like a bag with sleeves," Marco replied, "It even has handles on it."

"Rodger had them do that so he could carry him out if they needed to." The Chief added, this was like the child of a friend of his. In fact the Chief sounded a lot like a proud grandpa.

"In case you guys haven't figured out yet the dog is trained to take commands from the Captain so you won't need to worry much about telling him to do anything," the Chief added.

"Yeah but I need help remembering. If the dog has been in the turn out for any time at all he needs to have it taken off and be hosed down to cool him off before we get back on the engine. Please help me remember that I really don't want to give this guy back a sick dog in the morning."

"Yes Cap," echoed through the bay, as two firemen worked to get the remaining turn out ready for the next call.

They were still trying to decide how to lay the coat out when the tones sounded, "Engine 51 trash fire behind the Arcade 2416 Alameda, 2416 Alameda."

With awe struck gazes seven firefighters watched at the eighth hopped up on the engine and started working his paws into the sleeves of his coat as he worked his nose through the strap to his helmet.

Showing pride in his namesake Chet gave Marco a quick slap on the shoulder and called, "Here we go."

The rest of the men took their places and two paramedics and a chief watched the engine roll into action in all its glory.

00000

Captain Stanley noticed a grater amount of smoke rising from behind the Arcade as the Engine moved through the parking lot to get behind the building. Mostly he was pleased to see people in arcade uniforms and a few security guards corralling all the patrons in a safe section of the parking lot. As they pulled around the blind corner of the building all firefighters on the engine took in the sight of flames rising from the three dumpsters placed close together and licking at the edge of the roof overhang above them. His main concern was the arches coming from the electrical wires over head.

Swinging out of the cab of the engine Cap noticed his men were jumping into action to. "Marco pull the reel line, Chet pull an inch in a half," Cap commanded, "Mike better mule a line back to the hydrant I think we're going to need the extra water. I'll take care of getting the power cut."

With that Captain Stanley raced for the power shut off and just for an extra measure also shut off the gas. Before noticing that the flames were beginning to respond to the water being poured on them.

That's when he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see a huge grin on his engineer's face.

"Did you want me to charge both lines?" Mike asked, and when Cap looked confused Mike pointed to the second length of hose lying on the ground with a turn out coat clad dog holding the connection joint in his mouth.

"He pulled that?" Hank questioned in total amazement.

"Yep," Mike answered still smiling, "does he know how to put it back?"

That's when Cap got a glimpse of a group of boys moving in for a closer look at the fire, letting out an attention getting whistle Cap gave another command that he remembered from the instruction manual that came with his newest crew member, "Chester, Crowd control."

Hank truly felt to blame as he watched Chester B Kelly look at him in confusion and fumble with his hose nearly getting hit in the head with the nozzle as Chester B, the canine pranced off to the fringe of the fire scene and with confidence and an authoritative bark managed to get the sight seers to back of to a safe distance and by running back and forth from one end of the crowd to the other kept them there.

Looking back at Chester B Kelly, now once again in full control of his hose and performing his duties with his usually proficiency, Hank recalled the advice in his training to call his men by their last name to avoid confusion in the heat of the crisis. It was just a rule of thumb and every good captain knew there were exceptions in practice. Once he only used his men's last names at a fire, but it didn't take long at his command to feel of them all as brothers and all of his men now responded quickly to any command given to either their first or last name. He would need to be a little more careful for the time being, now that he had two Chester Bs under his command.

As the fire was brought under control Cap remembered, this time, to command 'Kelly' to overhaul the dumpsters while Marco was assigned to get he roof ladder and make sure there were no embers still smoldering on the roof.

"I'll put the extra hose away Cap," Mike offered.

"NO you go help Marco," Hank instructed, "I'll put the hose away, if I clean up after my mistakes I might remember to give commands that aren't so confusing to my crew members."

Mike fought but failed to refrain from giggling at his captain's remark and he with a smile jogged off to do as he was told.

-0-

Just before the fire crew climbed back on the engine they all noticed the heavy panting of their newest team member and remembered that he needed to be cooled down before they left. Working together Marco and Kelly peeled the turn out coat from their newest brother and eased it over his custom made shoes before Mike used the reel hose to soak him down only pausing to ask if his uniform needed to be removed also.

"NO it is designed to hold enough moisture to finish cooling him down and dries quickly." Hank informed.

It was Chester Kelly that knelt down in front of the new crew member and cupped his hands for Mike to fill them with water for the other Chester to drink.

Hank looked on with pride in the concern and report that was being demonstrated by his crew. His heart filled with pride in all of his men and a little emotion was threatened to sneak out.

As proud and as humble as he was Hank just couldn't resist, he stepped up to his original Chester and clapped a hand on his shoulder, "Good boy."