Rag Doll
"Wow it's been a long night." Clove says.
"Yeah. I'm exhausted." I say. "That last job was tiring. We spent a long time on overhaul." We make ourselves a couple of sandwiches. Then Clove hands me a soda. I look at it. "I wish this was a beer."
"The memorial for your friend was yesterday, right?" Clove asks.
"Yeah."
"How did it go?"
"It went real well. A big celebration." We laugh a little and say together. "Just like the Irish." We then laugh some more.
Suddenly Jonsie pokes his head in.
"We got a call. Let's roll." Clove and I put the sandwiches down and run to the apparatus floor and get geared up.
I go to the middle of the street to stop traffic just like I do a a half a dozen times a day. As soon as the truck pulls out we hop on. "What is it?"
"Smoke in the apartment. 2A." Smoke could be anything from food on stove to an overheated ballast to an actual fire. We'll just have to wait til we get there. "We're second due." We're the second due ladder truck at this job. The outside team will help the first due's outside team with ventilation. I'm on the inside team with Jonsie. Along with the boss our job is to search the apartment above the fire. Today I'm the Irons and Jonsie is the Can Man. I carry a set of tools, a flathead ax and a Halligan.
"It's rollin' boys." Cap says. We can smell it and when we get closer we can see it. Fire is coming out of the apartment on the second floor. "Let's go." Jonsie grabs the water can, a two and one half gallon fire extinguisher and his six-foot hook. People ask what good a fire extinguisher is. I say that the extinguisher can darken down a fire and in an emergency it can buy us a few extra seconds. The difference between life and death.
We walk up the two flights to apartment 3A and bang on the door. No answer. The door is warm. "Kat, take the door." I wedge my Halligan in and Jonsie hits it with the flat part of the ax. "HIT!" It goes in a little. "HIT!" It goes in more. "HIT!" That did it. I push on it and the door opens. Smoke pours out. Cap radios this to command.
Without instructions we put our face pieces on and go on air. We duck walk into the apartment. The bedrooms are to the right. There is still some visibility down low. We come to a door on our left and Jonsie and Cap enter. They feel a victim on the bed. It's a woman. She's lifeless. They pull her off the bed and start to drag her out. My eyes shift to the right. There is another room. The door is partly open.
"There's another room!" I call to my partners.
"Go search it quick." The Captain drags the woman while Jonsie waits for me in the hallway.
Visibility is getting worse. I feel around with my Halligan along the floor and my hand following along the wall as I crawl to my right. What's this? "A bed. I found a bed!" I doubt Jonsie heard me. I search the top of the bed and I feel... I feel... a small body. "I have a victim!" I scream out. Again no answer. I pull the little body to the floor and towards the door when the loud crash happens.
A massive amount of smoke enters the room and flames lap the ceiling. "SHIT!" I retreat back into the room after closing the door. One mayday comes over the radio. "Mayday mayday mayday. This is seventeen can. There's been a floor collapse. I'm on the second floor."
Floor collapse. That means my escape is cut off. "We got him. Seventeen can is okay." Thank God for that. Now how do I get out. "Mayday mayday mayday. Seventeen irons is trapped with a victim on the third floor." I drag the body to the outside wall and find the window. We need fresh air. I take the window.
When a firefighter takes a window it means make that window a door. Glass, sash, drapes, blinds, everything goes. The smoke pours out of the room. That cools it off and clears it up enough to see my victim is a little girl about three years old.
But the relief is only temporary. The fire is drawn to the air and this room will get hot soon. "I need ladder for rescue." I call on the radio.
"Ten-four irons. Ladder is on the way."
"I have a child victim." I radio.
"Ten-four." I can hear my brothers frantically trying to raise the ladder in the narrow alleyway. These old building were not made for ease of escape.
"Command! Hurry up! It's getting hot in here." The door is smoking. It's getting hot enough to ignite. Shit!
"Ladder is up." I start to get up when the door blows in and flames cover the ceiling. It gets incredibly hot very fast. I cover the girl.
The flames retreat just enough after the explosion to know I have only one chance. I have to bail out of the window. I take the girl who is like a rag doll under one arm and dive out of the window. I pray the ladder is in place.
I can feel the ladder with my left hand while I'm in mid-air. I spread my legs wide and catch the window frame with my boots. I slam into the ladder and it knocks the wind out of me.
I bounce on the ladder and feel the heat above me. My legs are burning. Flames are shooting out of the window. After I bounce, the little girl, the rag doll, comes out of my arm and flies through the air. I look up and it all is in slow motion.
"NOOOOOOO!"