Part 2
Wednesday July 25, 2018
It was the middle of a heat wave in Los Angeles, which meant lots of kids and families going to different museums all throughout Los Angeles. The L.A. County Kids Museum was one of those places. They would routinely have around 50 kids each day at the small three-story structure. Today was a little different. Campers from one of the nearby YMCA's had reserved the building for their Christmas in July party. The director of the museum, Amanda Greene, had been there for only two months and she was trying to expand the offerings available there. This was an idea she got from one of the volunteers who came by a few times a week to interact with the kids who would be there. He had been coming by ever since she took over the position. Christmas in July turned into an instant hit for the museum. They averaged almost 100 kids a day once word got out after the first week.
Cabe Gallo had been volunteering there for years and after he finally convinced Walter to join him after everyone left Scorpion, Walter had to admit he enjoyed seeing the smiles on the kids faces after he interacted with them. Cabe had told Amanda he had a friend who could use a little happiness and he knew Walter would be a hit with the kids. The kids always looked forward to the science experiments he would do for them, they loved every one of them. It was Walter's idea for Cabe to dress up like Santa and that was how Christmas in July began.
The first explosion at the museum happened soon after the buses dropped off the campers. It blew out several of the windows and knocked the power out to the small museum. The second explosion two minutes later blew a hole through part of the basement and caused structural damage to several areas of the building that dated back to the early 1900's. The structural integrity of the museum was now unsafe, and there were over 100 people trapped inside. The explosions were caused by a faulty gas line. Making the situation worse was the fear of more explosions that could happen at any time.
The first 9-1-1 call was placed around 10:45 AM. The Fire Department and EMSA were both en route within seconds after receiving the call. The next call went out to Centipede Partners. Their building was located only a few streets from the museum. They arrived moments after the Fire Department got there.
Onlookers had started to gather wanting to see what the explosion was all about.
Paige met with the Fire Chief to ask what they could do to help. He told them to stay back, and he would inform her if they needed assistance. Unhappy with that answer, Paige tried to explain to him who they were. And for a second time he told her to stand back. Not one to be denied, she proceeded to assign tasks to her team. She had Sylvester hack into the security system camera feed and use it to scan the inside of the building to look for people.
Toby was tasked with setting up an area to examine people as they were vacated from the museum. He was to work with the EMT's and Paramedics. Happy got out her search and rescue gear before Paige could tell her what to do and she was ready to enter the building with the other firemen.
"My guys are assisting whether you like it or not. So, work with me and let's save these kids." Paige told the chief sternly, not taking no for an answer.
The chief could see she was not going to back down, and agreed to the help, but told her he was in charge. There were about 60 campers who were evacuated right away; they had been in the front lobby when the explosions happened, so once the doors were pried open, a flood of kids and a few camp counselors came bursting out. Toby was trying to keep some sense of order with them, but no one wanted to listen to him. The Paramedics and the EMT's had a little better result with them. As they were calmed down, they got a quick check up to make sure they were okay.
Sly was having a hard time seeing anything or anyone in the darkness that had taken over the building. The front room now had light, but the other areas were still in the dark.
Happy was assisting with the firemen as they tried to devise a plan to rescue the rest of the campers. They were able to locate the museum director Amanda Greene. Her wheelchair had tipped over, but she had managed to pull herself to her feet and make her way close enough to the door to be rescued.
Paige introduced herself to the woman who proceeded to give her some of the specifics of the building and where kids may be trapped. As Paige was relaying the info to the chief, Amanda pulled out her phone and made a call to someone she knew who could help.
Ten minutes later the third explosion brought panic to everyone at the scene. The fire fighters were told to pull back. The assessment was made that the building was unsafe and until a structural engineer could get on site to verify the integrity of the building no one else was to go inside.
Not a minute later, sirens were heard approaching the building. An SUV arrived and when the doors flew open, Cabe Gallo and Walter O'Brien had arrived. Cabe spotted Amanda who was sitting down with a group of kids that were crying and fearful for the trapped friends still inside.
"Amanda." Cabe yelled out.
"Cabe, thank goodness you made it. Is Walter with you?"
"Yes he is. He was right behind me, what happened?"
"There was an explosion and there are kids trapped inside."
"Who's in charge and why is everyone just standing around?" He asked her.
As Cabe searched for an answer, he spotted Walter who had found Paige talking with the Fire Chief. Cabe made his way over to the group to see why nothing was happening.
"Chief what's going on? Why is everyone just standing around, Amanda said there are still a bunch of kids missing."
The chief informed him after the third explosion, the museum integrity needed to be confirmed before anyone else could enter the building.
"Chief, we can't sit here and leave those kids inside. Lives are at stake." Cabe told him.
"Look, I don't like it either, but if we enter the building, we don't know what could happen. Once the engineer gets here and we get the okay, we will continue the search and rescue."
Walter was looking around and taking everything in. He looked at Cabe and Paige and had them join him in a discussion.
"We have the smartest engineer in the world here already, get Happy to give us her assessment. Have Sly use the infrared mode on the cameras, I don't know why he isn't doing it already, he won't be able to see anything without it. And tell Toby to get his head out of his ass and start getting some sense of order over there. He needs to check on Ms. Greene too, where's her wheelchair?"
"I'll get Happy and Sly." Paige said.
"Great that leaves me with numbnutz. Walt what are you going to do son?" Cabe asked.
"I'm going in. I can't just stand here." And Walter was off and was inside the museum in seconds. Even as several people, including Paige and Cabe were yelling at him to stop. He knew one more person in the building was not going to cause any more damage.
News crews were setting up and they filmed Walter entered the building. The crowds cheered watching someone finally going in after the trapped kids. Paige and Cabe talked to the members of Centipede Partners about what Walter had said to do.
"Who put 197 in charge? What's he even doing here? What are you doing here Cabe?" Toby barked out as Cabe laid into him.
"Happy what do you think about the building? Is it safe? I need to know quick. Walter just ran in there." Paige said.
"Walt? When did he get here? And you said he ran inside? He won't know where anything is, what is he thinking?"
"Happy focus, the building, is it safe?"
"I would say it's 50/50 right now. Walt won't jeopardize the integrity of the building. But Paige, another explosion of any size, and it's coming down."
"Oh no. Walter." Paige exclaimed.
"Sly, hey why aren't you using the infrared?" Paige was yelling to him as she was talking with Happy.
"Infrared, I'm an idiot. Why didn't I think of that? Thanks Paige. I'll be able to see inside in a few seconds, got it. Is that Walter?" When did he get here?"
Within five minutes of entering the building, Walter had pulled out twelve more campers.
"Hey, we got kids coming out the door." One of the firemen yelled out.
The news crews had cameras pointed at them as they were exiting the building as the growing crowds around started cheering. Paige helped them over to Toby who finally settled down and had gotten the kids under control.
Happy had run over to watch the video feed with Sly. They were amazed as Walter climbed around and through the debris that was all over the museum. He found another group of 9 campers and a counselor who were trapped in a room behind a beam that had fallen. As Happy was watching him, she reached for her phone to call him.
"Happy, what's the assessment on the building?"
"Walt what are you doing, it's 50/50 at best. You move that beam, and you risk collapsing the top two floors."
"I'm not touching the beam, There's an A/C vent return that leads into the room about ten feet to my right. I need to go."
"Damnit Walt. Be careful." Happy told him.
He jumped up and opened the vent, crawled into the room with the trapped kids and one by one brought them back through the vent and handed them down to the counselor, who he brought over first. He escorted them carefully through the rubble and out the front door. Again, to thunderous roars from the still growing crowds.
"Paige." Walter had called her on his phone to get some more information.
"Walter, are you okay?"
"Paige, I'm fine. You need to find Ms. Greene. Ask her how many total people were in the building this morning. She should have an exact number for you. Then you have to get me the number of people that are accounted for. I need to know how many are missing. The bottom floor is empty."
"Walter, you shouldn't be in there. Please come out here." Paige asked of him.
"I can't." Walter told her.
"Walter please." Paige was pleading with him to leave the building.
"Paige, if Ralph was in here would you be asking me to leave?"
Paige held her hand up to her mouth. Walter was right.
"I will find her and get the numbers. Thank you Walter, for reminding me why we're here."
Paige tracked down Amanda and found out there were a total of 21 kids and 4 counselors still inside.
"Walter, Amanda said there are 21 kids and four counselors. She said they were in the climbing room, and you would know where it was."
"Are you near Happy and Sly? I need confirmation on some numbers." Walter asked.
"Yeah, I've got Sly, but I don't see Happy." Paige told him.
Just then as Walter was talking with Paige.
"You think I'm gonna let you have all the fun Walt?" Happy said with a smile as she appeared behind Walter.
"Was that Happy I just heard with you?" Paige asked.
"Good to see ya Walt." Happy said.
"You shouldn't be in here, it's too dangerous." Walter told her.
"Alright then let's get out of here. Cause I'm not leaving without you." She said back.
"Guys, focus. Locate the kids and both of you can get out of there." Paige directed them.
Walter told everyone the climbing room was located in the far northwest corner of the building on the second floor and the best way to get there was blocked with too much debris. He said they would have to get to the third story, somehow cut a hole through the floor to the room below and then pull them out and get them to safety.
"How the hell do you know where everything is in this place." Happy asked him.
"I was thinking the same thing." Said Paige.
"Sly, if I get you power can you get me a good look at the third floor. I need to know what it looks like up there. It will be the most unstable and we need to know before we try to get up there. Every room, we need options, got it?"
"Got it Walter. I won't let you down." Sly told him.
"You never have Sly." Walter said back. Putting a smile on Sly's face.
Walter went down to the sub floor and found some items to rig up to use to jump start the backup generator. He was hoping to produce enough of a charge to get at least 20 seconds of power so Sylvester could memorize the layout of the top floor.
The lights came on for about fifteen seconds after Walter got the generator started. Happy got her bearings of where she was and Sly was able to quickly memorize the top floor in its entirety.
"Sly, tell me what you saw. I've got you on speaker so Happy can help with the plan." Walter told him.
Sly explained that debris was everywhere, and it looked like the only way to make it to the back corner of the building was to take the stairs to the top floor, climb out one of the windows and scale across the building to enter the room.
"Sly that's fine for us getting there, but no way are we taking those kids back the same way. There has to be another way." Walter told him.
"What about the fire truck, we can pull the ladder right to the window." Happy said.
"We can't risk the building collapsing by moving the truck that close, the only truck we have here has a 20-foot ladder, so it would have to be right next to the building." The Fire Chief told them after Paige pulled him away from the press.
"Sly, the climbing room, how many people did you count in there?" Walter asked.
"23 total, and some of them look pretty beaten up Walter."
"23? That still leaves two unaccounted for. Walter are you sure the ground floor is empty?" Paige asked him.
"Yes, I went over it twice. And if Sly got visuals of the entire third floor, that leaves them trapped somewhere on the second floor." Walter told them.
"Then before you guys attempt getting to the top floor, you need to check as much of the second floor as you can." Paige told them.
"She's right." Walter reiterated.
Walter and Happy made their way to the second level of the building and searched as best they could. Every once in a while, they would hear a beam creak or part of the building break off. They knew time was not on their side. Walter was able to make out some banging coming from inside a closet in one of the storage areas on the floor. He recognized it as morse code. S. O. S.
After running through all the probabilities with Happy and Sly they determined it would be safer to get to the third floor now, bust through the floor into the room where the 23 people were trapped, and then improvise a way to get them back to safety. Moving all the debris to save the two kids in the storage closet posed too many uncertainties.
Walter and Happy appeared on the outside of the museum as they scaled across the building to the back windows. The crowd of now almost 5,000 cheered them on. Once back inside they made short work of getting to the climbing room. The kids were so glad to see them. They were screaming calling for Walter by name to help them. Happy gave a quizzical look, not knowing how they knew his name.
Walter had hoped with all the rope in the room, they could engineer something to get the kids to safety without them having to climb out the window and traverse down the building. Walter and Happy were able to rig up an almost ropes course for the kids to climb over the debris and down the stairs to safety. Happy lead the way and Walter stayed in the back making sure they all got out.
As Happy appeared at the front door followed by 20 little kids and 3 counselors the firemen quickly helped them away from the building as the crowd erupted again. Half of the kids were quickly taken by ambulance due to injuries they sustained from the explosions.
There was a sudden collapse and the whole building shifted as everyone was told to move back.
"Damnit O'Brien where are you?" Happy yelled out.
"Walter." Paige was screaming.
After what seemed like an eternity, but was probably closer to 30 seconds.
"Paige, I'm okay."
"Walter where the hell are you. The building is going to collapse any minute." Paige was in hysterics.
"There are still two people in here, I'm not leaving without them."
"No, Walter it's not safe. You have to leave now."
"Paige, you know I can't do that."
"Do it for…." Paige started to say.
Paige knew if she said "do it for me" Walter would be conflicted. He would always do anything for her. But she also knew he couldn't let those last two people perish. So, she relented. Took a deep breath.
"Please make it out safe. Promise me you'll get them and get out safely."
"You have my word."
Somehow and someway, after another five minutes, Walter O'Brien was exiting the building with the counselor strapped to his back and the child unconscious in his arms. Toby rushed over to assist with the two injuries and had them both put in an ambulance right away. The crowds there realized everyone was now safe and they all cheered for all the workers who were there.
About ten minutes later, the structural engineer showed up and reaffirmed that no one should step foot in the building in the shape it's in. It could collapse at any second.