Taking Care Of Their Own
Chapter 3
Their truck was the first to arrive to the heavy smell of smoke in the air, and the crackling of the fire above them. People were rushing around in the streets, some in nightclothes, some carrying boxes of belongings, all with a sense of panic. The FDNY crew left the safety of their truck and looked up to see flames shooting from numerous windows. They heard the many sirens of the incoming units, knowing that their backup was moments away.
Jimmy grabbed the tools of his trade off the truck as he looked around at the scene before him. He noticed two police units parked adjacent to the fire building; 55-David and 55-Charlie - Bosco/Yokas and Sullivan/Davis. He saw Sully standing near his unit, looking up at the building with concern, but what struck him most was the look of severe distress on Davis' face as he was looking at the front door of the burning building - almost as if he was waiting for someone to emerge. With a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, he looked over at 55-David and saw no one there. He looked around the fire scene to see if Bosco and Faith were working crowd control or traffic. They were nowhere to be found. He immediately knew what the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach was from - his friends must be inside the building. He knew instinctively that Bosco must have been told of or heard that someone was trapped inside the building. He knew that he wouldn't hesitate to help, fearing that with the speed the fire was progressing, it would be too late by the time the fire department arrived. He also knew that Faith would not let her partner go anywhere without backup - just as Bosco would not let Faith go without backing her up. They never thought twice about it.
Even though it felt like it took forever to take in the situation and grab his equipment, it had only been a moment. Jimmy glanced toward Davis again, their eyes locking on each other. He knew that they had been in there long enough for Davis to feel that Bosco and Faith were in serious trouble. He gave a slight nod of understanding to Ty and turned to run into the building calling over to his own partner, "D.K.! Let's go. We've got two inside." Without hesitating, D.K. grabbed his equipment and the two were off, notifying the Lieutenant on the radio that they were entering the building to begin their search and that there were two confirmed missing in the building.
"10-4," came the reply from the Lieutenant. "Search Team 2 is readying to enter from the back." Jimmy acknowledged the Lieutenant's reply and the two ascended the stairs, immediately feeling the heat from the fire against their gear. They donned their air masks and entered the building and began their search. They were notified by radio that the other search team had entered from the rear of the building and were heading down to check the basement. By listening to their radio, they knew exactly where their brothers were and exactly what the progress of the fire was.
D.K. and Jimmy had finished the search of the first floor and were about to start up to the second floor when they ran into the other search team emerging from the basement with two victims. After a quick look, Jimmy saw that it was not the two missing officers. They gave a slight nod to each other and D.K. advised over the radio, "Lieu, Team 2 is coming out with two. Have EMS meet them at the front door." The reply came back, "Team 1, message received. Team 2, EMS is ready and waiting."
D.K. and Jimmy began up the stairs, hearing the truck crew on the roof ventilating the fire. They searched the building, floor-by-floor. They had reached the top of the stairs - the 7th floor - when they saw someone lying, unconscious on the floor in front of them. D.K. knelt down and saw that it was Faith Yokas. He felt for a pulse and she stirred slightly. He picked her up and started to head down the stairs. Jimmy advised the Lieutenant that D.K. was on his way out with one unconscious victim and received confirmation that his message was heard. He yelled through his mask that Bosco had to be close so he was going to continue to look. D.K. nodded and began to descend the stairs so he could get the officer out and return to help Jimmy.
D.K. reached the 5th floor stairway, passing firefighters with hoselines attacking the fire. He headed out the front door and heard a loud splintering sound. He looked behind him to see the stairs he had just come down collapse. He tapped Walsh on the shoulder and told him that Jimmy was still upstairs. Walsh nodded and put his hoseline down to see if he could find a way up to Jimmy as D.K. brought Faith out to EMS.
Jimmy heard the stairs collapse behind him and turned to make sure that D.K. made it down safely. He saw that he was safe and returned his focus to finding Bosco. He continued down the hallway into a room, the smoke so thick he couldn't see anything. He immediately dropped to his knees and began crawling around in the methodical pattern they had trained in so that he wouldn't become disoriented and lose his way. He felt around with his hands, reaching out, but keeping one foot against the wall to keep track of where he was. He reached out and felt something. At the same time, he felt a slight spray of water as the hoselines from the ladder truck outside came through the window. The smoke lifted slightly and he could make out the form of two people; one was a child and one appeared to be an adult with the child wrapped tightly in his arms. He grabbed at the two forms in front of him and felt the officer's gun belt under his gloves. He knew he had found them and felt a sense of relief as he felt for pulses on both and found they were both still alive.
Jimmy grabbed the child and made his way back to the now collapsed stairwell, knowing that Walsh was waiting there for him. He reached down as far as he could and dropped the child to Walsh and told him that he had one more victim and he would be right back with him. Walsh nodded and headed out to bring the child to the waiting EMS personnel. D.K. passed the child and Walsh as he returned into the building. He headed up to where the stairs used to be to wait for Jimmy to return with Bosco.
Jimmy had just returned to the room and grabbed Bosco under the shoulders to drag him back out when he heard another loud crashing noise. He turned to see that the hallway behind him was collapsing, blocking his route of escape. He heard the sound of the air horns outside the building; a signal to those inside to evacuate as collapse was imminent. He looked for the windows to see if he had another way to escape. The ladder truck that was pouring water onto the fire from outside had moved to another part of the building. He headed toward the window to make his escape using his rescue harness. He suddenly remembered that he had left the rope - his escape harness - lying on the chair at the firehouse when he brought Mikey home.
At the same time that the hallway collapsed and the air horns sounded, D.K. ran out of the building and around the corner to the side that Jimmy would be on. He knew that he would try to come out a window using his rescue harness with the ropes that were hanging down the side of building, used to haul extra equipment up to the roof. Walsh ran to the ladder truck that was operating at that side of the building, telling him to swing the ladder back around because they had a man trapped. The ladder operator immediately began to rotate the ladder back.
Faith was already conscious, but coughing violently with tears from the smoke running down her face, when the little girl was brought over to EMS by Walsh. "Where's Bosco?" she asked Walsh, alarm evident in her voice. Walsh put a hand on her shoulder and said, "Jimmy's bringin' him out," before he turned and went back to the fire, as Doc made Faith put the oxygen back on. Carlos was checking her over for injuries and Kim and Alex were working on the little girl who had stopped breathing. Sully and Davis brought the little girl's mother over to her and were holding her back so the paramedics could work on the child. Davis was relieved that Faith was okay, but was still worried about Bosco. Kim and Alex had gotten the girl breathing again.
Jimmy held his breath and took his mask off to place over Bosco's face to give him a few breaths of clean air while he looked around the room for something to use to escape. He felt the heat begin to rise in the room as the flames approached and the smoke increased again. He returned the air mask to his own face and reached into his pocket for his knife to cut down some drapes and felt something familiar. He pulled it out and looked at it. It was the escape harness that Mikey had made. He must have put it in Jimmy's coat pocket when Jimmy went back for the stew. He gripped it tightly, offering up a silent thank you to Mikey and put the harness on. He went to the window and reached out and found the ropes that he knew would be hanging down the side of the building. He tied off and bent down to scoop Bosco up and over his shoulder. He lifted his left leg over the windowsill and managed to maneuver himself and Bosco out the window. He hoped that Bosco didn't wake up now and start to move around because he didn't really have the time to tie him off to the rope as well. He just knew instinctively that the room was ready to flashover behind him and wanted to get the hell out of there.
D.K. and Walsh saw Jimmy emerge from the window with Bosco at the same time that the room flashed and fire shot out the window that the two men had just come from. Jimmy strained with one arm to lower himself and Bosco to the ground. The other arm remained around Bosco's still body.
Davis, Sully and Faith all looked toward the building and saw the flash of flames come out of the window and feared the worst. "No!" Faith yelled, trying to get up. Sully held her back as she again screamed out, "Bosco!"
After what seemed like an eternity, the three officers heard a cheer and looked up to see a soot-covered Jimmy, smoke still coming off his turnout gear, carrying Bosco over to them. He had placed his air mask over Bosco's face and as he laid the unconscious officer on the stretcher, Doc and Carlos went to work. After a few minutes of pure oxygen, Bosco began to stir and cough. He was reaching around for something and Faith leaned over and said, "You did it. We've got her. She's safe." With that information, Bosco seemed to relax and a few moments later he was fully awake and fighting with Doc and Carlos about taking off the oxygen.
Jimmy and Ty exchanged glances. Ty just shook his head with a grin and slapped Jimmy on the back and the two shook hands. "Awesome," was the only thing that Davis could manage to say. "Absolutely!" Jimmy responded, with his usual cocky attitude, turning to return to the finish his job.
The Paramedic teams readied their patients for transport to Mercy to be checked over.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was about 2:00 a.m. when the truck was backing into the firehouse. The crew still had the clean up of the hoses, gear and truck ahead of them, but they all took a few minutes to get coffee, water, or just to rest. Jimmy walked to the front of the station with his coffee cup in hand and looked across the road toward Mikey's house. He saw a shadow in the window and knew that it was Mikey. He reached in his back pocket and held up the harness. Mikey waved back, not knowing that he had saved two lives tonight.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The End.
Chapter 3
Their truck was the first to arrive to the heavy smell of smoke in the air, and the crackling of the fire above them. People were rushing around in the streets, some in nightclothes, some carrying boxes of belongings, all with a sense of panic. The FDNY crew left the safety of their truck and looked up to see flames shooting from numerous windows. They heard the many sirens of the incoming units, knowing that their backup was moments away.
Jimmy grabbed the tools of his trade off the truck as he looked around at the scene before him. He noticed two police units parked adjacent to the fire building; 55-David and 55-Charlie - Bosco/Yokas and Sullivan/Davis. He saw Sully standing near his unit, looking up at the building with concern, but what struck him most was the look of severe distress on Davis' face as he was looking at the front door of the burning building - almost as if he was waiting for someone to emerge. With a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, he looked over at 55-David and saw no one there. He looked around the fire scene to see if Bosco and Faith were working crowd control or traffic. They were nowhere to be found. He immediately knew what the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach was from - his friends must be inside the building. He knew instinctively that Bosco must have been told of or heard that someone was trapped inside the building. He knew that he wouldn't hesitate to help, fearing that with the speed the fire was progressing, it would be too late by the time the fire department arrived. He also knew that Faith would not let her partner go anywhere without backup - just as Bosco would not let Faith go without backing her up. They never thought twice about it.
Even though it felt like it took forever to take in the situation and grab his equipment, it had only been a moment. Jimmy glanced toward Davis again, their eyes locking on each other. He knew that they had been in there long enough for Davis to feel that Bosco and Faith were in serious trouble. He gave a slight nod of understanding to Ty and turned to run into the building calling over to his own partner, "D.K.! Let's go. We've got two inside." Without hesitating, D.K. grabbed his equipment and the two were off, notifying the Lieutenant on the radio that they were entering the building to begin their search and that there were two confirmed missing in the building.
"10-4," came the reply from the Lieutenant. "Search Team 2 is readying to enter from the back." Jimmy acknowledged the Lieutenant's reply and the two ascended the stairs, immediately feeling the heat from the fire against their gear. They donned their air masks and entered the building and began their search. They were notified by radio that the other search team had entered from the rear of the building and were heading down to check the basement. By listening to their radio, they knew exactly where their brothers were and exactly what the progress of the fire was.
D.K. and Jimmy had finished the search of the first floor and were about to start up to the second floor when they ran into the other search team emerging from the basement with two victims. After a quick look, Jimmy saw that it was not the two missing officers. They gave a slight nod to each other and D.K. advised over the radio, "Lieu, Team 2 is coming out with two. Have EMS meet them at the front door." The reply came back, "Team 1, message received. Team 2, EMS is ready and waiting."
D.K. and Jimmy began up the stairs, hearing the truck crew on the roof ventilating the fire. They searched the building, floor-by-floor. They had reached the top of the stairs - the 7th floor - when they saw someone lying, unconscious on the floor in front of them. D.K. knelt down and saw that it was Faith Yokas. He felt for a pulse and she stirred slightly. He picked her up and started to head down the stairs. Jimmy advised the Lieutenant that D.K. was on his way out with one unconscious victim and received confirmation that his message was heard. He yelled through his mask that Bosco had to be close so he was going to continue to look. D.K. nodded and began to descend the stairs so he could get the officer out and return to help Jimmy.
D.K. reached the 5th floor stairway, passing firefighters with hoselines attacking the fire. He headed out the front door and heard a loud splintering sound. He looked behind him to see the stairs he had just come down collapse. He tapped Walsh on the shoulder and told him that Jimmy was still upstairs. Walsh nodded and put his hoseline down to see if he could find a way up to Jimmy as D.K. brought Faith out to EMS.
Jimmy heard the stairs collapse behind him and turned to make sure that D.K. made it down safely. He saw that he was safe and returned his focus to finding Bosco. He continued down the hallway into a room, the smoke so thick he couldn't see anything. He immediately dropped to his knees and began crawling around in the methodical pattern they had trained in so that he wouldn't become disoriented and lose his way. He felt around with his hands, reaching out, but keeping one foot against the wall to keep track of where he was. He reached out and felt something. At the same time, he felt a slight spray of water as the hoselines from the ladder truck outside came through the window. The smoke lifted slightly and he could make out the form of two people; one was a child and one appeared to be an adult with the child wrapped tightly in his arms. He grabbed at the two forms in front of him and felt the officer's gun belt under his gloves. He knew he had found them and felt a sense of relief as he felt for pulses on both and found they were both still alive.
Jimmy grabbed the child and made his way back to the now collapsed stairwell, knowing that Walsh was waiting there for him. He reached down as far as he could and dropped the child to Walsh and told him that he had one more victim and he would be right back with him. Walsh nodded and headed out to bring the child to the waiting EMS personnel. D.K. passed the child and Walsh as he returned into the building. He headed up to where the stairs used to be to wait for Jimmy to return with Bosco.
Jimmy had just returned to the room and grabbed Bosco under the shoulders to drag him back out when he heard another loud crashing noise. He turned to see that the hallway behind him was collapsing, blocking his route of escape. He heard the sound of the air horns outside the building; a signal to those inside to evacuate as collapse was imminent. He looked for the windows to see if he had another way to escape. The ladder truck that was pouring water onto the fire from outside had moved to another part of the building. He headed toward the window to make his escape using his rescue harness. He suddenly remembered that he had left the rope - his escape harness - lying on the chair at the firehouse when he brought Mikey home.
At the same time that the hallway collapsed and the air horns sounded, D.K. ran out of the building and around the corner to the side that Jimmy would be on. He knew that he would try to come out a window using his rescue harness with the ropes that were hanging down the side of building, used to haul extra equipment up to the roof. Walsh ran to the ladder truck that was operating at that side of the building, telling him to swing the ladder back around because they had a man trapped. The ladder operator immediately began to rotate the ladder back.
Faith was already conscious, but coughing violently with tears from the smoke running down her face, when the little girl was brought over to EMS by Walsh. "Where's Bosco?" she asked Walsh, alarm evident in her voice. Walsh put a hand on her shoulder and said, "Jimmy's bringin' him out," before he turned and went back to the fire, as Doc made Faith put the oxygen back on. Carlos was checking her over for injuries and Kim and Alex were working on the little girl who had stopped breathing. Sully and Davis brought the little girl's mother over to her and were holding her back so the paramedics could work on the child. Davis was relieved that Faith was okay, but was still worried about Bosco. Kim and Alex had gotten the girl breathing again.
Jimmy held his breath and took his mask off to place over Bosco's face to give him a few breaths of clean air while he looked around the room for something to use to escape. He felt the heat begin to rise in the room as the flames approached and the smoke increased again. He returned the air mask to his own face and reached into his pocket for his knife to cut down some drapes and felt something familiar. He pulled it out and looked at it. It was the escape harness that Mikey had made. He must have put it in Jimmy's coat pocket when Jimmy went back for the stew. He gripped it tightly, offering up a silent thank you to Mikey and put the harness on. He went to the window and reached out and found the ropes that he knew would be hanging down the side of the building. He tied off and bent down to scoop Bosco up and over his shoulder. He lifted his left leg over the windowsill and managed to maneuver himself and Bosco out the window. He hoped that Bosco didn't wake up now and start to move around because he didn't really have the time to tie him off to the rope as well. He just knew instinctively that the room was ready to flashover behind him and wanted to get the hell out of there.
D.K. and Walsh saw Jimmy emerge from the window with Bosco at the same time that the room flashed and fire shot out the window that the two men had just come from. Jimmy strained with one arm to lower himself and Bosco to the ground. The other arm remained around Bosco's still body.
Davis, Sully and Faith all looked toward the building and saw the flash of flames come out of the window and feared the worst. "No!" Faith yelled, trying to get up. Sully held her back as she again screamed out, "Bosco!"
After what seemed like an eternity, the three officers heard a cheer and looked up to see a soot-covered Jimmy, smoke still coming off his turnout gear, carrying Bosco over to them. He had placed his air mask over Bosco's face and as he laid the unconscious officer on the stretcher, Doc and Carlos went to work. After a few minutes of pure oxygen, Bosco began to stir and cough. He was reaching around for something and Faith leaned over and said, "You did it. We've got her. She's safe." With that information, Bosco seemed to relax and a few moments later he was fully awake and fighting with Doc and Carlos about taking off the oxygen.
Jimmy and Ty exchanged glances. Ty just shook his head with a grin and slapped Jimmy on the back and the two shook hands. "Awesome," was the only thing that Davis could manage to say. "Absolutely!" Jimmy responded, with his usual cocky attitude, turning to return to the finish his job.
The Paramedic teams readied their patients for transport to Mercy to be checked over.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was about 2:00 a.m. when the truck was backing into the firehouse. The crew still had the clean up of the hoses, gear and truck ahead of them, but they all took a few minutes to get coffee, water, or just to rest. Jimmy walked to the front of the station with his coffee cup in hand and looked across the road toward Mikey's house. He saw a shadow in the window and knew that it was Mikey. He reached in his back pocket and held up the harness. Mikey waved back, not knowing that he had saved two lives tonight.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The End.