December 31, 1989

The squad sits around in the lounge of the house. DK, Tommy, and Walsh are in the recliners. Lt. Johnson is in his office as always working away.

"New Year's Eve and we're here working." DK says

"Yeah, I can think of a few beers with my name on them." Tommy replies

"It's not so bad." Walsh says referring to the spread they had.

You name it they had it, shrimp, chips, dip, pretzels; it was a feast for a king. The guys thought that Walsh had lost his mind. Tommy Doyle was married and had a kid on the way. DK saw Walsh as a friend that he could go knock a few back with. Maybe one day one of them would score a date.

"Squad 55, Adam 55-3 respond for an MVC in front of 1245 Riverside, vehicle overturned." The alarm box calls out for the firefighters

"And so it begins." Lt. Johnson says as he exits his office. "Let's go ladies."

Officers Boscorelli and Yokas were already on scene. They were both fresh officers so Sully and Candy joined them on the call. As the squad pulled up Bosco walked towards the firefighters.

"Genius over there had a few too many and then forgot that cars work better on the wheels." He cracks

Doc leans in to assess the patient.

"Definitely drunk." Bosco continues, "Got a contact buzz just talking to the jag off."

Sully shakes his head as he listens to the rookie.

"He's got a pulse." Doc announces

Walsh and DK take the Hurst tool and begin cutting the door from the car. After 10 minutes they finally have the driver freed. Doc and Jerry backboard him and prepare him for transport.

"Hey what are you doing to me?" The guy slurs and tries to swing at the medics.

"Okay, none of that now jags off!" Bosco handcuffs the arm to the cot.

Sully just shakes his head and laughs. He mutters something, "When will he ever learn?" And Candy just laughs as well.

"What's so funny?" Bosco looks up and asks

"Now you gotta go to the hospital with that jag off." Sully reminds the rookie

"Damn it!" Bosco yells, he hadn't thought about it. "Faith, you ride with the medics."

Faith looks up startled.

"Whoa! No way Boz! You're the one that got into this mess, I'll follow you in the car." She says

"She wins Bosco." Candy laughs aloud as does the squad.

"Bosco, let's go!" Doc yells from the bus.

The guys get back to the station just before midnight. They turn on the television to watch Dick Clark in Times Square.

"10…9…8…7…6…5…" The crowd counts down on television. "4…3…2…1… HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

"Yep, and bring on the drunks." Tommy says.

"Yeah." DK grimaces in pain

"What's wrong with you?" Walsh asks

"I dunno, I think it's the shrimp." DK says as he grabs his right side, every movement hurt.

"You sure you're alright?" Tommy asks

DK turned pale and started to sweat.

"I ain't ever had anything hurt like this." DK says

Tommy walked over to his friend.

"You're burning up." He says, "Walsh, go get Lieu."

Lieutenant Johnson must have had ESP because precisely at that moment he walked into the lounge.

"What's wrong with you DK?" he asks

"I'm not sure, but I don't feel so good." DK says just before he throws up.

The Lieutenant walks over to DK. He looks him over quickly.

"You're going to the hospital." Lt. Johnson says. He walks to the phone and calls dispatch to have them send Adam 55-3 back to the house immediately.

The wait seems like forever before they hear the sirens approaching. Doc and Jerry walk up the stairs carrying the oxygen and their medic bag.

"Walsh, go get the stair chair." Lt. Johnson instructs

Walsh quickly exits the room to get the stair chair. The rest of the firefighters exit the room to give DK privacy, but they were all concerned. Lt. Johnson watched closely as Doc checked DK's lung sounds and pulse. Jerry felt DK's abdomen and it caused DK to wince in pain in bit.

"What's wrong with me?" DK asks

"You may have appendicitis." Doc tells him

"Do I have to have surgery?" DK asks

"If the doctors determine that you do have appendicitis yeah." Jerry is honest with DK.

The guys watch as the medics take DK down the stairs and to the waiting bus to head off for the hospital.

"He gonna be alright Boss?" Walsh asks

"Probably appendicitis. So we'll be down a man for a bit." Lt. Johnson says as the bus pulls off on it's way to Mercy.

It was approaching 1 AM but none of the guys wanted to go to sleep. They wanted to make sure that DK was going to be all right.

"Get some sleep, they'll call me when they know something." Lt. Johnson says to his tired squad.

The men reluctantly head up to the bunkroom to catch what sleep they can. There's still 8 hours of their shift so they need to make it go by faster somehow. It seemed weird to Walsh that DK's bunk beside him was empty. He stared into the darkness and slowly drifted off to sleep.

It was shortly after 4 AM when the clagston woke the squad up.

"Box 3048. Squad 55, Engine 86, Ladder 100, Ladder 75, Battalion Chief 27, Adam 55-3 respond for a residential fire 1388 Lexington Ave."

The squad jumped up out of their bunks and down the pole they went to the engine bay. It took them only seconds to gear up and hit the streets. Tommy Doyle led a procession of emergency vehicles through the streets of New York City. It was a bad sign when you could see the red glow blocks away from the scene. When the squad pulled onto the scene Lt. Johnson immediately called for a 10-75. There was fire showing from three of the four floors of the building. Dispatch confirmed the request.

"Tommy, you take Walsh and try to get a line in there!" Lt. Johnson yelled.

Within moments red and white lights surrounded the building. The ladders were quickly plucking victims from the windows. The fire was too hot to attack from the interior- Tommy and Walsh figured that out the hard way from the second floor. They began doing what they could to attempt to knock the fire down. Battalion called for "surround and drown" water was coming at the fire from every possible direction. The ladders were addressing the upper floors as the fire fighters on the inside fought the blaze from the stairwells. It seemed to be contained to sides A and B of the building. Command did not want this fire to extend into the other buildings, so they began protecting the exposures of the neighboring buildings.

Tommy and Walsh were battling through the smoke when they burst into a room They could barely see through the black oblivion. They heard cries for help and traced them to a bathroom. A mother and her two children were huddled in there to try to survive the blaze that was ragging in the apartment next to theirs. They were scared.

"Alright, we're going to get you out of here." Tommy told them as he picked up one of the children, Walsh grabbed the other. Their mother followed the firefighters closely as they made their way out of the building to safety. Tommy and Walsh then reentered to resume the fight. They were heading up the stairway when a loud crack was heard, they looked in horror as the walls started to cave in around them…