House 51 had been onsite for less than five minutes when Chief Boden started barking out orders.

"Casey, Severide we have a pallet factory connected to two other warehouses of unknown contents. We know that there are two possibly three workers inside the building. So far the other two warehouses are not engulfed. We need to send out two or three teams to find the workers before the building is fully involved. Obviously, we need to find the workers quick because this warehouse is a tinder box. " Chief said confidently as he looked at Casey and Severide who both nodded their heads before going to Truck and Squad to give their orders.

Severide barked out as he began to put on his tank, "Cruz I want you to stay out here in case we need a guide out of this place. Chief is going to be pretty busy so I want you out here with him. Tony, Capp and Kanel you are with me we need to sweep the building there are at least two or three workers in this thing. Since this is a pallet warehouse make sure to look out for falling debris. Also I want us to split into twos and don't let each other out site. "

Casey looked around and saw ambo arrive onsite and watched Gabby and Brett get out. He had wanted to talk to Gabby to make things right about their fight but there had been no time. Blinking he came back and started to give directions to his team. Mouch and Herman you two are gonna be together. Stella you are with me and Otis you are out here on the hose. Guys, Chief says there are at least two workers unaccounted for right now, possibly three. Stay in site of each other and listen for the word to vacate. It already looks pretty hairy.

They were all in their bunker gear and jogged to the entrances quickly. Mouch lagged behind a little bit but Herman waited on him to catch up. They entered the buildings and found that the place was smoke filled and hard to see any kind of distance. Stella and Casey went right while Hermann and Mouch went left and began to yell, "Fire department, call out"

Meanwhile Severide and his team who had entered the opposite entrance and found the offices and restrooms. Once inside Severide began to sweep the offices with a quick and methodical approach. They could see very quickly that all of the offices had been evacuated so squad went back out into the warehouse. Capp and Tony began to disappear into the thick, dark gray smoke as they both started yelling the familiar refrain, "Fire department call out."

Kanell yelled out to Severide, "We have to hurry by the looks of thing it is not going to be long before this place goes up. Look at the black smoke."

Severide nodded in agreement as he began searching for the workers. "Chief, any idea where the workers were located before the fire started?"

There was a pause and Chief responded, "Negative, the warehouse supervisor says that the workers hadn't been seen for about 45 minutes before the fire started."

Severide replied, "Damn, Chief I say we have about 10 minutes tops the further we penetrate into the warehouse the smoke worse it gets."

Casey piped in from his side of the warehouse, "Same here chief I haven't seen anyone either."

Chief asked Hermann as his concern for the firefighters inside escalated, "Hermann what is your status?"

"Not a hell of a lot different here chief. Mouch and me have covered a lot of ground and haven't seen any of the workers so far." Herman replied as he dodged falling pallets from his right. He looked back at Mouch who gave him a thumbs up as a sign that he was ok.

Chief breathed deeply and said, "Continue your sweep but keep your ears open for when I call it. "

Severide and Casey both piped in one after the other, "Copy that chief."

Kanell and Severide hit the back wall of the warehouse and began to circle around to meet up with Tony and Capp before their exit. "Capp and Tony how are you doing?" Severide called out and waited for a response.

Capp responded with a clipped tone, "Nothing except falling pallets and a hell of a lot of black smoke. The walls are starting to go here too."

Severide replied, "Kanell and I are working our way back to the entrance. We will meet up in the center isle."

Before long all four fire fighters headed down the center aisle while still sweeping for the workers.

Outside Otis heard two young guys laughing and joking, At first he paid no attention but then he overheard one of the guys say, "Dude this is kind of cool. They have no idea that we were out in the back warehouse smoking weed. They must be looking for us."

The other guy acted nervous as he saw Otis looking at them. Otis walked over and shouted, "What the hell are you two the guys we are supposed to be looking for in there?"

By this time some of the other workers recognized the two that were supposed to be missing and started yelling that was them in reply to Otis's questioning glare. Otis ignored the two and took off in a jog to the Chief to tell him that there was no one in the building.

Otis yelled loud enough to catch the attention of the chief, "Chief, I just got confirmation that no one is in the building. Everyone is accounted for." Chief nodded in acknowledgement

Kidds waved to Casey when she saw canisters on the back wall. This caused Casey to stop and look to see what the label said on the canisters. He pulled out his flashlight and then saw that the labels read propane. tHe yelled to Kidd, " We gotta go this place is about to go." Kidd nodded in agreement and turned to start moving the opposite way.

Casey swore under his breath and got on his mike, "Chief we found canisters that are labeled propane"

Chief called out, "Casey, Severide get out of there immediately. All of the workers are accounted for."

Casey called out to his team frantically which shook everyone since he was normally so even on calls, "Guys, there is propane in here. I repeat propane. We need to move. Double time, Double time.

Kidd and Casey started heading out as they saw the glow of an exit sign thinking that may be a way out other than to go back the way they came. They opened the door hoping for the light of the outside. Instead they found another large darkened room that was filled with pallets. They turned wondering where the exit was but did not want to waste time trying to find it. So they opted to turn and go back through the maze of pallets.

Further back in the warehouse Mouch was taking a breather as Hermann waited for him. Then they heard Casey say that there was propane and started to jog toward the aisle they had just swept. All of a sudden Mouch grabbed his chest as he found himself short of breath.

On the other side of the warehouse Hermann turned, "What's wrong?"

Mouch said, "I can't catch my breath. Go on, I'll catch up."

Hermann shook his head and took Mouch by the shoulder and walked beside him on his way back to meet up with Stella and Casey.

Hermann urged Mouch to pick up the pace, "Come on buddy. We have to move. Think of Trudy and focus on my voice.

Mouch nodded as he leaned on his friend step by step as they made their way to the door. All of a sudden in front of them was a wall of flaming pallets. Both fireman stepped back and tried to make their way through the ever darkening warehouse.

Severide heard propane and walked over to chief. All of squad was out of the building and fully expected to see Casey and truck to follow shortly. Then he heard from Casey, "Stella and I are trapped in the back of the warehouse and trying to find a way of egress."

At that point Severide went to Cruz and asked for his tank before grabbing it and hoisting it to his shoulder. Chief looked at Kelly and saw that he was about ready to head back into the warehouse to get the other members of 51. Chief called out to Severide who was in a dead run now as he headed back into the burning building. "Damn it I can't lose two more."

At that moment the whole scene outside changed as the back part of the warehouse exploded. There was a loud boom and then silence… Casey, Kidd, Hermann and Mouch were all still inside.

Severide dropped to his knees and he stripped off his mask. Gut wrenching sobs came from him that was a result of the thought of losing two more people he cared so deeply for. " Please if there is a God and you are listening….. I can't lose another… I can't lose another… Andy….. Shay….. Anna. Not one more please God not one more."

Kanell had been right behind Severide. Now he looked as if he was in shock. His mouth hung open as a quiet tear poured down his face. He couldn't even call out to Severide or anyone...

The scene was also riddled with thesobs of Dawson, "Matt, Matt. Please baby. No, please no... I'm sorry."

Chief called but was met with nothing but silence as are[;u. It was the kind of silence that was pregnant and longing. All of 51 that was outside the warehouse was paralyzed with a surreal gut wrenching fear that 51 would never be the same after today.