Fireman Down

"Fireman Down"

RRRRrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrr! A 125 decibel siren roars as Engine 3 pulls out of the Marion City fire hall. On board is Chuck, a 33 year old volunteer fireman. With his heart pounding from adrenaline and his eyes closed he mumbles a prayer for safety for his team and the possible victims they are about to encounter.

"Father, watch over us and protect us as we go into this hellish situation. Give us the strength and courage we need to save lives. In Christ, Amen."

Exactly seventeen minutes ago Chuck and his wife, Debbie were sitting down to a romantic dinner when the alert set off his fireman’s pager. The dinner was at least as romantic as BBQ chicken served on a second hand dining table in an 18 year old mobile home could be. It was the couple's first evening alone in quite some time. Chuck, a handyman by trade since the factory closed, had been caring for his elderly mother who had taken ill several months back. Debbie had been going to night school after she finished her workday down at Food City, and the couple had a daughter. Nine year old Ashley was at a slumber party over at the Dickerson’s. It is her first night ever spent away from home. Debbie had lost two previous pregnancies to miscarriage before young Ashley was born. Debbie nearly died from a hemorrhage while delivering her. Knowing they could never have anymore children, Ashley was the center of their lives.

Dogs are howling as the bright red fire engine with gold lettering that read “Marion City Fire Department” passed. With the lights flashing and siren wailing it speeds on its way down Main Street. The street is lined on both sides with colonial style homes and dogwood trees. The caravan of fire engines and emergency response vehicles make their way to the Virginia Hills subdivision at the edge of town. Virginia Hills is the newest and nicest subdivision in the rural town of Marion. All the local upper-class professionals had bought lots and built homes there. The houses here are large and stately with immaculate landscaping. Completely different than the mobile home park Chuck and Debbie live in.

You can feel the heat from the fire four houses away as the fire engines approach. At least twenty neighbors are standing in their yards watching the home blaze. Chuck and fourteen other firemen dressed in dark gray boots and yellow fire suits with reflective striping on the sleeves burst into action. The carefully choreographed firefighting actions are well rehearsed. Every member of the Marion Fire Department takes pride in how well prepared and how fast they respond to fires. With Marion being such a small town every fire you go to as a fireman someone on the department is either family or knows the victims personally. This is the case tonight.

As Chuck approaches the fire, ax in hand, a familiar soot-smeared face runs toward him. It’s the face of Jim Dickerson, the host of tonight’s slumber party. The very hair on Chuck’s back stands on end as he gets the report from Mr. Dickerson.

“Chuck, I think the girls are still in the house. Christy and I can’t find them anywhere.” He shouts trying to be heard over the sirens. His hands are bloody from breaking through windows trying to get back in the house only to be pushed away by the heat of the flames.

“Somebody get a ladder up to the second floor, fast. There are kids trapped up there!” another fireman screams intensly into the night.

Chuck runs back to the fire engine to retrieve the oxygen tanks and face mask. His heart is pumping like never before. This isn’t his first fire. Hardly. He has been on the team since graduating high school. He has been there to put out the fires of homes and rescue many familiar people, but this one is different. This time Ashley is trapped in the burning home.

Back at Chuck and Debbie’s trailer, Debbie is sitting in the corner chair, nervously rocking back and forth while listening to the scanner and clutching the Bible the way she always does when Chuck is out on a fire call. She is on pins and needles every time he leaves to fight a fire. She knows all too well the danger a fireman faces because her Uncle Edward, that the new fire hall is named in honor of, died fighting a fire when she was a little girl. She begged and pleaded him to quit the department when they first got married. Chuck wouldn’t hear of it. He had a strong sense of duty and felt putting out fires and saving lives gave meaning to his life so he stayed on despite her wishes. Tears gather in the corner of her eyes as she petitions God for the safety of Chuck and the other firemen.

With oxygen tank and face mask in place, Chuck sprints toward the house. All that is on his mind is the pain and fear his Ashley must be experiencing. He remembers the day she was born and the feeling of helplessness he felt as he held her close to his heart standing outside the room where doctors and nurses fought to stop the bleeding and save the life of her mother. He wouldn’t let them take her to the nursery until he had heard Debbie was going to make it. He just had to hold on to something to keep him from breaking down. He was a trained lifesaver but axes and fire hoses were no good in that situation. That situation was out was out of his hands, but this is a fire. A fire is his area of expertise. No fire is going to come between him and his little girl. He is willing to take on Hell with a squirt gun if it will save Ashley.

Flames hot enough to make bystanders cringe from 100feet away explode when Chuck breaks down the door with his ax. He rushes in desperate to find Ashley and her friends as fire consumes the home. He finds the stairs with flames running up the banister and he attacks them like a blitzing linebacker going after the quarterback. Upstairs the smoke is so thick that he has to feel his way along the floor. He finds a closed bedroom door and pushes it open. A fireball bursts into the room knocking Chuck backward as the flames find a new source of oxygen to feed them.

Outside the home the scene is pandemonium. The yard and street are filled with ambulances, fire engines, and police cars. Dogs are howling desperately trying to keep pace with the sirens. The night sky is alive with the flashing light show put on by all the emergency vehicles. Firemen drench the house with thousands of gallons of water hoping to extinguish the flames. Neighbors and townsfolk stand outside, clutching loved ones while they watch in horror. The Pastor of the local Methodist Church has formed a prayer circle in a neighbor’s yard and it’s been growing almost as fast as the flames. Others stand around chain smoking and blaspheme God over the situation.

In the girls’ bedroom inside the flaming house young Ashley remembering everything her father taught her has closed the door and laid bed sheets dowsed with soda and chocolate milk at the bottom of the door. Four nine year old girls dressed in Barbie and Scooby Doo gowns with brushed teeth and freshly braided hair are huddled together in the furthest corner trembling and crying for help. The temperature in the room is growing hotter by the second but flames haven’t invaded the room yet.

Finally a ladder is poised below the bedroom window and veteran fireman Thomas Stevens is climbing up to answer the desperate cries of the girls. With the handle of his ax he shatters the window, wipes away the shards from the pane and shines the spotlight inside. The girls, with their eyes shut tight still crying and paralyzed by fear have no idea help is just five feet away.

Out in the hallway of the house Chuck is trying to get up from the floor. The blast from the explosion had really knocked for a loop. He opens his eyes wondering if he was knocked temporarily unconscious and, if so, how long had he been out? Once he regains his thoughts he remembers his purpose: Ashley.

Debbie, still listening to the scanner and hoping for any good news at all about her husband or the occupants of the house, doesn’t notice when her mother comes in. Nancy, Debbie’s mom, always tried to be there to comfort her when Chuck was on a call. She knew that if bad news came over the scanner Debbie would go hysterical. She didn’t want that scene played out so when at all possible she was there just in case she was needed. Nancy takes a seat next to Debbie and pulls her head into her chest and pats her on the back as if to say, “It’s going to be OK.”

Patrick, another volunteer fireman wearing an oxygen tank and face mask, enters the house and attempts to climb the stairs but the first step, weakened by the fire, collapses underneith his weight. Chuck was supposed to wait on Patrick, as was the policy that no firemen ever enter a burning house alone. Two is safer than one was the buddy system practiced but after hearing Ashley was still in the house Chuck let his emotions get in the way of better judgment.

Ashley and her friends make their way out the window with the help of fireman Stevens who hands them through the window, one by one, to another fireman situated on the ladder outside. With all the girls safely on the ground Stevens checks his lifeline once again then turns his attention toward finding Chuck, his fellow firefighter, somewhere in the house. The fireman on the ladder sprays the bedroom with the high-pressure hose to combat the flames when Stevens opens the door.

Chuck crawling through the hall sees the door swing open and sees the spray from the hose. Relief briefly enters his mind when the light flashing off the reflective strip on his fellow firefighter’s helmet catches his eye." They’ve got Ashley and the girls." He thinks as he and his comrade inch closer together on their knees in the flame engulfed building.

Where’s daddy? Where’s my daddy? Ashley, still crying, franticly searches the faces of all the yellow fire suited figures scrambling about the yard. Her daddy is no where to be found. She knows he would be looking for her in the crowd once he found out they were on the ground. Christy Dickerson grabs her and takes her and the other girls with the help of a paramedic to the ambulance to be checked for injuries.

News of the rescue makes its way over the scanner. Debbie and her mom shout out loud in joy when they hear it and then a sickening pain assaults their stomachs nearly to the point of throwing up when they first hear that the rescue was at the Dickerson home where Ashley was for the slumber party. If that little detail where known Debbie and Nancy both would have been at the fire trying to make their way inside the home. It was policy not to announce the names of any victims over the airwaves but the dispatcher had let it slip this time, caught up in the moment of the rescue.

Stevens, now about five feet from Chuck, stops and checks his life line. Once he gets a firm hold he’ll tug on it and they will both be pulled to safety. As soon as Chuck reaches for him the floor beneath him collapses and he falls into the consuming flames. Stevens screams in terror through his face mask as he watches his friend's body descend into the depths of the inferno.

Debbie and her mom both wail in sheer horror when they hear Chief Arnolds' voice go out over the scanner, “Get the helicopter in here! We’ve got a fireman down. I repeat, FIREMAN DOWN! FIREMAN DOWN!”


The End

Note to reader: I want to salute all those fire fighters out there who put their own lives on the line for their communities. You cannot be thanked enough.

I am not a fireman myself and don’t know all the practices in that line of work. I would like to ask any firemen who read this story to correct any details about the work that I have misrepresented. Any details or tips you could give me to make this story read more accurate please let me know.