"JUST ANOTHER DAY"
Boston, Massachusetts
A six-alarm fire that destroyed two piers was finally brought under control before flames could spread to a third pier. The first alarm was struck at 3:16 am. Five ladder companies, 23 engine companies, and two city fireboats eventually responded to the blaze. In addition to the tremendous heat generated by the flames, fire fighters worked in a temperature of 73 degrees with a humidity of 76 percent.
The heat of the fire and the warm, humid weather began to take their toll of men, and at 4:11 am Rescue Squads 2 and 11 were called to set up first aid stations. The fire was declared under control at 4:35 am.
More than a dozen fire fighters were transported to area hospitals due to heat exhaustion and other injuries sustained while battling the blaze.
* * * * * * * *
“Roy?”
“Hmmm?”
He rolled over in his bunk and burrowed deeper into his pillow, pulling the covers even tighter over his head. He told Johnny to go away.
“Roy.... Honey.... Can you wake up?”
Not yet fully awake, he nonetheless sensed something wasn’t quite right with the image in his mind and the words he just heard. He struggled to make the connection.
"Roy...?"
Hesitantly slipping the blanket down his face, he cracked one eye open.
Whew.
He was in his own bedroom. The voice belonged to Joanne, who was sitting on the side of the bed next to him, giving his shoulder a gentle shake. With some effort, he managed to untangle one hand from the twisted sheet. Roy gingerly rubbed his bloodshot eyes, which still stung from the smoke at their early morning response.
Joanne spoke in a softly apologetic voice. "I'm sorry, Honey, but you said you wanted me to wake you up before we left."
While standing beside the bed watching him toss and turn, Joanne had thought twice about it. Roy had been exhausted when he came home this morning. He stopped only long enough to kiss her hello and greet the kids. He mumbled that he'd had a rough and sleepless shift, then stumbled straight to bed. She knew he probably could've slept all day. Before falling asleep though, he'd insisted she wake him up before she and the kids left for a birthday party across town.
Roy yawned, then slowly opened both eyes. "No, it's fine, Joanne. I don't wanna sleep all day. Just needed a few hours." Another yawn interrupted his thoughts, then he lazily asked the time.
"It's almost eleven. The kids are just about ready to go." She studied him closely, knowing something was bothering him, something more than lack of sleep. "Are you sure you don't want to go with us? It should be fun, and we don't have to stay late if you're tired."
"No...," he paused, still trying to rub away the irritation in his eyes, "I was thinking I'd like to stay home and get a few things done and relax a little. You go and make my apologies to Kathy and Frank. Have a good time and don't worry about rushing home." He didn't think he meant to emphasize the "don't worry about rushing home" part... it just came out that way.
Joanne knew that was his way of saying he needed some time alone. "Roy, did something happen that you want to talk about?"
"No, nothing unusual. We just had a long shift. Pretty bad fire this morning... by the time we got back to the station from Rampart, there wasn't time to get any sleep." He sat up a little and rested on his elbows. "Did Johnny call?"
Joanne shook her head. "No, was he supposed to?"
"No. I just thought he might. I didn't get a chance to talk to him again this morning. He was still in Cap's office when I left."
"Was something wrong?"
"No. No, not really." He wasn't a very convincing liar.
"Uh, huh. And I'm the Queen of England."
Roy smiled inwardly. Nothing ever got past her.
"Well, I think Johnny was in a little bit of hot water," he confessed, quickly adding, "he didn't really mean to do anything wrong, though."
Joanne smiled as she ran her fingers through his hair, smoothing it down where it stuck out on the sides. "So why was Johnny in trouble?"
Roy sighed softly. "He... He sort of failed to follow proper procedure at the scene, and I suppose Captain Stanley was just reminding him what to do next time. I hope that's all anyway. It was really nothing."
"He didn't get hurt, did he?"
"Dr. Morton said he shouldn't miss more than one shift."
That look of worry she tried so hard to hide from him flitted across her features. Whenever Johnny got hurt, it stirred her deepest fears that it could have been Roy. They were always together in dangerous situations, always watching out for each other. While thankful Johnny hadn't been seriously hurt, she was even more thankful that it hadn't been Roy. He was being a little evasive, and she wondered what he wasn't telling her.
Roy swung his legs off the bed and started to get up. Reading him like a book, Joanne knew the subject was closed for the time being, and asked no more questions. She knew he'd talk about it with her when he was ready. He always did. Maybe tonight after the kids were in bed and the house was quiet, he'd tell her what happened.
As does every good fireman's wife, she filed her fears away for another day and stood up too. "In that case, I think we'll be on our way." Joanne's kiss reminded him that she didn't take his being here for granted. "You have a good day, Roy. We should be home by four or four-thirty. There's plenty to eat in the refrigerator if you get hungry later. And if you talk to Johnny, tell him I hope he's feeling all right."
She went to gather the kids and head to the party, leaving Roy to put things into perspective for himself.
* * * * * * * *
Lansing, Michigan
Five buildings were destroyed and seven others damaged when a $4 million fire of suspicious origin swept through a 10-acre industrial complex. The fire was fought by 24 engine companies, five ladder companies, three elevating platform companies and two squads.
The radiant heat burned the paint off one side of an engine, and 2000 feet of hose were lost.
Eleven fire fighters were sent to local hospitals with minor injuries and burns.
* * * * * * * *
Roy splashed some cold water on his face, then looked in the mirror and blinked a few times. His eyes didn't sting quite so badly now. He brushed his teeth and combed his hair, then frowned at himself in the mirror. That spot where his hair was thinning on top bothered him. Joanne always teased him about his hidden vanity and told him she thought bald men were sexy. It drove him crazy. He rubbed his cheek and debated about shaving this morning. He didn't really have to. He was just going to hang out and do some work around the house. Out of habit, though, he ended up reaching for his razor and shaving cream and spent the next twenty minutes shaving. Normally that was a five-minute job. Today... he decided... today, he wasn't going to rush through anything. Not even the little things he rarely gave a second thought. The simple things that make up life's daily routine.
The things you don't miss until you can't do them anymore.
* * * * * * * *
Hartford, Connecticut
A flatbed semitrailer truck crashed through a steel rail median divider and slammed into a tanker truck carrying 7000 gallons of gasoline. In avoiding a spinning auto, the eastbound flatbed crashed through the median divider and struck the westbound tanker behind the cab. Both drivers lost their lives. The crash resulted in an explosion that released most of the load in a massive sea of flaming gasoline. The fire fighting operations extended over about six hours, and it was another six hours before the wreckage was removed and the turnpike restored to normal. As a crane picked up the tractor of the semi-tanker, the bodies of the two truck drivers were found beneath the cab. The only civilian casualties were those caused directly by the crashing vehicles.
Four fire fighters were injured during this incident, but only one had to be hospitalized.
* * * * * * * *
Roy pulled on a pair of old, comfortable blue jeans and a faded yellow T-shirt and slipped into his favorite pair of tennis shoes. He moseyed into the kitchen to find that Joanne had left a fresh pot of coffee and some homemade cinnamon rolls for him. Laying on the counter next to the plate of rolls was a picture Jennifer had drawn just for him. He couldn't quite tell what it was supposed to be, but the carefully chosen colors were pretty. She had printed "I LOVE YOU DADDY" in black crayon across the top. Some of the letters were backwards, but they were all there. He smiled and put it on the front of the refrigerator door with a magnet and stood back to admire it. She was growing up so fast.
Roy remembered Jennifer's first birthday like it was only yesterday. She had taken her very first steps that day, and had fallen joyfully into his arms at the end of the momentous three-step journey.
He hoped he was always going to be there for moments like that.
* * * * * * * *
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
The smoke was so dense when the first companies arrived at a seven-alarm lumberyard fire that the men were unable to see what all was involved in the fire. As a fourth alarm was ordered, a large building erupted into raging flames that damaged two pumpers and spread fire to exposures across two bordering streets. The seventh alarm was struck at 7:30 PM, and the fire was finally declared under control at 8:54 PM. Sixteen homes and four automobiles were also damaged by the fire.
Five fire fighters and a battalion chief were injured fighting the fire.
* * * * * * * *
Roy squinted his eyes in the bright sunshine that greeted him when he stepped outside. The day was warm and clear, and a slight breeze was skipping across the treetops. A perfect early spring day, LA-style. Certainly not the kind of day to waste doing nothing. Roy ambled across the backyard toward the garage, and opened the heavy door, taking odd comfort in the familiar way it creaked and groaned. It was dark inside and smelled... like a garage. That mixture of gas and oil and rubber and musty grass clippings that clung to the lawnmower. Joanne hated the smell. He loved it. There was something so... earthy about it.
Spotting the rose bushes Joanne bought at the nursery the other day, he decided it would be a perfect day to do some planting. She'd be surprised. Roy liked surprising her. Everyone thought he was so predictable. Maybe next to Johnny, it looked that way. But he had his moments.
He pulled on a baseball cap and an old pair of gloves. Carefully gathering the rose bushes, he carried them outside and put them down in the middle of the yard, then came back into the garage and grabbed a shovel.
Roy wondered how long it would take before the roses would be in bloom. He was reminded of the saying, "take time to stop and smell the roses."
He decided whoever came up with that knew what they were talking about.
* * * * * * * *
Tulsa, Oklahoma
A delayed alarm for a grease duct fire caused the destruction of a one-story building housing five stores with a loss estimated at $500,000. An employee of the drug store turned on a deep-fat fryer about 8:15 am and in about 10 minutes the grease began to smoke. Two employees tried to turn off the fryer, but the control was stuck in the on position. The call to the fire station was made some twenty minutes after flames developed. If they had called in the alarm as soon as the fire started, it would have been another ordinary grease fire. Eventually over 200 fire fighters were called to the scene, and the fire was finally brought under control at 10:00 am.
Three fire fighters were treated on the scene for minor injuries and smoke inhalation.
* * * * * * * *
Roy wiped the sweat from his brow. Digging was hard work. Stopping to take a break, he buried the point of the shovel in the ground and leaned his weight against the handle. A small flock of geese passed noisily overhead, headed north toward their summer home. Part of him envied their travels and wished he could see the things they saw in flight. The earth must look so peaceful looking down at it from high in the sky.
He thought about trying to call Johnny to see if he was doing all right. Remembering how tired he'd been this morning himself, Roy decided against making the call in case he was sleeping. He wondered what Captain Stanley had said to him. Cap was pretty steamed at the scene, and when the squad got back to the station, he'd had his office door closed. That was a real rarity, and both men had shrugged and quietly slipped into the day room for coffee, and waited for the shift to end. At five minutes 'till eight, Stanley called Gage into his office and closed the door again. Roy felt like a deserter for not staying around, but he'd been too tired to wait.
Johnny had made a mistake. A big mistake. He was lucky he hadn't been killed. Their job was dangerous enough without making bad decisions.
Roy silently thanked the heavens that Johnny's luck held out one more time.
* * * * * * * *
Portland, Oregon
Eight fire fighters were burned when gasoline vapors ignited while they were fighting a small fire around an auto in the basement garage of a home. The small fire around the auto was quickly extinguished, and the hood was raised to check for fire when the gasoline tank cap blew off as a result of the expansion of gas caused by the heat of the fire. Fire fighters, aware of the danger, immediately shut off a water heater pilot light in the basement, but before they could shut off the furnace, the vapor exploded.
Two firefighters were severely burned and had to be air lifted to St. Mary's Burn Center. Six others with less serious injuries were taken to local emergency rooms.
* * * * * * * *
Roy was starting to get hungry. And thirsty. An ice-cold beer sounded good. He only had a few more holes to dig and figured he'd better keep going or he'd be tempted to stop before he got the job done. Roy had a thing about finishing what he started. That had been part of the problem earlier. He thought he had time to complete the search and he hadn't heeded Johnny's warning.
Letting his thoughts drift back to the fire this morning, he realized Johnny shouldn't have been the one called in the Captain's office. The trouble was that Johnny's bad decision hadn't been a mistake in Roy's eyes. He was the one that made the wrong choice. He owed Johnny an apology. He knew he owed him more than that.
Roy kept on digging. The hole wasn't deep enough yet.
* * * * * * * *
Tallahassee, Florida
The explosion of a liquid propane semitrailer tanker during a fire at a natural gas facility injured 18 fire fighters, one of them fatally. The tanker driver was fatally burned, and three gas company employees and a newspaper reporter were also injured.
Only four or five fire fighters were still on their feet when additional men and apparatus reached the scene after the blast.
It was the worst incident in the department in the last twenty years.
* * * * * * * *
Startled by a sound coming from behind him, Roy looked toward the house and was surprised to see Johnny sitting in a lawn chair at the edge of the patio. He had a bottle of beer in one hand and another bottle was sitting on the picnic bench next to him. He was watching Roy with an amused smile on his face. Roy walked over and pulled up another chair and plopped down. He hadn't realized planting a few rose bushes was going to be such hard work.
"You know, Roy, you shouldn't leave your front door unlocked. Some strange person might just walk in someday...."
"I think one just did."
Johnny shot him a dirty look, then a grin spread across his face again. "I brought you a beer. Looks like you could use one."
Roy grabbed the bottle off the bench and examined it closely. "You brought the beer?"
"I did. Carried it all the way from your refrigerator."
"You shouldn't have."
"It was no problem, Roy. Glad to be of help."
Roy gave Johnny a somber look. "You okay?"
"Yeah. My back and shoulder's gonna be a little sore for a while, but I'll be okay." Johnny adjusted his left arm in the sling and winced at the movement. They sat in silence while they quenched their thirst.
"What'd Cap have to say?"
"Oh, man, Roy, you shoulda heard him. He gave me the lecture of my life about following procedures during a search and rescue operation. I forgot all about my shoulder hurtin'... I was afraid I wouldn't be able to sit down for a week by the time he got done chewin' on me. I've never seen him so mad."
"Did you tell him it was my fault?"
"Are you kiddin' me, Roy? I wasn't about to open my mouth. I think he woulda crammed the manual down my throat if I had. Besides, it wasn't your fault. You didn't tell me to go back in there. You shoulda just listened to me in the first place. You know, if I had to do it all over again, I'd do exactly the same thing. I wasn't gonna to tell Cap that, though."
"You didn't follow procedure, you know. You shouldn't have gone back in alone."
"I didn't think there was time to wait for anyone else."
"Yeah. I don't think there was. I'm sorry you got in trouble."
"It was worth it, Roy."
"Yeah?"
"Need to balance that scorecard a little."
"It's not about keeping score, Johnny."
"I know that, Roy. It was about keeping you alive."
"You risked your life. You almost risked other lives."
"I feel bad about that part. The others. That's why I just kept my mouth shut when Cap was yellin' at me. I wanted to say I wasn't thinking. But I was thinking. Thinking about you."
"I know, but still...."
"You would've done the same thing."
"Maybe."
"Maybe!?" Johnny sat up straight and stared at Roy with a look of mock exasperation. "I risk my neck and my career to save you, and you say maybe you'd have done the same thing? Well now, that's gratitude for you. Next time remind me to check the rule book first before I come save your sorry hide. And me... I'm the one who's hurt. I can hardly move my arm. Look at me... laid up again. And that's the thanks I get? What do you mean... maybe you'd have done the same thing?
Roy sat back and smiled as Johnny got up in a huff and wandered out into the yard. Johnny walked around, then turned back to face him with a puzzled look on his face.
"Roy, what are you doin' out here?"
"Gonna plant some rose bushes for Joanne."
"You plantin' them? Or buryin' them?"
"What do you mean?"
"These holes... they gotta be at least four feet deep. Maybe more."
"I guess I got a little carried away."
"How many bushes are you planting anyway?"
"Just those three over there."
"Couldn't decide where to put them?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Uh. Roy. You've got at least nine holes dug here."
"Johnny?"
"Yeah?"
"I wouldn't be here today if you hadn't come back for me."
"Yeah, and you wouldn't have all these holes in your backyard either."
"You could've been killed."
"Cap said the same thing. Loudly. And more than once. Then he took me out to breakfast. You know Roy, if I ever make Captain, I hope I'm half as good as he is at the job."
"Johnny, you're already twice as good as you'll ever need to be. By the way, did I remember to say thanks?"
"I think you just did. It was no big deal, Roy. Just another day on the job. You have anything good to eat?"
* * * * * * * *
Los Angeles, California
Fire raced through an abandoned warehouse Saturday in the early hours of the morning. Flames were fueled by trash and piles of cardboard and discarded mattresses used by the homeless seeking shelter from the streets. Thick smoke made it difficult for rescue personnel to search for people possibly trapped inside.
Two Los Angeles County fire fighter/paramedics on the scene narrowly escaped with their lives when a section of the roof collapsed. On orders to abandon their search, one had apparently exited the structure safely, but reentered the building when his partner failed to follow him out. He was injured seriously enough to be taken to the local emergency room, but was released a few hours later.
There were no other casualties reported.
* * * * * * * *
Author's Note:
The ideas for the incidents described above were drawn from articles in past issues of Fire Engineering Magazine.
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