Page 1 of Hearts on Fire

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Scotti

The familiar sound of the wailing siren had Firefighter Scotti Saunders jumping to her feet automatically. Her body was moving before her mind caught up with her, but she didn’t fight it. She had been in this job long enough to learn to trust her muscle memory and instincts.

Max called everyone to attention. “Alright, people, this is a big one—huge fire at a medical research facility downtown. There are a lot of doctors trapped in a section beyond the fire. We’re obviously going there to save lives, but also as much of the equipment and computers as possible.”

It went without saying that the trapped civilians came first. Scotti felt the usual curl of excitement in her belly as she followed the rest of her crew and quickly and smoothly started getting suited up. She loved her job, and big fires like this were particularly exciting.

Scotti got into the fire truck alongside Jeanette and Charlie, taking her usual place.

While Luke drove them toward the scene of the fire, Max gave them quick instructions.

“The facility has two entrances. We’re lucky that it’s lunch time, and a lot of the doctors are apparently together in the cafeteria. The team from Station 18 will go will go to the cafeteria through the front entrance, and you guys will go through the back and start searching and clearing offices and labs.”

They pulled up at the huge building, which already sported flames leaping up to the sky and a lot of thick smoke. Scotti saw the fire truck from Station 18 arriving at the same time as they did. Scotti had smelt the smoke on approach. The smell of it always excited her. This was a big job, she could feel it and thrills ran through her body. Max quickly divided them into pairs, putting Scotti set to go through the back entrance to the offices and labs.

Her breathing apparatus was on her back before she exited the truck and she had twisted the cap to the tank of compressed air she would carry with her so she could breathe in the smoke filled building. As she descended from the truck she, she pulled on her mask, tightening it and taking a first big breath to get the air going. Scotti was so smooth with the motions, she had done it so many million times before. She pulled up her fire hood and put her helmet on. She was ready to go. She had her colleague next to her- they went everywhere in pairs for their own safety. She could see no signs of fire in this part of the building so she nodded to her colleagues and kicked the door in. Scotti knew that her colleagues were following her in, but she was now focused on the scene in front of her.

There were two corridors. Scotti gestured for Charlie to join her and they pulled one hosereel with them, while Jeanette and Luke took the other one.

As they progressed they checked and cleared off some smaller offices, more smoke was apparent the further they went into the building.

They came to a large lab, which was filled with smoke from some fire in the far corner.

“Fire department, call out!”

A weak cry answered Charlie’s call and he hurried over. There were two doctors in white lab coats, who seemed disorientated and coughing with the smoke.

Scotti was about to help get them to safety when a soft cry reached her ears.

Charlie turned in the same direction as her. They were both primed to hear such cries for help, and to react to them.

“Go, I’ll get these two out.”

It wasn’t necessarily protocol for them to split up. But Scotti and Charlie both knew when there were lives at risk, they would do what had to be done.

Scotti watched for a moment as Charlie pulled both of the doctors to their feet. They seemed mobile enough. He should be able to get them out of the building by himself.

Scotti kicked some debris aside to get to the door on the other side of the lab where she heard the call. It was clear to her the fire was the other side of that door along with the cries of somebody trapped.

Smoke seeped through the cracks around the door frame. Scotti had her hose reel ready and as she opened the door she sent some water in immediately.

She still staggered back a foot as she opened the door. The flames were spreading rapidly, the room was beginning to be overtaken by them. If there was someone in here, they wouldn’t have much time.

Scotti loved her fire suit. She loved how it made her invincible to most fires. Obviously there were limits, but she loved how protected she was by it.

“Fire department, call out!”

“Here!” The voice was a bit louder now that Scotti was in the room, though still muted by the sound of the fire.

Scotti took a few steps closer, edging around the worst of the flames.

She winced as she finally made it through enough of the smoke to see clearly.

There was a doctor lying on the floor, a large beam pinning her down. It was clear that the fire had been above this room and the floor had started to collapse. Scotti would have to work quickly before the situation that was already bad got a whole lot worse.

She grabbed one end of the beam and tried to heave it off the doctor, but it was too heavy. Scotti doubted even Max could have lifted this by himself.

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