Page 5 of Single Mom's Firemen

“Is Daddy here? I won’t let him in!” she shouts, and the words hit me like a punch in the gut. Even now, months later, she is still terrified of her father.

Hearing her fear and knowing the urgency of the situation makes my blood boil. The flames are now engulfing the staircase and the carpet-padded hallway. “My God, this place is going up like a fucking tinderbox,” I gasp and start banging on the door again. “Open up, honey, we have to leave! NOW!”

“Okay, okay!”

Finally, Luna unlocks the door. But as soon as she opens it and catches a glimpse of the fire behind me, she starts screaming. In perfect unison, Sammy starts screaming, too, and I’m left with mere seconds to try and figure out how I’m going to get myself and my children out of this inferno.

The stairs are out of the question.

“Head for the window,” I say and yank my boy off the floor. He latches onto me while Luna follows. “We need to get out right now.”

“Mama, it’s high up!” my daughter says, understandably worried.

“I know, honey, but we have to get out of here and it’s the only way.”

I open the window and look down. The roof on this side of the building is already compromised, heat emanating from the diner downstairs. But it is sloped and there’s a lattice at the end with climbing ivy covering most of it. I point out the lattice to Luna.

“Help Sammy get to it,” I tell her. “Climb down, okay?”

“Mama, I’m scared!” Sammy cries in my arms, refusing to let go.

We can either burn alive or risk breaking a limb on our way down. Those are our only options, and I don’t know how to make my children understand that. Terror grips me tightly by the throat, the smoke filling my bedroom and making me choke. My mouth is dry. My hands are shaking. And Sammy still won’t let go, even as Luna gathers the courage to cautiously climb over the window ledge.

Red and white lights flash brighter and brighter.

The fire roars, wood crackling all around us. Thick smoke covers the night sky above in a suffocating black.

A fire truck pulls up in the parking lot. I can see it, big and red and loaded with everything needed to put this nightmare out. But we still need to get down from here. We need to do it fast, too, as the flames are almost at the bedroom door.

“Help!” I scream from the bottom of my lungs.

Four firefighters look up and I recognize one of them immediately.

“Eric!” I shout and wave in desperation. “Help us!”

“Hold on, Halle!” he replies while his colleagues rush to get the ladder as close to the edge of the roof as possible.

“Come on, honey, you can do it,” I tell Luna and help her climb down the roof, smoke rising from in between the wooden shingles.

“Hang in there, Halle, we’re coming!” Eric shouts back.

I see him at the top of the ladder, while Chase, his brother, pushes a button on the connected remote to extend it all the way up. Wyatt, the third Danson brother, liaises with the others to pull the firehose out and connect it to the hydrant just outside the parking lot. They’ve done this so many times, their movements swift and automatic.

But the heat becomes unbearable.

Luna is crying and sliding down the roof a little too fast for my comfort. Sammy is screaming, clutching my waist tighter and tighter as I struggle to get him off me, to get him out of harm’s way before it’s too late.

“Sammy, please, go after your sister. Do what Luna is doing, come on, honey, you can do this.”

“I’m scared, Mama!” he wails, tears streaming down his soot-covered cheeks.

The air is filthy, almost black, as the fire engulfs the room and rages closer toward us. I hear the support beams crackling under the pressure.

Water gushes from the firehose as Wyatt aims it at the diner below.

Eric is getting closer. He’s focused on getting us out of here, his brow furrowed above those big blue eyes of his. Gosh, I used to fantasize about him whenever he came into the diner for his regular cup of coffee and egg and bacon breakfast. It was the highlight of my day when the Danson brothers walked in, either before, or after, their twenty-four-hour shift. Now, it’s all burning. My haven, my fresh start, it’s all on fire.

“I’ve got her,” Eric says as he scoops Luna from the edge of the roof.

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