Page 93 of The Spark Between Us

Chapter Thirty-Four

Braden

The screamingfire bell woke me out of a deep sleep during which I’d thrashed so hard both of my pillows were on the floor, and my blankets hung off the sides.

Like a zombie on autopilot, I jumped into my pants and boots and pulled on my coat. We’d been anticipating getting called out to a brushfire that was still zero percent contained, but the dispatcher reported a second incident and asked that we share resources.

Mitch and I strapped on our oxygen tanks for the apartment fire in Pleasanton and jumped in the ladder truck with Logan. I sent an engine with a different crew to the brush fire.

The smell of smoke hit me from two blocks away, which was a bad sign.

Flames licked the second floor of the building, and smoke was visible through the windows of the upper floors. A couple of the tenants were on the street staring up at the flaming building as Logan parked the truck in front.

“I was up reading, and my light went out. Right after, I started to smell smoke,” a woman in a yellow nightgown gasped, clutching a small dog in a reindeer sweater.

The battalion chief from the Pleasanton department gave me the rundown. “Electrical fire in the basement, working its way up through the walls. Two guys went into the basement twelve minutes ago. Manager says there are thirteen units total. He’s accounted for only half the tenants.”

“Shit, okay.”

“Prep for search and rescue on upper floors.” That was why we all had oxygen tanks. Mitch and I strategized how to enter the building to avoid the flames.

Logan was attaching hoses to the fire hydrant, working fast, and Duke extended the ladder so he could take out the windows and let some of the smoke out from the upper floors. From what we could see through the closed windows on the upper floors, the smoke was already getting darker, so speed was crucial.

Thick smoke like that would kill anyone in the building if we didn’t get them out.

Mitch and I went in through a first-floor window, hoping the flames were contained in the basement and the smoke wasn’t horrible there yet. But we couldn’t see shit.

“Manager hasn’t accounted for two residents on this floor,” Mitch said.

Stopping to listen, all I heard was the hiss of flames destroying everything beneath me. I’d trained for years in these situations, so I took every precaution, covering the front of my oxygen mask with a wet towel and crouching as low as possible to stay beneath the smoke.

Then I heard it.

Mitch did too. He pointed to the apartment in the corner. Not a voice, but a whimper.

The locked door wouldn’t budge and from the heat emanating from the other side, I feared what we’d find when I raked through it with the blade of my axe. The whimpers grew louder as we crawled from room to room, finding two tenants prone and barely breathing in a tiled bathroom with the shower running. It was clever, but they’d still die of smoke inhalation in a matter of minutes.

One at a time, we shouldered them and carried them to the open window where Duke was waiting at the top of the ladder to help them down.

I started for the stairwell to the third floor. Two steps along, it was already much hotter.

Mitch grabbed my arm and yanked hard. “Hey. We need them to open the roof or the windows before we go any further. It’s too hot.”

He was right. I could feel it on the exposed skin on the back of my neck.

But my adrenaline was running high, and I felt the jones of a dangerous situation. Mitch knew the protocol as well as I did, but we were geared up, and I thought we had a little time.

“I’m going up,” I barked impulsively.

I didn’t have time to think about why I was so insistent on staying in the building longer than was probably safe. I just knew it felt good that I was already sweating beneath my gear.

My muscles ached from the heavy tank on my back. And I was going to give my all—and maybe my life—to help other people.

That was the job. That felt good.

If I wasn’t deserving of love and a lasting relationship, which time and experience had proven I wasn’t, then at least I could earn my worth on this planet by giving everything I had to help someone else.

Mitch pulled me back once more. “Braden, enough. It’s too damn hot in here. We’ve got to get out. Let ‘em break the windows first, let the smoke out. Then we can go back,” he begged. I didn’t look him in the eye. I couldn’t. I knew I wouldn’t find judgement, only concern, and I wasn’t sure I could take it.

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