Page 55 of Combust
She plucked the menu from the board, and perused it. She had settled on a pasta dish with sausage and a creamy tomato sauce, and was about to call the restaurant, when the firehouse’s doorbell buzzed.
Is there some kind of emergency?Curious, she went to answer the door.
She couldn’t help smiling when she saw the man standing on the doorstep.
“Cade,” she greeted him. “What are you doing here?”
He was supposed to be at the weekly clan dinner.
He held up a large brown paper bag printed with the Wildcat Springs Texas BBQ Restaurant’s sabertooth cat logo, and waggled it. A panoply of enticing scents wafted in her direction.
“I came to pick up my training materials, and thought you might want share a bite of dinner with me,” he said.
Chapter Fifteen - Indecent Proposal
Maggie’s bear stirred happily. He’s courting us with food, like a proper bear!
“That’s really thoughtful of you,” Maggie said. Delight spread, sweet as honey, through her chest.
Cade gave her a shy smile. “Your papa told me to come here to borrow the books for the firefighter and EMT classes. I was hopin’ to start reading them tonight. Maybe I could stay a while, to study and keep you company.”
“That sounds great!” Maggie found herself grinning as she stepped back and ushered him in. “And since you’re here, I’ll give you a tour of the firehouse after dinner. You can try on turnout gear. Hopefully, we’ll find some that fits you, and we won’t have to order anything.”
She escorted him to the common area, where they seated themselves at a table to unpack the stack of takeout containers.
As Maggie was divvying up the thick slices of barbecued brisket between their plates, Cade looked around. “You’re the only one here?”
“Yes. If a call comes in, the others will meet me at the scene,” Maggie explained. “I’m here to drive a fire engine, if it’s needed.”
Cade grunted, and reached for the box containing the mac and cheese.
When they had finished their dinner and cleaned up, Maggie located the textbooks that Cade wanted, added a copy of the BPRFD’s by-laws, then showed him around the firehouse.
It was a big, unpretentious single-story cinderblock building. Most of the square footage was taken up by the huge apparatus bays housing the department’s ladder engine, tanker truck, off-road brush truck, and paramedic van.
In addition to the common area which served as a combination dining room and classroom, the firehouse consisted of a workshop for repairing and maintaining equipment, a bedroom fitted with bunk beds for the firefighters on night duty, a full kitchen, and a large bathroom equipped with showers.
The spare turnouts and other PPE gear were kept in a series of lockers and shelving built along one wall of the apparatus bay, with the bulky garments hung on hooks.
Maggie ended the tour there. “Have you ever worn turnout gear?” she asked.
As expected, Cade shook his head. “I don’t even know what that is.”
“You’ve seen the insulated coats and pants that firefighters wear?”
He nodded.
“We have to be able to get completely dressed in our gear within a minute whenever that—” she pointed at the fire bell mounted high on the wall “—goes off. Most firefighters turn their pants and coats inside out, so that they can step into them and pull them on more quickly. That’s why they’re referred to as ‘turnouts.’”
“Interesting,” Cade commented, looking at the spare garments hanging in neat rows.
“You’re going to need a complete set of personal protective equipment,” Maggie continued. “We generally refer to it as PPE. Here, let me walk you through putting it on.”
She began by having him try on coats and jackets. None fit properly—they were too loose or too tight, and wouldn’t protect him. She made a note to get his measurements so that he could request a set in his size.
Then she showed him the rest of the PPE gear, and demonstrated how to put it on correctly.
There were alotof items—heat-resistant hood, helmet, insulated leather gloves, steel-toed boots, airline and pressure gauge, positive pressure mask, SCBA bottle with backpack and straps, radio, flashlight, and a PASS device.
