Page 13 of Ink and Ashes
At the time, I was twenty-seven and had only just made lieutenant after a year-long leave-of-absence, so my dad hired Pierce Whitlock to hold the Chief position until I’m ready to take it over. By the time I am, Whitlock will be close to retirement anyway, so it’s worked out well.
Whitlock had moved to Ember Grove about six years prior to becoming Chief, and he’d been volunteering here since he arrived. He’d been captain at his previous fire station, but he has family in this area, so he decided to move here to be closer to them. We were all shocked that he was willing to give up his captaincy to be a volunteer for EGFD, but it worked out for him in the end.
Whitlock is the only career firefighter who isn’t as close to my family. But despite the decade between them, he’s become one of my dad’s closest friends, so he’s one of us now too. He’s a great guy, and a hell of a firefighter. He’s proved himself to be a good leader for the crew.
I always knew he would—my dad wouldn’t have hired someone he didn’t have faith in.
“Hey guys,” I tell the few crew members who are in the bay. “Meet me in the conference room in ten. Let the others know too.”
“You got it, Lieutenant,” the three volunteers call back.
Since we got the fire controlled, we’ve been alternating shifts out at the scene. We don’t need the entire team of sixteen firefighters tracking hotspots at once, so right now only the four full-time staff and half of the volunteers are here. We’ll have to fill the rest in at some point, but considering Holland could show back up anytime, I want to tell everyone else about her now.
Especially since Hayden and Ethan are in today. Those two are like animals in heat around pretty women, and I have no doubt Holland knows how to work her charm.
Ten minutes later, all the career staff and sixvolunteers—Ethan Langley, Hayden Adler, Kelsey Monroe, Caleb Newman, Travis Hart, and Brian Finnegan—join me in the conference room.
“What’s up?” Finnegan—or Finn, as we all call him—asks once everyone takes their seat.
“Lieutenant Caldwell had a run-in with a reporter a few nights ago,” Chief says, looking to me.
I take that as my cue. “She’s here looking into the fires. I didn’t get many details from her, but she strikes me as the kind to jump to extreme conclusions.”
The crew nods in understanding, not needing me to explain further.
“Why are you telling us now?” Newman pipes up.
“I had a gut feeling she’d be back. When we stopped at The Scarlet, Mary told me she extended her stay indefinitely.” I blow out a breath. “We can’t stop you guys from talking to her, but be careful what you share. We know reporters can be bad news, and I’m not sure what it is this woman is looking for. If you do speak to her and have any insight or opinion on what she says, please let me, Lieutenant Madison, or Chief Whitlock know as soon as possible. You know how rumours spread in this town, and we want to avoid that. Got it?”
The crew nods again, a low hum of voices filling the room.
“Good. Any questions?”
Langley raises his hand, unsurprisingly. “What’s she look like? You know, so we have an idea of who to be on the lookout for.”
His question doesn’t faze me. “Trust me. You’ll know her if you see her.”
He falls back in his seat, smirking.
“Anything else?” Chief calls from the back of the room. No one says anything more, so we dismiss them.
Everyone heads back to finish the various jobs they were working on, and I make my way to my office to finish up some paperwork. Now that most of the crew knows, a bit of the weight has been lifted. But I still get the feeling that something bad is looming.
And my guess is that Holland Rhodes will be the cause.
CHAPTER 6
Colson
The seventh fire of our season started on a Monday, and it took another six days to get it controlled. Three of those were spent digging the line, while the other three were spent chasing the fire down to the lake and putting out any spot fires that popped up across the barrier. Now that the fire’s controlled, the mop-up crews with BCWS have come to give us a hand. It’ll be up to them to extinguish the flames over the next few days. Our team will monitor the fire line until it’s out and for some time after to make sure it continues to hold, but we don’t need to be there constantly.
We were out this morning, but after doing a few walks of the line and scanning for hotspots outside the barrier, we made our way back. The volunteers who could stay are still here, and we’ll all be spending the night here so we can head out again first thing tomorrow. For now, Beau is running drills with the team, while I’ve been working on getting my report for these past few days written.
This fire spanned a total of 10.2 hectares by the time we got it controlled, which is the biggest fire this area has seen in nearly twodecades. On top of that, four days into fighting that one, half our team got called to assist in putting out another one on the opposite side of Sugar Lake. We aren’t sure if it was a zombie or a spot fire resulting from a stray ember from the first one, but it was caught and controlled quickly. BCWS should have it out within the next few days, then we’ll head there to check for hotspots too.
It’s been a lot mentally, knowing that despite our best efforts, these fires show no sign of slowing down. Late spring normally grants us some reprieve from the flames, but this year it’s shaping up to be the worst month yet. All we can do is fight the fires and cross our fingers that the rain will come soon.
In desperate need of a break from paperwork, I decide to head to the bay to get some cleaning done. The trucks may not have reached the fire this time, but that didn’t stop them from being coated in a layer of soot and ash from the smoke in the air. It’s probably pointless to clean it now given that we’ll be right back on scene tomorrow, but it’s a simple, mind-numbing task, and a much-needed break from everything else going on right now.
