Page 1 of Dear Mr. Firefighter
“We’ve got a call!” I motioned to the other firefighters and ran towards the locker room to grab my gear.
“Friday night in St. Louis is never dull.” Jon, one of our newest recruits, was the second guy in the locker room.
“Nope.” I shook my head back and forth. “You’re with me tonight. It’s a vacant warehouse, so it’ll be a good opportunity for you to get some experience inside the building.”
“Hell yeah, thanks Cain.” He nodded and a huge smile spread across his face. “I’ve been ready to get my hands dirty since I started!”
“It’s no reason for celebration.” I glared at him and started walking towards the truck.
But you have to learn at some point, even if you are a pompous prick.
Jon wasn’t the first brash young guy to show up thinking he was going to be some sort of real life superhero because he stuffed his balls into a firefighter suit. I had been on the job too long to feel like any sort of hero. A hero saved everyone. We didn’t always get that lucky. Thankfully, the call that came in didn’t require heroics. We just needed to do a sweep of the perimeter, verify that there was nobody inside like the report said, and then hose the whole fucking place down. I didn’t mind calls like that. They were a hell of a lot better than having to face a family and tell them that someone didn’t make it out alive. Jon would have to do that one day, but first he needed to learn how to take care of himself so that he would be able to do everything possible to save other people’s lives when a real emergency call came in.
“Don’t do anything stupid and stick with me the whole time.” I looked over at Jon once I was behind the wheel of the fire truck.
“Yes sir, I will.” Jon nodded in confirmation. “This is what I signed up for, so I’m ready.”
I hope so, but if you’re going to do something stupid, at least you won’t be jeopardizing someone else’s life in the process.
“Okay, it’s right up here.” I pointed. “We’ll sweep the perimeter first and make sure there aren’t explosives nearby that could make this fire worse than it already is.”
I parked the fire truck and the guys on the back started getting the hoses hooked up while I took Jon with me to make a quick lap around the outside of the warehouse. I could already tell that he wasn’t going to listen to directions very well because he kept trying to walk in front of me and ignored a couple of bottles that could have easily been filled with something flammable. I wasn’t eager to take him inside, but it was necessary. He had been at the station for a few months already and eventually, we would need him. I just hoped he learned fast and used common sense rather than misplaced heroism.
“Hold on.” I grabbed his sleeve. “That can right there has liquid in it. We need to dump it.”
“It’s water…” He grunted and walked over. “The can is all rusty and shit—it’s been out here for a while.”
“We check everything.” I slid the can away from the building with my foot, touched the surface of the liquid with my finger, and kicked the can over.
“Water, right?” He put his hands on his hips.
“Yes, but it could have easily been something else. Come on.” I motioned for him to follow me around the corner.
We had a process and we didn’t deviate from it. Yes, a rusty can next to a building was likely just going to be filled with rainwater, but there was a chance it could have been filled with gasoline. It was unlikely that discarded soda bottles were filled with motor oil, but that didn’t mean we ignored them. The process kept us alive and made sure everyone got to return home to their families when the job was done.Allof us knew what we signed up for and we were prepared to give our lives to help others if it was necessary, but that didn’t mean we stacked the odds against ourselves.
“Okay, we’re almost done.” I motioned for Jon to keep following as we rounded the last corner.
“Then we get to go inside.” Jon’s tone echoed excitement—not really what I was hoping for.
I led Jon through the final paces of the perimeter check and then it was time to put on the rest of our gear so we could head inside. The fire wasn’t even close to going out, despite being doused with a decent amount of water while we were sweeping the outside. If this was a true emergency, we would have deployed a team to check the perimeter while another one rushed into the flames, but that wasn’t necessary for a warehouse fire. The place was abandoned and looked like it had been that way for years. It was still necessary to do a quick check, just to be safe. Another part of the process, and one that had resulted in a couple of lives saved over the years when abandoned buildings turned out to be havens for the homeless population in St. Louis. Luckily, this warehouse was too far away from the area where they pandered for money to offer them shelter.
“No, your mask needs to be tighter.” I grabbed the strap on Jon’s mask and gave it a quick yank.
“Ow, fuck.” He grabbed his mask and adjusted it. “You nearly busted my fucking lip.”
“Then put it on right.” I grunted under my breath and motioned for him to follow me. “You don’t want to be breathing carbon monoxide once we get in there.”
“Yeah, got it.” He nodded and started walking behind me.
It was a really quick check. The fire was centralized in the back part of the warehouse, it was just a large open room, and there were no signs of activity. I pointed out the dust near the door to Jon, the lack of fresh footprints, and the other obvious signs that the place was completely deserted. I hoped he was paying attention. There would be come a time when he was the first man through the door and that kind of stuff would be important. Since there was no sign of activity, there was no reason to get close to the fire. Any call that ended without us getting our eyebrows singed was a really fucking good one. I did a few more quick checks, confirmed that what I saw was correct, and then started heading for the exit with Jon following behind me.
“Aw man, that was boring.” Jon pulled off his mask once we got back outside.
“Boring is good. Trust me.” I grunted under my breath and removed my helmet, followed by my mask. “Grab a hose and help them put out the fire.”
“Yes sir…” Jon sighed and walked over to the truck.
It was hard for me to bethatangry at Jon. I was young and brash once myself, but I respected life a lot more than he did because I knew how quickly it could be taken away. I was a Navy SEAL for five years before I came back to St. Louis and became a firefighter. The things I saw in the line of duty made my job as a firefighter less exciting than it was for others, but it didn’t make me value human life any less. It gave me a completely different perspective on the fragile nature of the human race. Waking up each day was a miracle, and some weren’t that lucky. I cherished what I had because I knew how quickly it could go away—in an instant—and you might not even see it coming.
