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| Page Eleven |
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"Why? Got a reason to be?" "Yeah. A good one. Guess who replaced you while you and Joanne and the kids were having it up in Florida." "No, ..don't tell me..." "Yeah.. Craig Brice.." Johnny said putting on his work shoes. He was so worked up, that he broke a shoelace. Roy was kind enough not to laugh and wordlessly, he handed his partner a package of new ones that he knew Johnny hadn't had the foresight to buy from the drugstore. "Thanks." Johnny said and he unlaced the old and did up the replacement deftly. "I'll tell you why else I'm depressed. We had a new trainee." "Chet didn't.." Roy interjected, his eyes getting real big. "No, .." Johnny sighed. "Chet didn't. He got an earful of just what kinds of things we paramedics go through from Detello and company and chickened out on taking any ride alongs. That delayed him enough that he blew his chance to train in the field this quarter with a squad. He's gonna have to wait until next year to enroll if he's still interested since the next batch of classes have already begun." Johnny said. "Then why are you so glum? You didn't have your paramedic partner trainee from h*ll." Roy asked. "I had a new .... " and he sighed. "..GIRL trainee. And you'll never guess who it was." "Who?" "Brice's cousin." "Brice has a cousin?" "Yeah, and she's nearly as bossy and analytical as he is. Why, we weren't even ten feet out the door on our first run, when she suddenly started quoting rules and regs at me. Said my helmet was too big." "It is. Didn't you learn your lesson when it fell off your head after that monkey virus got to you on that scaffoulding?" Roy said drolly. Johnny blinked. "Would ya look at that. Hey guys.. Would ya look at that?!" he shouted through the kitchen door. "My best bud, my partner to whom I entrust life and limb, agrees with the comments from that annoying probie!!" |
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Naturally, there was no reply from the gang in the kitchen. "You couldn't have been suffering that badly last week, Johnny.." "Oh, really. Pray tell why..." "Henry's not here.." and Roy closed his locker door calmly and left for breakfast. ------------------------------------------------ They had just about finished the pancakes when a station call came out. ##Station 51, Station 10, Truck 127. Battalion 14. ......School fire at Roosevelt Elementary....## Roy's heart skipped a beat. "Oh no.. Not again." Johnny said as he snatched up his jacket. "Roy, now you're gonna do just fine. It's most likely just a false alarm again. Now, come on, let's go.." ##....13000 Technology Drive. 13000 Technology Drive. Cross street, Maple. Time out, 9:57.## "L.A., 10-4. This is Station 51. KMG 365." Stoker replied in communications acknowledgement. They rolled out.. |
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***************************************** From: "Roxy Dee" <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com> Date: Wed Jan 15, 2003 5:44 pm Subject: The Call of Angels~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Station 51 pushed the envelope to arrive on on scene. As it was, they were the first. A stumbling, smoke stained janitor ran out of the building and was met by a throng of teachers who were trying to control their classrooms of children calmly and collectively. They caught him as he fell and lowered him to the ground. One moustached balding superintendant grabbed him by the arms."Charlie! Now that was plumb stupid. The building's clear. You didn't have to go back in there. No boiler's valuable enough for that." Charlie, silver haired and Asian, just coughed, gripping his chest. "Yes... I ...did...sir. The water heater and the gas line's the next room over.. If they go.. The northside classrooms are still evacuating Aghh.. My chest!!" and he gasped, then gurgled. The superintendant heard sirens and looked up to see a fire department rescue squad screech to a halt on the street a safe distance away from the school. Gage and DeSoto stepped out to the nearest bunch of teachers. Frightened kids milled about everywhere. "What's the situation here?" Johnny asked one of them. The young substitute teacher said. "There's a fire in the basement. Boiler room according to Charlie. There's a lot of chemicals stored in there." Johnny ran along to the cab and shouted to Cap and the gang who had just pulled up the red pumper, spewing long hose. "Cap! Substructure. And chemicals!" |
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"I want everybody in full SCBA! " Cap waved on Vince and two other polices cars to begin crowd control. Then he contacted L.A. through his hand held radio. "L.A. We've got smoke showing from a two story brick building. Assign a third alarm assignment." ##10-4, 51. ## And the fire captain heard the dispatcher assign two other stations to the call. Then a teacher ran up to Cap and hung onto his arm. "Listen. There's still people trying to get out on the north side. And we've a man hurt!" she said. "Where?" "He's in the parking lot.." she coughed. "You ok, maam?" Cap said. "I'm fine. Just a little smoke. I gotta get back to my kids.." she shouted and fled his grip. Cap looked around and saw Gage and DeSoto already air bottled and connecting hose to the yellow hydrants on the block. "Gage! DeSoto! There's a victim over there. Check it out!" He saw his men look up and see where he was pointing. Then he called for four ambulances judging from the number of coughing kids he could see crying and sitting on the curbsides. Johnny and Roy abandoned what they were doing to grab their medical gear. Chet and Marco took over their task of charging the hoses. Johnny grabbed the O2 and the biophone while Roy got the drug and IV boxes. "Cap! We're on it.." They soon found the superintendant with Charlie the janitor, who was now unconscious. Johnny reached for the man's neck. "Thready. Might be his heart." The superintendant nodded. "He did say his chest hurt him. I guess he was in the fire too long.." "I'll patch him in.." Roy said, unbuttoning the man's shirt while Johnny set him on some oxygen. He looked up while he fastened the EKG leads to the janitor's chest. "Listen, sir.. Do you know if everybody made it out?" The superintendant, distracted by the melee of panicking children and teachers just mumbled. "I- I don't know. I.. some of the staff seems to think the classrooms on the north side were still trying to make it out." Roy made a decision.. "Johnny. I can't wait. You got things here?" |
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Gage looked up from the BP he was taking on the man. His face filled with doubt about Roy's plans but then he nodded when his ears picked up the sound of Station Ten pulling up into the smoky school yard. "Bring someone with you.." "Cap, I'm going in to help with the evacuation!" DeSoto called out. "Grab a man from 10!" Cap said, waving him on while he filled Battalion Fourteen in on the situation. Roy ran to the open aired engine just pulled up. He waved the station's medics on, "A heart case, near the basketball court..Johnny's with him now. Go. Move.. We have all the gear you'll need." 10 's paramedics ran. Then he tapped the nearest fireman's shoulder from the bunch pulling hose from the fire engine. The big man turned around. It was Detello. "Well, if it isn't DeSoto. What's up?, er, besides the obvious.." he said with a fleeting smile. But already he was all business. "Evac.. on the north side, Come on..!" Roy said. Detello took his cue from the men from 51 running around with air bottles and he took his own, with an axe and door markers. On a thought, he grabbed an asbestos blanket. "What's with that?" Roy asked as they ran towards the smoking building. "Just a hunch, Roy. Can't explain it." DeSoto and Detello put on their face masks and entered the building. They arrived just in time to help one last teacher make it to the sunlight. Detello gave her some air through his mask as they helped her to her kids in the clearer air. They set her on the ground. "Just keep breathing a few on this.." Detello told her. "You'll be fine." The young teacher pulled it away. "I'm missing Cindy. Oh my g*d." A stab ran through Roy's stomach and his world dimmed. He looked up at the building from which flames now rose and a chemical stench. ::Ammonia..:: He heard Detello question the woman and soon, they got hasty directions to that classroom. The big firefighter waved over an arriving fire station to take care of the woman and he and DeSoto put back on their masks and helmets and both ran back to the door they had just gone through getting out. Detello still carried the asbestos blanket, like a football. Roy smacked Detello's arm. "Which way?" "Left! Down the hall. First room on the right by the stairwell. Watch the right. It's a door leading to the sub basement. Bound to be hot!" Roy got on his hand radio and told the Batallion station they were searching for a victim and where. They entered a third grade class room which was barely visible in the smoke. "Hey! can anybody hear me!" Detello shouted. |
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Roy and he searched and upturned desks hastily, crouching low enough to the floor so they could see their boots and any body they might find. The heat, was oppressive and they could hear the sizzle in the air from the leaking ammonia creating thicker gases and smoke near the ceiling. The noise of flames and the alarm bells forced Detello and Roy to use hand signals to communicate while they searched both that classroom and the next. Roy paused at each door and closed it, after marking it with a search slash when they were through. "She couldn't have gone far.. The exit's right there.." Roy said in frustration through his mask. Detello's head snapped around at a sound only he heard and he pushed Roy back into the lockers and brought both of them down to the stone tiles in the hallway. There was a huge explosion that ripped through the sub basement and blew out all the classroom windows of the school. |
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| Click the Resuscitator to go to Page Twelve :) |
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