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| PAGE THIRTY SEVEN |
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Mike got to Stone's side two minutes later, after being pointed in the right direction by crews already on the job assessing the problem. Ben was deep in plans of the refinery with a team of plant engineers. When there was a pause in orders, Mike stepped forward. "Captain. I'm a fill-in. Stoker, engineer, for Station 51." he shouted to him through the breathing mask. "Drop the formalities Mike. I already know who you are. Everybody on my crew knows each man in your stationhouse intimately. We've been watching over your scene for almost a day now, making sure nothing else went wrong and we were the ones who went over your building to ensure its structural safety." Ben said, shouting loudly to be heard through his own SCBA gear. "Now, I want you to familiarize yourself with what we got.. Two of my men say underneath that natural gas tower spire is where the ground fissure began. It's still settling in areas and that's how a fireman on inspection found it. His truck literally fell into it last tremor.. That is what ruptured the pipeline." Mike Stoker squinted up through his facemask's plexiglass into the sunlight and saw three huge storage tanks full of petroleum ringing them in a triangle and a water cooling facility, networked over their heads, tying the three tanks together into a complicated lattice of ductwork and piping, where the blue sky wasn't showing. Hastily thrown yellow cones had been placed beneath the open area, showing the newly discovered patches of ground instability. From the fissure, rising steam rose into the air and it smelled pungently of natural gas indicator even through his airmask's filter. The earthquake fissure had snaked its way under two large coolant water pipes, just missing the edge of concrete that was the bed for one of the oil storage reservoirs. ::Great, its surrounded by three giant powder kegs.:: Mike thought gloomily. The place where the trapped battalion firetruck stuck front end down into the ground, was being liberally foamed and washed down to keep all possibility of fire from occurring. Dust was still mingling with the steam from the fissure as earth and debris settled restlessly around the aggressive hose wash playing down into it. Stoker turned to Stone. "Your man got out of that truck, ok? " he shouted over the noise of steam and shouts of firecrews giving and carrying out orders. "Yeah, he leaped out the window the second he smelled gas and luckily managed to fight his way out of the growing sinkhole. He says our problem's a transverse pipe break through the mother line leading from tank two here, clean, but entirely severed through." Stone replied. "It's the pooling gas that I'm primarily concerned about right now. Arco's engineers are already passively diverting all the gas out of this nearest substation in prep for a manual shutdown to this broken pipe. It's gonna take a bit. Even though the master valve at the top of this stack has been shut down, gravity will still cause the rest of the gas from that storage tank to drain out through the break. I'd say it's leaking around 200 gallons a minute into the ground. The capacity of that secondary gas holding tank coming from the larger one, is around 250,000 gallons total. Now the facility designers assure me that none of this gas will leak into the water table because an artficial catch barrier lies underneath this whole refinery complex. It was designed that way for just this kind of scenario." "Is the power off?" Mike said. "Yeah. Been so, since the first quake. All the shutdowns the refinery workers have been doing have been done by hand. Work's taking six times longer than normal to carry out their shutdown procedures.. That detail is the only thing keeping us from getting this scene under control as fast as anticipated." "Where do you want me?" "Take a front inch and a half with Stubbs. Then you'll get a better feel for things for that report to your captain. Keep your air bottle on. The wind's not strong enough to keep down these fumes.." Stone said, readjusting his helmet over his mask. "Yes, sir.." Stoker replied, rechecking the straps on his own bottle to be sure they were securely fastened. He ran over through the fire repellent foam and over to the first hose team playing a covering wash over the downed truck and the downhill side of the fissure. He tapped the trailing man's shoulder and took his place. The departing man gave Mike a thumbs up when he recognized the Station 51 engineer and gave him an affectionate thump on the back of his overcoat. |
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Mike grinned, feeling protected and awed once again at the comaraderie shared between their district stations, drawn closer together, in the face of adversity.::And I don't even know him.:: He and others continued to fan a soup of gas hostile chemicals and water through their fire engine hoses into the fissure. Dimly, through the spray of water, Mike could see refinery workers scrambling like ants all over the piping station over his head, turning off valve after valve, in a desperate attempt to curb the leaking gas below. In between a fire engine chemical trade off to their water line, Mike thumbed his HT and spoke to Cap. "Station 51, This is Engine 51.." Cap was on instantly. ##Go ahead Engine 51.## "Cap. An FD vehicle falling into a ground sink caused the pipe break. It's foamed and being washed. But the danger of at least 250,000 gallons of natural gas getting into the ground still exists because the power outtages are effecting mechanized system shutdowns.. Fumes are moderate and blowing down wind away from the boulevard's triage area and you." he shouted through his faceplate. ##Casualities?## "None so far.. And Cap, on a side note.. A man's been sent to the airport for the bats.." ##That's good news.. Watch your back Stoker. Thanks for the report.## Mike Stoker got a go ahead gesture from the new engine's engineer to charge the hose once more to continue their task. "Gotta go, Cap. Let me know what happens over there ASAP." ##We will pal.. Station 51 out.## Cap's eyes were glued to the west and towards the refinery. "Be careful Stoker. Even fumes are enough for a spark to ignite." he mumbled to himself. ------------------------------------------ Roy and the others in the bunk house were all awake and on their feet. Chet was right there by Marco as usual and he shivered, "Man.." he said, "..am I cold. Anyone got a blanket?" Kel Brackett tossed him one, smiling. Kelly bundled himself up inside of it and crossed his arms together to warm himself when a finger snagged on the cotton wad and bandaid Gage had left secured to his arm. "Hey.. What's this?" He immediately recognized the creator of the sinister smiley face drawn there. "Gage..!" he began. Johnny was showing Miss Thorne where to find shower things and a T shirt and jeans to replace her own dirty dress. "Be right there, Chet.." he shouted back from the locker room. Dr. Brackett added, "Before you go ripping into your crewmate about another Phantom strike. Blame me. I ordered him to take blood from you for Marco." |
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