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************************************************* From: Jeff Seltun <finiterider@yahoo.com> Date: Fri Jul 13, 2007 7:10 pm Subject: The Storm Waif.. The storm raged outside, the rain falling heavily in through the chilly autumn air onto the roof of Station 51. It was two a.m. A rustling caused Henry to pick up his head from the couch in the darkness as the shuffling booted feet of all six of the gang got louder. A light switch flicked on. "Man, what time is it?" Gage mumbled, rubbing his face sleepily as he squinted in the bright lights. "A bad time." retorted Chet. "We're not sleeping any more." he replied crankily, seating himself heavily into a kitchen chair at the table while he adjusted the straps on his pullup trousers. Then his expression completely about faced. "Who's turn is it to put the coffee on?" Hank came into the room and immediately grimaced, fending off the kitchen lights with a hastily raised arm. "Oh,.. that smarts. Somebody, go kick on the emergency lights, would ya. My eyes are bleeding." he groused. "I got it." slurred Marco, pushing a chair in front of him as he blindly progressed across the kitchen to the unit above the doorway. He unsteadily climbed up onto the chair and punched it on manually. Two soft domes flooded out right after Cap flicked off the main ones, leaving the room in a soothing, sleepy pinkish glow. "Ah,, that's much better." Cap said, making his way over to the frig to dig out a carton of milk. "2 % or skim?" he asked the room at large. Shadows around him animated as the gang called out their preferences, all except Chet. "I'll take mine decaf.." Kelly said unenthusiastically when he realized no one wanted to reach full wakefulness consciously. "On second thought. Skim, with ginger cookies." "There aren't any left." said Mike Stoker, downing the last one from the box. "Hey!" Chet complained. "You know the rules. Leave one until it's replaced." "We can't go shopping now, can we? We're on duty." said Marco, yawning as he wrapped Henry over his lap to try and get warm. "Brr.. it's so cold. Cap, can we turn on the heater?" |
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Morning!" Gage said as he cheerfully sailed into the kitchen. "What a beautiful day." he said. "Beautiful to you. The rest of us needs a little more than three hours sleep to feel resurrected, pal. So stop rubbing it in." Chet frowned as he followed him. "It's not a nice day, it's a frosty one." "But the sun's out. And there's no wind." Johnny grinned. "I like it tropical." Chet groused. The sound of a frozen palm frond landing on the roof made all of them look up. "See, our palm trees out there are agreeing with me." Gage shrugged and broke out the coffee. Marco, was already cooking morning tacos. The heady spices almost made the others forget their futile sojourn to the rec room during the night. Cap raised his eyebrows. "Chores before we eat?" "Yeah, I want to digest a little, peacefully, afterwards, if I'm going to gorge." said Stoker. Hank laughed. "Okay, Mike you got the bathrooms. Roy and Johnny, the mopping. Chet, take out the trash." Kelly celebrated. "That's short. I'm so on it." he said, moving to the sink and the can under it. He pulled out the bag and tied it shut. "Marco, extra jalapenos on mine if you wouldn't mind." Lopez smiled. "Coming right up." he said, stirring the meat. Chet left the kitchen for the apparatus bay. He picked up the trash from next to the engine and the bio hazard bag from near the squad and he struggled to open the rear side door with his free foot. He finally made it outside, making his way into the backyard blindly. A soft weight snagged both of this shoes and he nearly pitched forward onto his face. "What th-?" he startled, tossing away the heavy load to save himself as he pinwheeled. Kelly looked down, wondering what the debris was that had tangled him. He gasped, soundless. It was a half grown child, wrapped in part of the tarp that used to be on the old engine in the backyard. She was bundled poorly, soaking wet, and unconscious. Her skin was blue. "Hey! Are you okay?" He shook her shoulder, and found all of her muscles stiff. She stayed silent. |
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"Oh, sh--" he swore. "Guys, get out here on the double!" he shouted, crouching down to roll her carefully over onto her back. "We've got ourselves a runaway. Looks like she's been out here all night!" His fingers tipped back her head and chin as he listened for active breath sounds. There were none. "Sh*t." Kelly said, beginning mouth to mouth. "Guys! Grab the gear!" Her throat was so cold, Chet wasn't sure if she still had a pulse. Hank and the others flew out of the rear garage door when it suddenly activated from the hit switch. Their arms were soon heavily laden with medical equipment. Johnny and Roy rushed over. "Cap! It's a young teenager. Fourteen or so. Might be hypothermia." he said, bending down over her and looking at her eyes quickly. Kelly began to talk, fast, when Stoker took over ventilations on the girl for him with a demand valve. "I can't find a pulse. It might not be there." Gage sighed. "They're reactive. She hasn't been down that long. D*mn, is she icy! Might be too cold to shock if she's actually arrested." Johnny said, carefully searching for a beat at her neck. "I'll call it in. Marco, go grab the stuff out of the dryer. We need to warm her up asap." Cap ordered. Johnny shook his head in frustration. "Still can't find it. But she's supple." he said, straightening up to place a hand on her sternum for C.P.R. |
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"Wait a minute. Open her shirt. I'll scope her." Roy told him, breaking out the defibrillator paddles. He turned on the machine. Cap and Johnny ripped the stained clothes away from the girl's chest and Kelly rapidly dried the frost off her skin with one of the steaming blankets Marco had grabbed from the running dryer just inside the rear bay doors. The datascope whined into life and Roy turned a knob to passive read when the monitor fired up. He placed the paddles into position and pressed down. "Artifact.. She's still too wet." he said, pulling them off. Cap and Chet scrubbed harder, and firmer with the hot wool. "Okay, hold it. Hold it." DeSoto said as Johnny fumbled for a stethoscope out of the I.V. box. Roy tried another reading. Everybody started holding their breath. DeSoto blinked. "She's idioventricular at twenty. But it's not effective enough. Start CPR. But go easy. Her heart's so chilled, it might stop. Somebody get a temp on her. Don't jar her unnecessarily." Marco started compressions carefully, timing them with Stoker's thumb triggered breaths on the resuscitator, so he didn't prevent any chest rise when it came. Gage pulled his listening drum away from her ribcage. "I can barely hear it. It's weak, irregular." Hank got up and ran for the alcove. "L.A. This is Captain Stanley. We've a still alarm at our locaton. Roll an ambulance and P.D. to Station 51's backyard. Our victim's a minor." |
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************************************************** From : patti keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> Sent : Thursday, July 19, 2007 2:47 PM Subject : The Icy Edge... Hank jogged back to the others, after turning on the laundry sink next to the mop cupboard, filling its basin with hot water. "We've got to get her inside, Cap, and off this cold ground." Roy said. "Chet, go grab a long board. Rush it." Hank ordered. Kelly left at a run, tossing a pair of clothes shears onto the girl's stomach. "Those are your sharpest ones." he said. Roy picked up the scissors and began cutting away all of the chilled girl's soggy wet sweater, jeans and underclothes. "Also throw some of our picnic hot packs into the sink. Bring a bucket of hot water, too!" he yelled after Chet. "I'll get that internal temp reading." said Cap, kneeling in the grass. He reached into the trauma box for a rectal thermometer. He shook his head in dismay as he looked down. "She's dehydrating already." he said, noticing a large pool of dilute urine leaving her body. Gage swore. "D*mn. Her core's probably below 32°C. Cap, take it anyway to confirm that. What it is will determine what we can do. Rampart's gonna wanna know where she's at to start." DeSoto picked up the biophone and carried it to the open floor space inside the garage behind the rescue squad. He turned on the garage heaters, full blast. Then he went back outside for the rest of their gear. Thinking ahead, he tossed a couple of I.V. bags of saline solution into the full steaming bucket Chet set against the wall nearest him, along with a couple of 100 ml bolus syringes, still in their wrappers. Together, all six of the gang got the blanketed girl bundled onto the wooden board for the trip into the station. "I got a bunch of thermal packs soaking." Chet told Roy, getting out of Marco and Stoker's way as the girl was set down onto the concrete for a resumption of CPR. Roy hit the close switch on the garage door to shut out the cold. "Get them out as soon as they're bathwater temp and set them around her groin, under axilla and along both sides of her neck." DeSoto ordered. "Cover her trunk and head up again. But don't rewarm her arms and legs yet." |
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Cap pulled out the thermometer, and read it against the lightbulb of Gage's penlight. "89.6°F." "That's severe." Gage told him. "Okay. Thanks." and he opened a channel to the hospital. He glanced at his partner, who had finished rigging up and sticking on electrodes for a fast EKG strip. "How's she doing now?" Roy sighed as he worked on checking and rechecking connections. "Still no palpable pulse. She demonstrating Osborn waves, irregular T wave inversions and a prolongation of PR, QRS, and QT intervals. That ineffective rhythm's now ten." DeSoto replied. "Let me see.." Johnny asked as he waited for a reply back. Chet turned the monitor until Johnny could read the screen. "At least it's not atrioventricular or anything agonal." Gage said. "Point in her favor." Roy agreed. "Make your compressions lighter, Marco. We don't want to move too much of that chilled blood around. She doesn't need a lot of oxygen right now. Just a bit of perfusion to correct her chemical imbalances until we warm her up again." "Okay." said Lopez, frowning as he began easing the CPR into shallower repetitions. "Sorry. I forgot for a moment." "You're doing fine." Roy smiled, as he checked the girl for a pulse. It came only with Marco's compressions. "She's not critically cold. We can reverse this fairly quickly if being chilled is her only problem." Reassured, Marco relaxed, nodding. His efforts smoothed out. Stoker heard a knocking at the side door and looked up from where he was working on ventilating the girl with the demand valve. "It's the police. I think it's Vince." "I'll get him." said Cap and soon, the traffic cop was striding towards them. Rapidly, Hank filled Vince in on the situation. Vince nodded. "Okay, Hank. I'll call a judge to have her put in protective custody. As for treatment authorization, just my being here's good enough. I'm all you need for that. This is life threatening." |
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Johnny tossed his head in satisfaction when the biophone came to life. ##Unit calling in, please repeat.## said Dr. Brackett over the landline. "Rampart, this is Squad 51. We've a fourteen year old female. Unconscious after what we believe was exposure to the cold all last night. No shock was advised on monitor, but there were no vitals signs palpable, even after a check of a minute or two. We've an unorganized ventricular rate around ten with J-waves. CPR, oxygen administration, and rewarming measures are in progress. Core temperature is reading at 89.6°F, with reactive pupils. Uh, she's also showing signs of active cold diuresis." ##All right, 51. Maintain her respiratory resuscitation rate and CPR as normal, but increase the duration of your pulse checks to 30 seconds. Insert an endotrachael tube to guarantee that airway. That intubation won't put her at any more risk of ventricular fibrillation than normothermic patients from vagal stimulation. She's already too slow. Obtain a vascular route and administer a fluid bolus of 300 ml warmed NS, from a 1000 ml bag. Be sure to shake it well to avoid hot spots. If she develops atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, PVCs, or atrioventricular block, don't treat her at all. Specifically, don't give atropine and don't use the pacemaker setting on your defibrillator. If she goes into V-fib or pulseless V-tach once she's a little warmer, defibrillate one time at 200 joules. I'll authorize 350 mg of bretylium slow IV push only if that ventricular rhythm looks like its gonna degenerate. Send me a strip. I want to confirm your findings.## "10-4, Rampart, sending you a strip." Gage replied. Roy relayed their telemetry, gesturing for Marco and Stoker to pause CPR for those fifteen seconds. Brackett spoke up again. ## Good call starting CPR. That's not an organized enough rhythm. We'll perform bypass rewarming once she gets here. Insulate her to prevent further heat loss and keep her completely horizontal. If she's still losing that fluid aggressively, go ahead and repeat that heated bolus as often as necessary, until you end it. Let's consider her blood glucose and treat accordingly. Test her levels. If she lapses into asystole, use CPR only. Her liver's too cold to metabolize ALS drugs. Attempt temporary ventricular pacing once she's warmer than 90°F to support the heart rate if it is still slow enough then, to impair hemodynamics. Bring her in gently, 51.## |
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Gage rubbed his forehead as he recited back their orders, word for word. The gang fell silently busy, trying to save the young runaway's life. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The doors of the Emergency Room burst open. Dixie McCall and Dr. Brackett met Johnny and Roy as they wheeled in their hypothermic teenager. Kel noticed right away that CPR wasn't being done. "What's she at?" he asked. Gage continued to steer the bed rapidly toward the dialysis room they were headed for. "She's breathing, but in AIVR. Thirty five at the carotid with an occasional beat palpated at the brachial." "Did you need to sync?" "No, she seems to be coming out of it a bit." Roy replied. Kel eyed their monitor as they hurried down the hall. "That's more like it. Temperature? Glucose?" Dr. Brackett said. "91.0 °F and 80." Roy answered. "Okay.." Brackett said as the entered the stabe room they had set up. "Dixie.. I want some blood tests. The complete workup. Also cardiac enzymes. There's still the possibility of acute myocardial infarction if she's a drug user. I want to check her renal status with a BUN and creatinine. If she proves to be a previous heart patient, this accelerated idioventricular rate may be due to prescription digoxin toxicity. Get a chemistry panel, including electrolytes, and a magnesium level." McCall nodded, accepting the chart he had just signed."Right away, Kel." Johnny locked her bed wheels and switched over her O2 while Roy traded out the outdoors cooled blankets for fresh hot ones from trauma room's autoclave. "What do you want us to do, doc?" Gage asked, keeping a hand on the girl's neck pulse. |
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"Let's try increasing her sinus rate with atropine. She's finally warm enough. Administer 1.2 mg IV. If that doesn't work, we'll try Isoproterenol in a 0.5 mcg/min drip with further pacing." Dr. Brackett told them. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Twenty minutes later, Roy and Johnny left the treatment room and headed for Dixie's desk for much welcomed cups of hot coffee. Johnny leaned heavily on the desk and scrubbed his hair with both sets of fingers. "Man, I'm sure glad she's gonna make it. That was too close." Roy crossed his arms together. "Yeah. But it kind of makes you wonder what she was doing out there in the yard in the first place, doesn't it?" Gage sighed, looking miserable. "We heard her, you know. She must have been the reason for all that pounding on the wall last night." DeSoto shook his head. "No, that was definitely the tree branch. That knocking wasn't coming from the back of the garage. It was loudest in the kitchen." Johnny looked at him. "That still leaves us with a mystery. Why did she come looking for help from us in the middle of the night?" "Maybe she didn't." DeSoto whispered. "You know how suicidals can get." Gage frowned, and pushed away his mug without touching it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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************************************************* From: Patti or Jeff or Cassidy <theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com> Date: Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:40 am Subject: The Face From The Past.. Johnny got out of the squad seconds after Roy was through backing it into the vehicle bay and tried not to look at the pool of drying water still staining the concrete floor behind them where the teen girl had lain. A plugged in PPV hadn't yet dried the spot out completely. "It's only four hours to lunch time, but I'm not even hungry yet." he grumbled to Roy. "Why not? We didn't lose her. And Brackett said that she was almost waking up when we walked by her treatment room and peeked back in, remember?" Roy rejoined, looking surprised as he leaned on the hood of the rescue truck, regarding Johnny with a look. "It's not the fact that we saved her, Roy. It's the fact that she even needing saving to begin with. I mean, what kind of legal guardian would let a girl her age get out in the middle of the night and into so much trouble like that?" Roy studied Johnny's worried face thoughtfully. "Speaking as a parent, you can't watch your kids every single moment of the day. It's impossible. You have to sleep, work, go to the grocery store, what have you. And I can only imagine what it's gonna be like when my kids get to be her age. I'm sure both of them are going to be chafing at the bit to get out a little to see friends and the city sights. Quite frankly, I'm not looking forward to that time at all." Gage stopped rubbing his face wearily. "Why not?" DeSoto smiled. "Because it means that Joanne and I will be letting go a little more, and getting less involved with their lives. Especially when they start asking for those hours of independence. It'll be time away from us as a family." he sighed. "Changes like that, our friends with teenagers are saying, can make you feel a little out of the loop at times." "Yeah, well, this young girl fell completely out of somebody's loop and it's making me real mad if you really want to know." |
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That admission, didn't surprise Roy in the least. He had seen the internal storm in his partner brewing the whole way back from the hospital. "We've done all we can, Johnny. Now it's up to the courts and the legal system to determine where she'll end up again once she's better. If she's truly a runaway, it could be just hormones acting on her. She may have a perfectly decent set of parents out there somewhere who are worried just as sick about her, as you are." DeSoto grinned, winking at his partner. "So don't fret too much." Gage made a face. "I'm not worried about her I'm-- Okay so I'm a little concerned. Geez, Roy, she almost died out there, a few feet away from a whole fire station full of paramedics, firefighters, and rescue gear." Kelly walked by on his way to the showers. He was sweaty from a heavy workout with the station's barbells. "Never get emotionally involved with a victim, Johnny. Don't they tell you that in all the paramedic manuals or something?" he quipped as he went through the lockerroom doors and out of the garage. Johnny snapped. "Why don't you just shut up and mind your own business here. Can't you see that Roy and I are debriefing?" he shouted after him. "No. Sounds like you're drowning, Gage." came Kelly's voice. Johnny's mouth flopped open, and a world of insult began rising in him at the rejoiner. He started after Chet. But then Roy gestured. "Leave him be. He doesn't know the whole story. Come on, let's grab that cup of coffee you never had, to settle your nerves a little. And let's add plenty of sugar to it, too. Believe it or not, you ARE getting hungry. I can tell." "My stomach's not growling.." Johnny complained. "No, but your mood is. Humor me a little." Roy told him as they began walking by the wall map in the garage for the hallway into the rec room. "And drink up a whole lot." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cap and the others looked up from the magazines they were reading in the kitchen. "How's she doing?" Hank asked. The tone of his voice was a little eager, coated most likely because he was a father of children himself. "Better. Headed for a complete recovery." Roy said. "Now all they have to do is determine whether or not she's suffered nerve damage from being cold for so long before we found her. Brain damage won't factor into it at all, because that chill was protecting her even as it deepened and began effecting her heart rate and her limb muscles. That rare frost was pretty light this morning. So frostbite's not an issue." Hank's mouth fell open. "That's a relief. Have they I.D.'d her yet?" |
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"Not yet." said Gage, eagerly spooning in his fourth scoop of sugar into his coffee mug. He elaborately began stirring the mounded pile of crystals floating at the top, until they were dissolved enough for drinking. "It's gonna take a while if she decides on not telling anyone who she is." he said thoughtfully, thinking. The rim of his cup had almost reached his lips when a sudden idea struck, causing him to abandon it onto the table. "Say, Cap. Can I use your phone?" Stanley nodded, still petting Henry. "In my office?" "Yeah." "Is this personal? Or for business?" "Definitely the latter, Cap." "Okay, go ahead. Make an entry into the log about using it and briefly about why for the books." "I will. Thanks. Great.." said Gage distractedly. The others barely heard him mumble as he hurried out of the room. "I can't just sit around here waiting for events to unfold on their own. She's just a kid." "Uh, oh.." DeSoto said, once he was gone. He hadn't heard Johnny's comment. He didn't need to. Gage's new, odd, behavior alone was enough to set off warning bells. "Uh, oh. What?" Hank said, getting pulled away from his stocks page. DeSoto shook his head. "Never mind. I'm not sure what he's up to now and it's probably none of my business for even asking." Hank was mentally sharp. "Is this involving that girl we just treated this morning?" Roy didn't want to say anything. But his face gave him away. "That's not like Johnny at all to act like that about a patient." Marco remarked. Stoker nodded in agreement. "He's a little too attached to his victim, and he's gonna fall." "No, he won't. He's just trying to help." Roy said to them. "Every paramedic's gotta learn sometime that having close emotional ties to a patient only hurts him in the long run. That's why that rule is there. I learned it, eventually." he frowned, thinking back on his own past personal battle with the concept. Hank sighed. "If and when this starts effecting his job, then I'll step in and say something about it directly. Roy, I'm holding you to tell me immediately if this whole deal begins to hamper him on other calls. Last thing I want to see is a hesitant crewman about anything, you hear me?" he asked firmly, worried. DeSoto nodded. "I understand, Cap. You'll be the first to know." he said aloud. Whispering, to himself, he added. "Right after me." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Cap's office, Johnny Gage picked up the phone and dialed the first person on his mind. Dixie McCall, at Rampart. "Hey, Dix. It's Johnny. How's that girl we brought in this morning.. uh huh.. uh huh. What else can you tell me? I mean, without getting yourself or me, in a whole heap of trouble. Dixie, please, this is important. I think I might know her from before I moved to California. You see, I think she's one of my tribe members." he began. |
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On the other end of the line, Dixie grew serious and caretaker eager. ##Tell me what you know already and we'll go from there.## she promised. ##So far, the police have had no luck with obtaining any information at all. It's like she's not on anybody's records anywhere.## "That's because she's from the reservation. We don't give our birth records to the U.S. government until a federal crime's been committed and someone needs to be investigated about it officially. We're our own sovereign nation." ##I get it, Johnny. Now spill the beans. We need her medical records to find out whether or not she's a drug abuser or has a cardiac history. You heard Dr. Brackett. Knowing a positive about either of those two things will have a lot of bearing on how fast she recovers from her ordeal and whether or not she has to be treated further for cardiological or chemical side effects.## said McCall. "Okay, okay. I called you, didn't I? Now hush up for a few seconds, please. This isn't easy for me at all. Because I know I'm going around some real heavy duty tribal laws here just talking to you about her. I think her name's Yellowbird. First name, Joy. I used to see her at the community center for prayer sessions every Friday. At the time, she was being raised by her grandmother, Dawn Sister Yellowbird. Both Joy's parents are dead. They both died from... alcohol abuse. Everyone believes their cross nationality marriage didn't turn out so well because Joy was born too early." he admitted reluctantly. "This information is from six years ago." ##Okay, Johnny. I'll get right on this. I'll say to the police that you were an anonymous tip called into the hospital. Lord knows enough people in the hallway and waiting room saw her rushed in here today to support that particular angle. Do you have the main contact number for your reservation? I'll call there myself asking for Dawn as an official emergency phone call on behalf of Joy.## Johnny gripped the phone even more tightly. "Thanks, Dixie. It means lot to me to get her some more help as fast as possible. I guess it's because I know what it's like not to have any parents around. I was raised by my aunt. Home's in Florida. And the direct tribal council's number is.." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The tones went off twenty minutes later, and Roy noticed that Johnny was jumpier than a cat in a rainstorm when they did. He didn't say anything as he got behind the wheel and buckled in. He watched Johnny write down their response address as it came over the speaker grill. "You ready?" he asked. "As ready as I'll ever be." Gage said, not meaning the upcoming rescue call. ##Station 51, Engine 36, Ladder truck 10. Vehicle over a cliff. Southbound 405 and Avenida at mile marker 16. Southbound 405 and Avenida at mile marker 16. CHP is on scene, reporting light smoke, with a single driver injury.Time out : 0956. Copter two is en route as a new brush fire spotter.## Chet and the others came running and they got into their turnout coats and boarded the engine. "Station 51, KMG 365." replied Mike Stoker, using an HT laying on his driver's seat. Cap broke over Roy and Johnny's console radio on a private, truck to truck band. ##Maybe the hillside's still wet enough from all the rain we got last night. Once we get there, help lay down two inch and halves before getting into rappelling gear. Fire danger assessment's first if smoke's definitely showing.## "10-4, Cap. Assure scene safety. " replied Gage as he fastened his helmet onto his head. "Has L.A. given you a victim update yet?" ##Not yet. Those officers are away from their bikes with their hands full. Their dispatch channel's been real quiet. The only word is that they're down a steep hill, close in, with the victim.## "Okay. Thanks. Switching back to main." Johnny said, turning the radio back to L.A.'s active response channel for that part of the county. Roaring into the growing white light of a storm clearing sky, Station 51 turned left to head down Wilmington Avenue towards its first freeway access ramp. |
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******************************************************************* From : patti keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> Sent : Thursday, August 16, 2007 2:48 AM Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] Moment of Gravity Engine 51 was the first Ward on the scene. Engine 36, from their sister station along Wilmington Avenue, had not yet arrived. Cap stepped out of the cab and was immediately met by a highway patrol officer as Roy and Johnny, gathered, too, sliding into their duty turnouts. "What have we got?" DeSoto asked the CHiP lieutenant. The highway patrolman said. "A green Chevy. Lost control and rolled about forty yards into the canyon. Better hurry. A fire's started and my partner and I haven't been able to get him out." "All right. We'll take it from here." said Hank, peering over the grassy fringe of the embankment. The report about an active burn was no longer a hopeful myth. A white smoke column was growing far below, marking the place where the crashed car had come to rest. "How bad is he?" Gage asked, completing his pulling anchor on a hose loop around an overgrown freeway hydrant station as Stoker pulled the engine forward to unravel two large lengths of double thickness brush hose. "He's alive, but pinned in. Both doors are jammed. We haven't been able to get them open." replied Officer Jon Baker. "Smells like the undercarriage is catching." said Chet as he rushed by with rappelling ropes to tie off on the engine's front bumper. |
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"It is." said Baker. "We tried to put it out but our fire extinguishers weren't big enough to finish the job before they ran out." "Thanks for trying. Now get yourself and your partner out of there. You're not geared up to handle fire." said Hank. Baker got on his hand held mic connected to his motorcycle and he called down the hill. "Seven Mary Three to Seven Mary Four. Pull out. The FD's here." ##In a bit! I think I almost got him free!## came a hasty reply with the full, angry sound of hungry flame crackles behind Frank Poncherello's voice. Stanley frowned. He knew this particular highway patrol officer. And he knew the man's penchant for rescue recklessness. "Roy, Johnny. Go. That's Ponch. And he's not listening again. Get him out of there now. Then see what you can do for the driver with hand tools. We'll follow you down with our two lines as fast as we can." Kelly darted to each of the paramedics and tied on life lines to their rope belts. "Cap, 36's is here. And I saw Truck 10 doing a U-turn northbound for our ramp." "Okay, pal. Music to my ears. Grab Johnny's rope. I'll get DeSoto's." Cap ordered. Then he lifted his handy talkie. "L.A. Engine 51. Speed up all responding crews. The grass around our car has fully ignited. Send a full brush assignment to Topeka Canyon, mile marker 16." ##10-4. Wind direction is S.S.E. at twelve. Temperature is 82°F. Dewpoint is 64°F. Relative humidity at your location is 30 %## said L.A. "Copy, on the update." Hank replied back. "I confirm your conditions." Roy and Johnny never even heard Cap. They just flipped their descent ropes around the snags in the way as they hurried down the hill with a pry bar and axe for windshield shattering, and a pair of fire extinguishers they had snatched from the squad. Johnny began shouting as they bounced downhill in a rapid rappel. "Hey! Poncherello! Back away from there! Didn't you hear Baker yelling at ya?!" They got to the upside down car and found it fully aflame. Frank was tugging desperately on a car door, trying to shield his hands and face from the heat of the flames shooting up from the underside of the car's leaking oil line. "He's gonna burn if we don't open it now!" Frank replied urgently. Roy shoved himself in front of Frank and forced the officer away with a firm backwards lean as he bit down with a long prybar into the hinge of the crushed driver's door. "We see that. Now get away from these sparks. Your uniform'll catch in seconds if you stay in this close. Go grab a stokes if you wanna help us." "In a pico!" said Ponch, bounding up the hill. He pulled himself up rapidly along Johnny's taut rope. |
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