It was a hot July 5th at 0630 a.m.and all radio traffic was quiet all over the county. The fire fighters at Station number one were letting the one inch fire hoses hang to dry after a busy fourth of July. "So how did the shift go yesterday fellas?" Lt. Rodriguez asked the other firemen as they leave from their twenty four hour shift. "Hey L.T., Busy, a couple of grass fires, a structure fire and a bunch of E.M.S. assist calls." Don, a rookie fireman answered. As the day go goes on, the firemen at Station number one replace the hose used in engine number two from the day before and restock medical supplies. Nathan, one of the firemen, decides to take a quick bathroom break. What he doesn't know, is that two of the other firemen have plot a prank that involves Nathan being in the bathroom. Chad and Chris, two experienced firemen, get a pack of black cat fire crackers, light them, and throw them under the bathroom door while Nathan is busy in the bathroom. The extreme pops and bangs fill the whole bay with echos of what sound like gun fire. Nathan screams in a high pitched manner "My pants are on fire!! My pants are on fire!!" Nathan storms out of the bathroom with this at his ankles attempting to stomp out the flames. He falls on the floor rolling attempting to kick off his pants. Chad and Chris roll on the floor with laughter as do the other firemen coming out of the T.V. room to see what the commotion is about. Not injured, Nathan lay on the floor, pants less, with "tighty whitey" underwear showing; his face is beet red with embarrassment as he notices that all of his co-workers are laughing at his expense. Lt. Rodriguez storms in the bay yelling "What the hell was that!? You two!!" (Pointing at Chad and Chris) "In my office NOW!!" The other firemen try their hardest to hold back laughter, spilling a chuckle here and there.
Somewhere else in the county, a young boy of nine years old is getting ready for bed with the help of his mother. His father, is a Desert Storm veteran whom was wounded during the war and unfortunately lost both of his legs from gun shot wounds. "Ok sweetie, lets brush your teeth." Says the boys mother. "Aw mom, why do I need to brush my teeth TWICE a day??" the boy asks. "Because we don't want you to get cavities now, so go brush and I'll read you a story before bed time ok?" as she smiles dearly at her only child while stroking his damp hair fresh from the shower. She walks into the bed room to help her husband transfer into their bed. She sets his wheel chair on the other side of the bedroom so she doesn't trip and hurt her toes like she has in the past. "Honey, my back is bothering me, I think I'm going to take a couple of muscle relaxers." He tells his wife. "Ok, hun, just don't take too much, last time I had a hard time waking you up. Did you put those fireworks away from yesterday? She asks. "Ok dear. I put them on top of Jeremy's closet" he finishes. After a bed time story, the woman goes to lay next to her husband.
Meanwhile at Indian Village Fire Department, the air is filled with smack talk and yelling as the fire fighters are having a race car video game competition. Right now, the game is Chad versus Nathan and the tension is high. The other firemen on duty include, Lt. Rodriguez, Max, Chris and two volunteers named Stan and Paul. As everyone is filled with adrenaline in the living quarters of the station, Lt. Rodriguez sits in his office reviewing paper work to make sure there are no mistakes. Lt. Rodriguez has been a firefighter for six years. He started off as a volunteer with Chad and Chris at another station before they were shut down. He went through the fire fighting academy at age nineteen, took his job very seriously and felt he had to prove himself as a young officer in the Department since others knew him before he held his current position. He usually partnered up with Max because they went through the academy together and both of them were very familiar with one other's technique to fighting fire. Besides, they were a brotherhood and your "battle buddy" became like your brother because you constantly had to lay down your lives for one another. Lt. Rodriguez took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes and yawned. He decided to take a quick break from all of the paperwork to see what game the other guys were making such a big deal about. As he walked into the room, he sees Chad leap up with his arms up in the air as victorious from the game. Nathan and the other firemen laughed at Chad as he gave a victory dance that he, himself called the "Will Smith". Lt. Rodriguez looked at the other guys and began to miss just being apart of the crew and not having to worry about paperwork, staff scheduling, training and the responsibility of loosing firemen in action. Rodriguez lost a few good firemen as part of the search and rescue squad a couple of years ago before he became a Lieutenant. They were good friends and although others would say that it wasn't his fault, he still blamed himself for not being as vigilant as he felt he needed to be. Then, the fire alarm rings; the dispatch relays this message "Fire alarm to Indian Village fire, please respond to a possible structure fire at 5509 Holler Creek. Be advised that they're are reports of people still in the house." The cheering stops suddenly and all eyes look to Lt. Rodriguez.
Its 12:30 a.m. and the mother of the nine year old boy wakes up to the sound of popping outside and the smell of smoke. She gets up from bed and puts on her slippers, then all of a sudden, she hears a scream coming from her little boy's room. She runs to her son's room to find that the curtains have caught fire. The boys room quickly fills with flames and his mother sees a box of fire works next to his bed. The flames have spread from his curtains to the carpet, to his bed and quickly engulfed the room. She runs to whip her little boy up from the dangerous flames. She looks back at the door to find a way out with the child in her arms crying and screaming for his father. She yells for her husband "THOMAS!!! THOMAS!!!" From next door her neighbor, Sam, can see the flames from the open window and quickly calls 911. Inside the engulfed home, Thomas, the boy's father is still asleep unable to react to the commotion. The mother of the boy begins to cough from the smoke and so does the boy. Sam, runs to the second story house and yells to the second floor where the flames are rushing out, "MAGGIE!! ROGER!! THOMAS!!" Maggie, the boy's mother tries to yell again, but coughs from the smoke again. She begins to feel faint and she loses consciousness along with her son.
The fire fighters at Indian Village Fire Department are gearing up for this dangerous mission. As Chad takes the position of Fire Apparatus Operator, Lt. Rodriguez gets into the front passenger seat as incident commander. Max sits behind the driver as lead nozzle man, Chris next to him as back up nozzle man, Nathan sits behind the Lt. Rodriguez to take position of hydrant man and the two volunteers head to the scene in their own vehicles. As they are en route to the scene, Lt. Rodriguez gives notice to the dispatch, "Indian Village Engine 1 to Fire Alarm."
"Go ahead Indian Village Engine 1"
"We are en route with a crew of five"
"Received Indian Village, en route with a crew of five. Be advised that there have been several calls now reporting that screaming has been heard from the structure."
Lt. Rodriguez looks back at the other firemen and radios back, "Received fire alarm."
Chad looks at Lt. Rodriguez and asks him if he is okay. "Boys, this situation doesn't look pretty. I want you to be vigilant, back each other up, no mistakes today ok? No one dies!! You hear me!?" Rodriguez replies. "Yes sir!!" The men reply back. Chad puts it a CD of a song called "Sic" from a band called "Slipknot" and raises the volume to get all the men pumped up. Max then yells, "Lets fight some flames!!" The men reply with a yell, "YEAH!!"
Engine 1 pulls up to the engulfed home and see all of the bystanders surrounding the home. Rodriguez radios in "Indian Village Engine 1 to Fire Alarm, we are on scene and have a confirmed structure fire of a single family dwelling. We are going to require addition units to effectively extinguish this structure." "Received Engine 1 we will page for additional assistance." Chad parks the engine in front of a hydrant two houses up the street. Nathan quickly jumps out of the truck and pulls off the hydrant house from behind the truck and hooks it to the hydrant with the hydrant wrench. Chad quickly puts the truck in park, runs to the water control station on the engine, Max rushes to pull off the one inch hose from the truck while Chris runs behind him to await the water pressure charge from Chad and the two volunteers, Stan and Paul show up just a moment later. Lt. Rodriguez along with the Indian County Sheriffs, clear the area of the bystanders. "We need ventilation!! Stan, Paul pull off those fans and get to the front and rear doors!!" Lt. Rodriguez commands. Another rescue truck radios in they are on scene. Engine two from Indian Village Fire is the other truck that shows up. Philip is driving with the rest of volunteer firemen at the other seats. Lt. Rodriguez sighs in relieve as he sees Philip get out of the truck to work the pumps as Chad is. "Hook up your truck to ours to we get some H2O flowing between our trucks!" Rodriguez commands a volunteer he doesn't recognize. "We need a ladder on that roof to give it some ventilation!!" He orders to two other volunteers. As the firemen are working on getting as much smoke out of the home as possible, Lt. Rodriguez sees the Assistant Chief, Travis Show up on scene. Travis walks up to Rodriguez, "What do we got L.T.?" Travis asks. "We a got an obvious structure fire and we have three possible victims on the second level. I need to get up there Chief." Travis looks at Rodriguez knowing that if any man can fight his way through a burning home, its Rodriguez. "You're a Lieutenant now, let our men do your old job." the Assistant Chief says as he walks away to talk to Philip. Chad yells to Max and Chris, "Ready charge!!" "Ready!!" Max and Chris yell back. Rodriguez looks at all the volunteers to realize that these "kids" of eighteen years old do not have the experience he does. He feels that he needs to go in to that house because he fears the volunteers will not get the job done and possible attain injury of worse. So he yells to his crew, "Max, your on me!! You!" (pointing to Stand whom just got back from setting a fan to ventilate some smoke out of the home in the back door) "Back Chris up, on hose, Chris you got lead!!" Rodriguez then turns to Max and says, "Listen brother, we need to get in there and pull out who the hell is ever in there, I can't count on anyone but you. Travis doesn't want me to go in there but shit, who else can do this better than us?" Max looks at Rodriguez with a look of astonishment, surprised that he is going to work this fire and not just yell orders. "Lets do this brother!!" they shake hands and run to grab tools from the fire truck. Rodriguez grabs an ax as he always has and Max grabs a Halogen tool. They race to Travis whom has now taken command due to a higher rank than Rodriguez and give them their badges for accountability. "L.T.!!" Travis yells at Rodriguez, "You sure about this?" Rodriguez replies, "If anyone is going to get those people out, its me Chief." They run to the fire truck to pack on their Breathing Apparatuses. They then quickly get to the front door of the house, kneel and begin to crawl into the smoldering flames which have now reached to the downstairs level. They crawl with Rodriguez in the front and Max holding on to the Lieutenant's pant leg as to not lose him in the heavy smoke. "FIRE DEPARTMENT!! IS ANYONE IN HERE!!" The two rescuers shout as loud as they can through the heavy breathing masks they have on. They make their way up stairs, the smoke gets heavier and the heat becomes more intense. At this time they can feel the roar of the flames' vibration in their chests. They start from right to left and open the first door to only see it's only a linen closet with partially charred towels and some children's toys. They check the next door to the left. It's a bathroom with no one in it. "FIRE DEPARTMENT!! IS ANYONE IN HERE!!??" They continue to shout. They go to the next door on the left to find a very smokey room. They crawl inside and Rodriguez uses the butt of his ax to feel for any persons on the floor. He feels something and takes a closer look. He sees the boys face and his mother next to him. "WE GOT A BODY!!" He notifies Max. Rodriguez radios it in. "Search and Rescue team one to Command!! We have two bodies in here, can not tell if they are breathing, we need a ladder up to the second level, second window on the east corner of the home NOW!" Travis replies, "Received rescue one, stand by we are on the way, good job!!" Three volunteers go up the high ladder to the second story home and bring down the woman and child safely.
Assistant Chief Travis and another volunteer fireman take the woman and child toward two ambulance units near by. The woman is assessed by Paramedics and is breathing. She is coughing through her oxygen mask and asks, "Where is my son? Is he okay?" "He's fine ma'am he is breathing and regaining consciousness. He has some burns but we are going to transfer you two to the same place." one of the paramedics respond. "Oh thank God" she says with relief. "And my husband?" she continues. "Where was your husband the last time you saw him ma'am?" the paramedic asked with concern. "He was in our bedroom before the fire." she replied with much trouble. The two Paramedics look at each other then radio in, "Medic six to command, be advised there is another male in the home."
In the midst of the flames, Rodriguez and Max are still on a complete sweep of the house. "Command to rescue team one." Travis radios. "Go ahead." Rodriguez replies. "We just got Intel from the patient that her husband was in the bedroom when the fire began." "Received command we are still on a sweep and we will look out." So Rodriguez and Max continued into the final door of the upper level of the room. With the firemen outside the house fighting the flames, the visual of the house is even more difficult to see with the water against the fire producing a heavy white smoke that is filling the whole structure. The two firemen crawl beside a king size bed to fine a figure on the floor with one hand on what seems to be a charred wheel chair. The two men flip the victim over on his back, to see if he may still be alive. With the heavy smoke forming more and more from the fire being extinguished from outside firemen, the two men have to get very close to see. Rodriguez gets in close to see the face of the victim and notices that his face and neck are completely charred. "He's dead!! We need to get him out of here still though!!" Rodriguez shouts to Max. "Okay!! Let's drag him inside of a sheet!!" Max replies. Rodriguez grabs a sheet off of the bed though its burned half way. They wrap turn the man onto a sheet. While Max pulls on the sheet, Rodriguez attempts to pull on the arms. Rodriguez slips and falls back to see that the charred skin on the man has come off. So they both carry the man down the sheet.
Chad and Stan are in the bottom level of the home fighting the fire. They see Lt. Rodriguez and Max coming down the stairs. Chad and Stan clear a way for them to pass by and yell for more volunteers to assist with the charred and smokey body. Rodriguez and Max lay down the body on the front lawn as on lookers scream and gasp at the sight from a distance. Two other paramedics from Medic 10 on standby quickly come to their aid. The paramedics pronounce him dead minutes later.
The flames from the house are all extinguished and the stench of charred, treated wood and burned flesh fill the air. The home's main structure was still standing but everything inside was a total loss. The fire was fought for over an hour and the Fire Marshall with an Arson investigator is there to assess the damage done. The Arson investigator determines the fire was started by bottle rockets shot from a window in the little boy's room. He said that everything went up in flames so fast that the husband, Thomas, couldn't get out in time and along with the muscle relaxers that Maggie, his wife, told the investigators about, contributed to his delay in escaping the flames. The two houses on both sides of the burned home had heat damage and the paint on their houses melted. The fire was extremely hot and one of the worst the men had seen in their short careers.
Back at the station, the men go through the process of cleaning up, refueling the equipment, hanging and replacing the used hoses. That night, all of the men stayed up talking to one another about the incident. As most firemen do, they have a defense mechanism to look at the lighter side of things. They pat one another on the back for a job well done. Assistant Chief Travis makes a quick speech about a how well the team did, and how the department was a "well oiled machine." Lt. Rodriguez and Max were given praise for running into a fire that most firemen would avoid at all cost but Rodriguez lay in bed that night quietly sobbing because he knew that this person, was a father and husband; He was a person who was loved and again he couldn't pull him out on time. Rodriguez wipes his tears and fears that this person's face would be just another to haunt his dreams.
