“The Lobby.”
“Good. How many companies should be in the first in team?” she asked.
Carver guessed, “Two engines, two ladders?”
“Wrong. What are the assignments of the three floors below the fire floor?” Vanessa asked rapid-fire.
“I-I don’t know,” Carver stammered.
“The first responding team is two ladders and an engine company. The floor below the fire is the Operations area. Two floors below is the Resource Post for equipment, and three floors below is the Medical Rehab for checks on firefighters and civilians,” Aiden shot back with annoyance. Erin couldn’t blame him. This was basic information.
“You asked him the questions too fast,” Luna said. “He’d have remembered with more time.”
“He should have known if he were reading and paying attention. If you paid attention to his education instead of your police officer boyfriend, you’d know he isn’t up to date,” Aiden growled.
The tension between the two built, demonstrating again why dating was taboo inside the firehouse. Their six-month love affair had reduced them to six months of bickering with a sore spot being Luna’s new man. Ex-captain Soto publicly throwing his weight behind Luna’s application in June had only accentuated the problem.
“Let’s do something more basic,” Erin interrupted before it got out of hand. “Why do we ventilate the fire? Do not use ‘MetroGen’ in a sentence.’”
“Ventilation controls the fire by providing oxygen in a place of your choosing. The fire usually moves toward the hole you made. Gives us an opportunity to control and extinguish,” Carver said securely.
Luna smirked at Aiden. “See, he knows something.”
“It’s Fire Fighting 101. Tell me one of the basic failures of ventilation,” Aiden said.
“Making the hole too small,” Carver said. “When we cut a hole in the roof, sometimes the vent hole is too small. We needed to cut larger strips.”
“True. And?” Kevin encouraged. He’d been doodling on his napkin and was slowly forming a fire truck with giant wheels.
“Umm, the vent team needs to be careful. They can get burned,” Carver named a baby step.
“Technically, that’s true,” Vanessa cut in because otherwise it would take an eternity. “The biggest issue with ventilation is uncoordinated ventilation. You cut a hole in the roof right above where your team is standing, you’re going to burn them to hell. You open the door at the wrong time, giving the fire air, you’ll burn yourself to hell in a backdraft.”
“Her point is that ventilation can be a great weapon against the fire if it’s controlled,” Erin stated. She, Vanessa, and Aiden were on one accord about Carver: he was great with medicine, but he didn’t know anything about firefighting basics.
“What is the most dangerous thing that can occur for a firefighter during a high-rise building fire?” Aiden asked.
“I can think of a lot of things, but I don’t know,” Carver admitted.
Now everyone was sitting uncomfortably. It was painful to watch this but also equally painful that he didn’t know.
“Oh, my God.” Vanessa was frustrated. “Number one is building collapse like the Twin Towers, but that’s unlikely. The biggest regular danger is wind. Wind can blow right through the building if two windows are opened on opposite sides. It makes the worst ventilation and wind tunnel ever. It will rapidly ignite everything in its path, including you. That’s why we try to keep as many doors and windows closed as we can. Fifteen firefighters almost died once.”
The presence of Carver particularly annoyed Vanessa. It was no secret she worked twice as hard in the fire academy so her fellow cadets would forget that she’d been Ms. Universe. Instead, she wanted them to remember she was intensely competitive and could score a soccer goal at fifty yards out.
Luna sighed wearily. “Carver, go downstairs and pick up Basics of Firefighting Volume 2. We’ll spend twenty minutes reviewing ventilation again.”
“Will do,” Carver said affably. Somehow, he appeared completely unaware of the level of annoyance among his teammates.
Aiden waited until Carver was gone. “He needs to be cut. This is not the job for him.”
“Our job is to teach the probie,” Luna argued.
“He’s terrible,” Aiden contended. “I get that he’s a doctor, but it’s been two months, and I don’t see him making progress.”
“You were spoiled,” Theo said. “Erin and I were firefighters for years when we showed up last year. He could be a slow leaner.” He would know since he’d been a teacher at one point.
“I doubt I learned that slowly as a probie,” Erin said. “‘MetroGen this; MetroGen that.’ We don’t work at the hospital. We work here.”
