When the door didn’t open, Theo took a measured step backward. He and Erin shared a look. They had to make a decision. Up and away from the exit or pass through the fire floor below them.
“This is Hudgens and Jefferson of Firehouse 15. We are in the Stairwell B of Sector 26 with six rescues. Does anyone copy? Over?” Erin tried TAC-2 next.
“Rodriguez to Hudgens and Jefferson. Mayday . . . We are trapped . . . Sector 26. There . . . collapse into 25 and maybe 24. . . ” Luna’s voice was distorted over the airwaves.
“Hudgens here. Can you repeat?”
There wasn’t any answer.
The wordless conversation between Erin and Theo continued in the dim rays of their helmet lights. Something must have exploded on 25 and possibly 24. That implied that Chief McClunis and Operations were gone, which explained why communications were a mess.
Theo pointed upward. Erin shook her head and indicated downward. The fire liked to climb, and help was down. If their team had any chance of rescue, it would be coming from below.
Through their masks, they waited, undecided. Most of the time, an officer would have made this choice for them, but they were fresh out of officers. It was up to them.
Finally, Erin tapped Theo’s air gauge on his SCBA. He was almost out of air while she was only halfway done. That broke the impasse.
“We are taking the stairs to floor twenty-two. There is medical and evac area down there. We’re getting you out of here. Follow him single-file. Walk, do not run. We don’t want anyone to fall and break something in the dark,” she announced with a certainty she did not feel. A reasonable authority figure giving them instructions with the illusion of knowledge was exactly what was needed to control the situation.
The six adult civilians picked themselves up and obediently followed Theo. They had to be terrified out of their minds.
Erin took tail, aiming her headlight directly on the stairs since their only illumination left was their bobbing lights.
They were almost to the door of 25 when a second explosion went off. Theo wasn’t close enough to block the door this time; instead, he blocked the civilians with his body. Erin did the same, squashing them against the outer wall.
Erin squeezed her eyes shut and held her breath, waiting. Were they all about to be horribly burned? It was a calculated risk of passing the fire floor.
Seconds and then minutes passed. The hallway door held. The fire hadn’t gotten them this time.
She willed herself to start breathing again. They had to keep going. Every second on the fire floor increased their chance of death. The sooner they moved, the sooner they’d reach safety.
And the sooner they could find the rest of the team.
“Theo, keep going. Everyone, we have to move. Now,” she ordered.
Their procession started again, picking their way through the stairwell. The smoke was being pushed upward which was fortunate for their civilians. The air was pretty clear of smoke by the time they got to Sector 24. Erin resisted the temptation to check the state of Operations. The RIT teams had been there. If they were still there, they could go to Sector 26 now.
That wasn’t possible. Erin had a responsibility to these civilians, and she needed a new air bottle for her SCBA. An uncoordinated rescue attempt could be worse than no rescue attempt.
They got to Sector 22 and walked into chaos. There was a whole bevy of burned firefighters getting patched up. The civilians had congregated by Stairwell B with two harried firefighters from Firehouse 19. They had a clipboard to record names and kept trying to get the civilians to line up.
“We have six civilians from Sector 26. Who’s in charge down here?” Theo asked the firefighters from 19.
“We don’t know. We were ordered up here to keep a headcount on the civilians and start evacuating them down and out of the building. But no one’s here to relieve us in case more civilians come down.”
Theo said, “The two of you take this group down. Give me your list. I’ll stay here for more civilians. Hudgens, you figure out who to report to.” The guys from 19 happily handed their clipboard over and headed out with thirty civilians in tow.
Erin threaded her way through the crowd by the elevators for anything resembling the red helmet of captain or the white helmet of chief. She spotted a white one next to the elevators around a gurney with multiple people actively working on a patient.
When she got close, she saw the patient was Battalion Chief McClunis, barely recognizable by her red hair. McClunis wasn’t in good shape, and one of the nearby firefighters was breathing for her with an Ambu-bag. The whole group hustled onto the elevator, leaving the other white helmeted chief behind.
This chief in question was Fire Chief, Noah Baker, who was in the midst of issuing rapid-fire orders. “I need an ongoing PAR of all units. Find out who’s not accounted for and how many firefighters I still have up there.”
This was the opportunity Erin needed. “Sir, we have members of Firehouse 15 trapped in Sector 26!”
“Sector 26. Floor above?” Baker sidled over to a makeshift table with paper blueprints. “Where? What’s their status?”
“Last location was in the hall on A-side. Lieutenant Rodriguez called Mayday, and her communications indicated she had at least one other member of my team trapped with her. Said there was a collapse to 25 and possibly 24.” She indicated the area on the blueprints.
