At last, her feet touched the ground. Waiting hands whisked Ethan to the waiting Medic while Luna and Theo checked her over. By the time she was cleared, Ethan was getting his picture taken with Vanessa, whose descent must have been easier than Erin’s.
Williams came up, accompanied by a chief Erin didn’t recognize—though she was getting very familiar with chief uniforms lately. Judging by the two bugles on his collar, this was a battalion chief, and his arm badge indicated a number 6. This must have been Peter McCann from Battalion 6. He was balding and almost sixty.
“Excellent work…” The battalion chief didn’t know her name, and her CCFD crew shirt only read ‘15.’
“Hudgens,” Luna offered.
“Excellent work, Hudgens.”
“Thank you, Chief McCann.” Erin tried to stretch her shoulders after having been harnessed from hips to shoulders.
“Yes, excellent.” Williams scowled at Luna who immediately clamped her jaws shut.
“Great idea having the women go up,” McCann said. “And good job improvising to meet the situation and utilizing your resources.”
“Are you handling the press, sir?” Williams asked. A crowd of reporters had congregated around the entrance by the playground. The police had arrived and were performing crowd control.
“I’ve got it. Is it okay if I use her? Unless you want to be included, Hudgens?” He pointed to Vanessa who was getting her photo taken with Ethan and the reporters.
“I’m okay. Vanessa is a great choice. She’s an officer,” Erin said quickly. Not worth the chance she’d vomit on camera if her body remembered it hated heights.
“How about you, Rodriguez?” McCann asked Luna.
Luna shook her head. If Erin missed her guess, those police cars were from the Second Precinct, and she smarted from the dust-up earlier.
“Overall, I’m very impressed.” McCann slapped Williams on the shoulder. “You’ve only been here for a month, and your team has made a lot of progress.”
Both Luna and Williams bristled. Luna was pissed because it implied that the team had been dysfunctional before; Williams was pissed his orders were questioned and overruled.
They didn’t have more time to work this out. Williams’s radio requested Firehouse 15 to another incident, and they had to move.
Chapter 25
Some days were longer than others. Halloween was always a busy night for firefighters. The huge number of trick or treaters wandering the streets asked for trouble. Halloween was a perfect recipe for alcohol poisoning, candy choking, fistfights, lost kids playing ghost in the graveyard, and the yearly ritual of house fires from short-sighted candle care.
As expected, Noah’s day was taken up by an Amazon warehouse inspection. The extensive staffing had been no joke. The building was an indoor football field populated by robots and their human handlers. The corner cutting appeared minimal with well-marked exits and redundant fire suppression systems. The Fire Marshal’s office, Operations, and Haskell’s battalion would be working on extensive pre-plans for this building.
The most difficult problem would be the contents, which were in constant flux. Thus, it would be difficult to know how many combustibles or accelerants were inside the building at any given time. The pre-plan and sprinklers became more key with the unpredictable materials.
After a protein bar dinner in his Chief Car, Noah tried to make appearances at as many trick-or-treating firehouses as possible. The Fire Chief had to be extra visible for TV interviews. Firehouses were great places to pick up candy and shots for tomorrow’s news. As with previous years, the off-shifts set up tables for trick or treating on the driveways.
Firehouse 15 was third on his list due to its proximity to MetroGen. Erin was working, making it unlikely she would be handing out candy. Then again, he couldn’t imagine her not handing out candy if they weren’t on a call. She flocked to those fun, friendly activities with extroverted energy, whereas he did them out of duty.
Noah parked in the garage and walked around to the front of 15. It was encouraging to see Matteo Soto volunteering with some members of C-shift. Noah guessed the theme was supposed to be Thomas the Train based on the costumes they wore. The stream of little kids going back and forth between trick-or-treating at the hospital, Panera, and the firehouse appeared to appreciate it.
“Hey there, Chief!” Soto greeted him.
“Are you Thomas?” Noah asked, since Soto wore white.
“I went for Emily. Girl power for Isadora,” Soto said.
“What’s Reyes tonight?” Noah remembered they’d flirted heavily at the active shooter training.
“She’s Thomas,” Soto said and pointed at Baker’s minimal participation with a set of alien antennas. “Nice costume.”
“Hard to fit in the driver’s seat. Heard 15 rescued Spiderman today.” Noah saw the news bulletin on his way out to the warehouse inspection. One of the am talk shows had contacted Fitzpatrick to interview him tomorrow because of it.
“With harnesses. Hey, Topham Hatt!” Soto pointed his thumb at Gau, the lieutenant from C-shift. “We have a code hypoglycemia. We need more candy before the next group gets here. Call it in.”
