“Corey, you and Kyle man the hose. Don, grab the hatchet. Carter, you’re on me,” I threw out orders left and right. We were the first truck on the scene. I surveyed the scene and saw the police with a young male in custody, handcuffed behind his back. That wasn’t my main concern at the moment, however.
“Anyone inside?” I asked the cop and the young boy, who presumably started this fire.
“Nah, man, I ain’t set anyone on fire,” the boy who appeared to be no older than sixteen answered, squirming in the officer’s grasp.
I didn’t know if I could trust his answer, though. On the one hand, he could be lying. On the other hand, there may have been someone inside that he didn’t know about.
A round of sirens brought my attention behind me where I saw another rig pulling up. I made my way over to the captain of that rig and told him the situation.
“Your men are going to be on the hose while we go in.” He nodded in agreement and then ordered his guys to take over hosing down the fire. It appeared to be a little more under control than when we first pulled up. I had my guys grab the fire extinguishers to use inside instead of the water hose.
“Carter!” I called.
“Right here,” he answered.
I didn’t need to say much more than that to continue inside the entrance with Carter behind Don and me and Corey and Kyle behind him. I steadied my breathing and lowered my face mask to utilize as little of the oxygen from my tank as possible. Our tanks were supposed to last up to sixty minutes, but in a grueling fire where we’re working overtime, it could run out in less than twenty. Thick smoke coated the air, and I used my hands as my eyes, feeling for the walls, cars, canisters and anything else that was in the shop. I felt an arm to my left and knew that was Carter. I’ve come to know the feel of everyone after doing this hundreds of times over the years.
“Check to the left,” I told him.
I heard a noise in front of me. Something fell or got knocked over. I knew it wasn’t one of my guys who did it since they were behind me.
“What the fuck was that?” I yelled, then got quiet to listen for it again.
“A fucking cat!” Don yelled out at the same time I heard the meowing sounds.
“I got it!” Carter called out.
We made our way to the opposite side of the auto shop, Don and Corey putting out flames with the fire extinguishers as we moved. Thankfully, no one else was inside, just as the kid said. Twenty minutes later, I was lifting my face mask over my head as we stood outside the auto shop.
“I think he belongs to the owner,” Carter stated, holding the frightened cat up.
“Pretty sure that’s him over there.” I tilted my head toward the man who was now talking with police, or rather yelling at them to let him get to the kid who now sat in the backseat of their car.
“I’ll take it to him.” I took the cat from Carter, who hissed at me. “Oh yeah? I don’t fucking like you either,” I growled back. I hated cats and the thought of us risking our lives to save a damn cat caused me to chuckle. But when I saw the owner of the shop’s face when he saw what was in my arms, my attitude changed.
“Thank you!” The man was almost in tears. “He was a gift from my wife. She died earlier this year,” he explained, cradling the fur ball as if it were the only thing that mattered to him.
“Our pleasure, sir.” I inclined my head at the officer before turning and walking back to the truck. Corey was overseeing the rookie who came on this run while he put the hose away, while Don and Carter put the extinguishers up.
“Who’s hungry?”
“I am!”
“Fucking starving!”
“Grub time!”
They all shouted at once.
“It’s your first day back, you get to pick where we eat,” I told Carter.
He grinned. “Lorenzo’s.”
“Of fucking course,” Don stated as he shut the side doors of the rig.
“Best pizza in the city!” Carter replied.
“Up yours, Carter. Best pizza in the city is DiMaggio's, and I don’t wanna hear any shit from you either,” Don pointed at me, causing me to laugh.
