Wires

At the downed wires call that had now turned into a car fire, Masako and Yui were now fully packed up and holding an uncharged hose line, sitting and waiting for the power company as the gray kei car burned before them. “This fucking sucks “ Yui remarked to her lieutenant as she held the nozzle. “We can’t even hit the damn thing with water.”

“At least it’s confined to the car,” Masako pointed out from behind her.

Then, Mini-Pumper 32 pulled up with five more firefighters, all of whom jumped out and began to grab equipment, including a second hose line, several hand tools, and a rotary saw. Two of the firefighters were already in air packs, with a third running to the back to grab another park. One of the firefighters on board walked up to Masako and asked her, “Do you want us to hook our line into your portable pump or hook into our own on-board pump?”

“Hook into your own,” Masako told him. “You should be able to use the second connection on the hydrant.”

“Got it.”

As he walked back to his fire engine, Yui remarked as she wiped some sweat off of her face with a gloved hand, “I can feel the heat from here.”

“Yeah,” Masako replied. “The power company better get here soon.” By now, the car was completely engulfed in flames, and to make matters worse, it was beginning to affect the siding of a building it was parked next to, which was deeply concerning for all of them.

At that point, two of the shock absorbers exploded one after the other, causing several small pieces to fly out and land on the road. This was followed by one of the airbags going off. All three slightly startled both of them, but they kept their cool. “That sounds like the first two shocks and the last of the airbags.”

“That leaves us with two shocks to go.”

Finally, the power company arrived, pulling up with a bucket truck and three company personnel. As they jumped out, Taichi walked over to them and said as he pointed at one of the poles, “Get this pole disconnected as fast as you can. The fire’s starting to melt the siding of a building.”

The lineman in charge of the crew replied to Taichi, “Got it. We’ll send a guy up on the bucket to do that.”

“How long will it take?”

“No more than a few minutes. We’ll be as fast as we can.” He then turned around to his crew and told them, “Grab a hot stick and go up in the bucket! Hurry it up!”

From there on, the minutes felt like hours as the car continued to burn and the linemen from the power company did their work as fast as they safely could. Yui could feel the anticipation growing within her as she turned around and asked Masako, “Mask up now?”

“Yeah,” she replied as they both set their hose down, got down on one knee, took their helmets off, and turned their air packs on before they put their masks on and tightened the straps. As they put their helmets back on, Masako told her, “As soon as we’re good to go, I’m calling for water.”

“Sounds good to me.” Both of them then plugged the low-pressure tubes of their masks into regulators mounted on the waist belts of their air packs, instantly breathing in pack air once they were hooked up. The three firefighters on the second hose line then knelt down and began to do the same.

As they all waited for their chance to strike at the fire, Rumiko and Sumire watched from a short distance away. Neither of them had been cleared to use air packs outside of training yet, and both anticipated doing so within the next few months. Sumire in particular watched the fire with great interest, thinking to herself, “That will be me one day. I’ll be able to confront it head-on.”

After waiting several minutes, a lineman coming down on the utility truck bucket yelled down as he gave a thumbs-up, “The power’s off! Go ahead!”

Taichi then called out to both hose lines, telling them, “Go for it!”

Masako, leading both lines in, turned around and waved her left hand around while pointing up to the sky, calling out, “Charge the line!” The drivers of both Utility 35 and Mini-Pumper 32 then pulled levers to fill both hose lines with water, and as soon as Masako and Yui’s line was filled, Masako told her, “Open it up and move in!”

Yui bled the line of air before then moving in on the fire from the side and opening up on the nozzle, immediately knocking it down and filling her vision with smoke. The line behind her stood by as a backup just in case as Yui moved the nozzle up a bit to go further into the cab of the kei car while Masako backed her up. As she aimed the nozzle at the steering column, sparks flew out from the water interacting with the magnesium inside, prompting her to say to Masako, “Hang on! I got magnesium!”

“Keep hitting it,” Masako instructed her. “Copious amounts of water!”

Yui did as instructed and opened back up on the nozzle, fighting back the burning magnesium for almost half a minute before it finally went out. Once all the fire inside the cab was effectively out, Yui told Masako, “We’ll need the saw!”

Masako turned around and told the backup crew, “Get me the saw and a halligan bar!” One of the three guys on the backup line left and then grabbed a rotary saw and a halligan bar from the ground, ripping the cord of the saw to turn it on, and bringing them both over. Masako then pointed to the hood of the kei car and told him, “Cut here and here! We’ll pop the hood!”

The firefighter set the halligan bar down and then picked up the rotary saw with both hands before revving it up and sinking it into the metal hood of the car. As sparks flew all over, Rumiko and Sumire watched in awe at the firefighting efforts.

Taichi then turned to the two of them and asked them, “Girls, can you two grab a thermal imaging camera and a water extinguisher and inspect that building over there?” He pointed to the building that the car had been next to, the siding of which had already melted. “You guys know how to use it, right?”

“I, uh, I do,” Rumiko replied. “Trust me.”

“If you got any questions, let me or another firefighter know, okay?”

“Yes, Chief.” Rumiko then reached into Utility 35 and pulled out a thermal imaging camera while Sumire grabbed a water extinguisher. As the two walked over to the building and past the smoking car, Rumiko said to Sumire over the sound of the saw, “Interesting, huh?!”

Sumire, who could not hear her over the saw, replied, “What?!”

“Nothing, nevermind.”

…

Two hours later, all of the volunteers from the Harukawa brigade were back at their fire station, having cleaned their equipment and packed everything back up from the small fire and the wires call. Tomoko was checking her emails on her phone, and as she did, she noticed she got an email from her school, Harukawa Girls’ Academy, a private school in the village that all of the student firefighters in the brigade belonged to. She sighed and remarked, “They really want the student council to meet today? Some more God damn notice would have been nice.” She then switched to a texting app, sending a message to all of the other student council members.

Yui overheard her and asked her, “Hey, what’s up?”

“Oh, nothing, Yui-chan,” Tomoko replied with an annoyed sigh. “The school wants the student council to meet today around two in the afternoon. You think they would have told me a few days in advance given that I’m the president, but apparently not. They thought early in the morning while we were at that fire call was the appropriate time to do it.”

“That sucks. As for me, I gotta help my dad with a diving class today.”

“Is that why he didn’t make it to this call?”

“Yeah,” Yui nodded as she re-tied her hair behind her head. “He woke up early and was getting everything ready. He told me to just go ahead and come back once we were done here.”

Meanwhile, Sumire was cleaning a mark on her helmet, which had markings to indicate she was not qualified to wear SCBA yet. As she did, an older woman in her mid-thirties was talking to her. “You wanna get on top of stains on your gear and clean them as soon as you notice them,” said the older woman to the girl. “Cancer is a common killer of firefighters.”

“Yes, ma’am,” replied Sumire. Once she put her helmet back onto her locker, she asked the older woman, “What’s the dirtiest you ever got at a call, Lieutenant Yamada?”

“It actually happened the night before my high school graduation,” Masako Yamada, one of the other lieutenants and a former student firefighter in the past, replied to the girl. “We went to a fire in an udon shop that night in Inoue, and while I was in there with a few volunteers from Inoue doing overhaul, we accidentally dislodged a pipe and got covered in waste water. That was not a fun night. At least I had my back turned, because the Inoue volunteer who dislodged the pipe got a bunch of the water on his face. He ended up puking his guts out outside.”

“Wow,” Sumire replied, feeling bad for Masako and the other volunteer firefighter, who was from a town south of the village called Inoue. “Did you smell like grease or something after?”

“By some miracle, I didn’t. I took one of the longest showers in my life as soon as I got back to the fire station. As a matter of fact, Kana had to go back to the dorms, grab some of my clothes, and bring them here for me to change into.” She referred to Lieutenant Kana Hoshizora, who was a student firefighter alongside her in the past and was a close friend. “I then showered again in the dorms just to be safe. I may have only gotten about four hours of sleep, but I survived.”

“That’s bad. I’d better get used to stuff like that, I suppose?”

“Exactly.”

…

An hour later, Tomoko’s younger sister Rumiko walked back into the station, dressed in a blue and orange uniform jacket and pants. She also carried a bag with another uniform labeled for Sumire. Unlike Tomoko, who kept her black hair in a short hime cut, Rumiko kept her dark red hair in a short ponytail. The two shared an eye color, however, both having blue eyes. As she walked in, Sumire turned to her and asked, “Did you get my uniform, Rumiko-chan?”

“Yeah,” she replied before handing the bag to her. “I’ll pack the bags while you get changed, Sumire-chan. Is anyone else still here?”

“Lieutenant Hoshizora just got here a few minutes ago,” she replied. “She just got off from work at the West Yoshimatsu fire station. Everyone else left once the report was finished for the call.”

“How was it?”

“It was really nothing,” Sumire shrugged. “The paid crew pulled a single line and put out a dryer and laundry machine that were on fire. All we did was check the house for extension with a TIC.” She then walked to a nearby bathroom to get changed. “I’ll be out in a few minutes.”

As Sumire went to get changed, another firefighter who was about three years older than the two of them walked in, also already having changed into his blue and orange uniform. Unlike the other two, he was a recent high school graduate and had been sworn into the department about a month prior to them. He looked at Rumiko and said to her, “Oh, hey, Morishima.”

“Oh, uh, hi,” replied Rumiko in a slightly more nervous tone than before. “Uh, how are you today?”

“I’m ready for class,” he replied as he walked to his locker. “Did you and your sister go on that fire this morning?”

“My sister did, but I didn’t. I, uh, didn’t want to take the chance of missing class, you know?”

“Same here.” The young man’s locker read out Rentaro Nojima in both Japanese and English, indicating his name, albeit unlike many of the other lockers, his name tag was made with duct tape and marker, as was Rumiko’s and Sumire’s, since all three were the newest members of the department.

Runimo then turned away and said to him, “I’m, uh, gonna go pack my gear.” She went to her locker and pulled out a large red bag, packing her coat, her folded-down boots, her helmet, and her gloves in. She then walked over to a small storage area nearby and grabbed one of four spare SCBAs off the wall, taking a mask and a spare bottle with her as well. She placed the spare bottle in the gear bag and then attached the mask’s low-pressure tube to the belt-mounted regulator on the SCBA. Finally, she put the air pack on her back and tightened down the hip and shoulder straps before grabbing another pack, spare bottle, and mask to carry over to Sumire’s locker, with Rentaro then going over to grab his own pack and spare bottle.

As she carried them over, Kana walked out of the officer’s office and saw her. “Good morning, Morishima-san.”

“Good morning, Lieutenant Hoshizora. How was work?”

“Busy,” she replied. “We had a kitchen fire and a bunch of fire alarms yesterday. I wasn’t on the engine that went out to that dryer fire this morning, though.” Kana, in addition to being a lieutenant in the Harukawa Volunteer Fire Brigade, was also a career firefighter-paramedic, or firefighter-ELST as they were referred to as in Japan, for the Yoshimatsu Area Fire Department, having been one since she was twenty-four. “We also had two different auto-pedestrians on the same block just two hours apart. One guy hit an old lady and sent her to the ICU, and another old lady broke some guy’s leg. They both sucked to deal with.”

As Rumiko adjusted the straps on her air pack, she asked her, “Did you and Lieutenant Yamada have to carry your stuff like this going to classes when you were younger too?”

“Yeah,” Kana nodded. “It got us some looks on the bus, but we had to do it since we couldn’t drive to classes obviously. Almost all the student firefighters here in Harukawa did that. We got through it, though.”

Then, Sumire walked over, having changed into her blue and orange uniform and packed her gear, also carrying an air pack on her back. “I’m ready, Rumiko-chan.”

“Me too,” replied Rentarou.

“Alright, let’s go,” she said to her as they both turned and left. “We’ll see you later, Lieutenant.”

“Bye-bye,” Kana said as she waved to them. As they left the building, she remarked to herself with a nostalgic tone and a smile, “They remind me a lot of when me and Masako-chan went to firefighting classes together.” She then turned and made her way to Ambulance 33 to perform a rig check, opening the rear doors and climbing in before grabbing a clipboard with a paper on it that read ‘AMBULANCE 33 WEEKLY RIG CHECK’. Some of the items on the checklist had to be checked more than once a week, ranging from two to four times a week, while others only had to be checked once a week. In contrast, the other apparatus in the brigade only had to be checked once a week unless they went to a serious call and equipment was used for a prolonged period of time.

As she opened up several cabinets inside the ambulance, she took a mental note of what was inside and how many of each item was in each cabinet. Then, as she closed a compartment, she heard the sound of an ambulance siren closer and closer to the station. As she stepped out and looked through the bay door windows, she saw Ambulance 4 speed past the station, going to a medical call. This meant that if any other medical emergencies occurred in Harukawa, the brigade would have to respond with their ambulance alongside the paid firefighters from their station further up the road, who would act as first responders. Being tired from work, she sighed and went back into the ambulance to continue her rig check, realizing she would have to respond if a second medical emergency occurred.

Sure enough, just as she turned on a cardiac monitor kept on the stretcher of the ambulance and began to check the battery level, the pager she kept on her belt began to ring. This was immediately followed by a bell inside the station ringing loudly and the siren above going off like it had before. However, unlike before, it only did a single long blast that lasted for about a minute before it shut down as opposed to the wailing tone it did for two minutes. She immediately turned the monitor off, put the checklist away, and ran out of the ambulance and into the radio room as information about the call came through over several loudspeakers inside the building. “Harukawa Fire Station first responders, Harukawa Fire Brigade for an ambulance, respond to the downstairs apartment at 4-2-1 Harukawa for a seventy-four year old female suffering a possible stroke. Respond in Emergency Mode. Time is 0737 hours.”

“Engine-Aerial 4 is responding,” replied the officer on the main fire engine out of the paid fire station down the road as Kana grabbed a paper with details about the call that had been printed out from the computer and ripped it out to take with her to her locker. When she got to her locker, she grabbed a pair of blue overalls and began to put them on.

Once she was complete, she grabbed her regular firefighting gear and put it in the back of the ambulance to change into just in case they got a fire call right after the medical call ended, a policy of the brigade to ensure they were ready for anything. As she did, another firefighter ran into the station and began to get dressed in blue overalls as well, followed soon after by a third firefighter who immediately hopped into the driver’s seat wearing his street clothes. Kana told the driver of the ambulance, “We’re ALS-level with me on board.”

“Got it,” replied Daisuke Miyagi, one of the older men from the call earlier. “Were you at work for that call earlier?”

“Yep,” she replied. “I wasn’t at the fire itself, though. That was another crew at my station.”

When the third and final firefighter to board got on, the driver opened the bay door for the ambulance, turned the lights on, and then radioed out, “Ambulance 33 is responding with ALS on board.”