Today 21.5. It's been six months since the creation of our unit, the first professional girls' unit of the FRS Czechoslovakia since its creation in the 90s, and yesterday we had our first independent Alarm without the supervision from the academy.We celebrated a bit and then returned to the station to be on standby, because there is no one in our town except us and the volunteer unit in textile mill, the nearest station is in the neighboring district.
"Knock, knock, girls smile..." I walked into the common room, small camera in hand. “Dare to turn on that camera,” it was said as a small, red pillow landed on my face. The girls were watching TV and didn't want to be disturbed. So I threw the pillow back on the chair and moved to the window. "Unfortunately, I turned it on in the hallway." Ally smiled at the camera and immediately pressed another pillow on the camera so I couldn't continue filming, I turned it off, put it on the table and turned myself to the TV.
"Hey, can't you at least leave it on Sunday? It's useful for an intervention or at events, but here you've been messing around with it since morning and it's only noon," Iva called from the door. I quickly picked up the camera from the table and pointed it at her. The shot of our "IT-worm" standing in the doorway, wearing only a towel because she had just gotten out of the shower, was perfect for the collection. Unfortunately, before I could turn it on, she threw a wet towel at me and immediately in few second after that the alarm was sounded.
"Kaja, try to limit your enthusiasm for filming, we are not a reality show..." Hanka called after me during the run to the garage. Within a minute, we were all in the car, and Simca pressed the remote control for the garage door during the engine start, to open it quickly. The engine started and the twelve-ton vehicle began to move, I looked at Hanka and asked what she wanted to tell me before, ."We're not a reality show, but FIREFIGHTERS!!" she smiled at me and turned on the siren so that the cars on the road could hear us, there wasn't much traffic around the station but it wasn't far to the intersection.
Although they closed a few streets here for the repair of pipes from the heating plant, that didn't stand in our way now. At the first intersection, we took a left and drove onto the main road, out of town, to avoid the town center. A fire was reported on the roof of an old building, outside small village on the main road to Budweis, five kilometers outside the town.
As soon as we left the town and drove onto the main road, a black column of smoke could already be seen on the horizon, which made it clear that it was definitely not a bonfire. After a few minutes, a building could be seen under the forest, with flames go through the roof and smoke coming from the windows in amount larger than from the factory chimneys.This old house was famous in the neighborhood, the last owner disappeared and the house was left with only a mess and later the crumbling ceilings. We already had an few alarms there during training, when lightning struck two trees by the pond next door. But this time it seems to be man-made, because there hasn't been a storm for a whole week and there hasn't been working electricity for many years. After reaching the place, we stopped at the dam of a small pond, thanks to it there will be no shortage of water. Hanka and Iva did a quick survey and Yveta and I put on breathing apparatus.
"Simca and Ally, stretch the C line with the wye valve in front of the building, the first stream from the left, the second stream from the right!" ordered Hanka.
"Before the reinforcements arrive, we have to prevent the fire speading to the other half of the building."
The roof was caved in in several places and so were the ceilings inside, without security there was no point in us entering the building, the nearest volunteer unit is as far away as we are.
"The volunteers are here, girls, get ready to enter the building!" Hanka called to us and waved at the firemen who got out of the car in a short distance behind Liaz. "Take the left side, we're going in."
Two firefighters took up a position on our side, so I moved with Yveta to the door of the building so that we could also extinguishing fire from the inside. We slowly opened the door and stepped inside, a wide hallway dividing the building into parts resembling a dump on one side and the jungle on the other as mold and nature slowly spread through what used to be the kitchen before a tree fell through the roof. The corridor was so full of smoke that you couldn't really see the remains of the ceiling or the stairs to the attic, and the shards of glass in the door of the living room was licked by the flames wildly.
"Kaja, stay near the ground, we'll move to the door of the kitchen." Yveta pointed. "Then aim the stream at the ceiling in the room first." I moved in front of the door and aimed the stream at the opposite side of the corridor, with a short on-off the nozzle I created a waterwall and knocked down the flames spread through the door, Yveta was crouched behind me and we slowly moved closer to the kitchen door, so that I can aim better at the flames on ceiling in the room. I turned the nozzle on and again aim for the ceiling, where the insulation on the old cables was corroded between the burning beams, luckily they no longer had electricity in them.
"Yveta, move the door so we can go in," Iva called from behind me and tapped my shoulder as she took over the hose. Yveta took two steps to the side, grabbed the door frame and pulled it aside for us to pass. I moved inside and aimed the nozzle back at the ceiling again.
Outside, meanwhile, Ally was extinguishing the fires on the remains of the roof from the right side with one stream and two firefighters with other stream from the left side above us.
Hanka inspected the building from the outside and determined the course of the fire with a thermal camera. ''boys, take one stream to the chimney, there are a few hot spots''.
The flames in the room were slowly decreasing, so I radioed to Hanka we extinguished it, Ally had already reported it as well. After a few more minutes, Hanka checked the remaining outbreaks with a thermal camera and reported the end of action to the dispatch center.
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