be safe, bambina

chapter 1

Maya and Carina were sitting in Maya's office discussing what they had planned for the night when the scanner sounds came over the speakers.

"Station 19, 23, to 7210 Smith Street, second alarm, 3rd floor of the house, smoke visible. Two to three occupants, an adult and two juveniles," the scanner beamed.

"Be safe, bambina," Carina yelled as her wife and the rest of the crew were running to the trucks.

Everyone was rushing to get their turnouts on and hopped in the truck.

"52 seconds, that's impressive guys...let's do this," said Captain Herrera.

Approaching the scene, Maya could feel herself getting anxious.

"It has been a while...being in a fire as engulfed as this..."

The crew jumped out of the truck to follow Andy's orders. Montgomery and Sullivan were focused on the hoses with 23 and making sure that the occupants got aid from the ambulance while Miller, Bishop and Hughes were going inside alongside Ruiz. They needed to determine the cause of the fire in order to get this fire out fast.

They noticed that it wasn't just three occupants, it was a mother and her three children, one of them being a newborn.

"Captain we have four occupants, 27 year old female, 10 year old male, 6 year old male and a newborn female," Maya said over the radio.

"Ruiz and Miller, get this family out of there and Bishop and Hughes help maintain the fire before it spreads," Andy said.

The two began to search the apartment for a reason as to why the fire had started, when they realized it continued to spread and get worse. The smoke and flames were coming from the second floor, not the third.

The girls started running down the stairs to meet both Miller and Ruiz running back up them.

"I thought the fire was on the third floor," Ruiz yelled.

"It is, but it spread there. The start of the problem is on the second," Bishop yelled. "Ruiz and Hughes take the third, Miller you're with me."

Bishop and Miller ran to the root of the problem which seemed electrical and certainly behind a wall. Maya seemed flustered, anxious and not in the right headspace.

"Bishop, hey! You're okay, let's do this," Miller said, pointing to the fire extinguisher and axe.

The two started axing the walls, creating a huge hole only to see that the fire had started inside the walls and was spreading at rapid speed. It looked like it was soon going to spread to the attic and roof.

"The fire keeps spreading Captain...it looks like it is coming from inside the drywall and it is spreading fast. It could hit the attic and roof anytime and then this building is coming down," Bishop yelled over the radio.

As the words came over the radio, there was an explosion at the top of the house, the roof began to collapse.

"EVERYONE OUT NOW," Andy yelled over the radio.

The group started making their way down the stairs.

Maya's breathing was shaky and heavy and she could barely keep up with her team.

"Bishop, I got you," Miller said, motioning to pick her up.

"No I got this you go," she yelled.