The Imagination Latibule: 9-1-1 - Eternal Flame

Chapter 1

A hotel on fire. An all hands on deck situation. And whilst most of your colleagues at the 110 LAFD fire department had been sent to the upper floors for a mass rescue, you'd headed below to the underground car park.

The fire couldn't have started at a worse time. 20:00pm, dinner time and peak drinking time. Blissfully ignorant at first, the inebriated inhabitants had happily tucked into a three course meal; guests and hotel employees alike enjoying the warm summers evening. The rooftop bar and grill was bustling, and the worst place to be. First rule of fire - it spreads upwards, and now close to 100 people were trapped in a building threatening to collapse any second. 

You wanted to help those obviously in need, but it was paramount to make sure no one was left in the lower levels. The fire had started on the first floor so the carpark was safe for now, but it wouldn't handle the weight of a hotel falling on top of it. 

"Hello?" you yelled. "Fire department, call out!"

No response. You'd already cleared out a group of civilians, and didn't expect anymore, but then, in the distance, you could have sworn you heard... music? You jogged along the empty bays and saw movement in a red car parked in the corner. Then you smelt...

"Oh you've got to be kidding," you said, muttering a string of curse words under your breath as you approached. You banged loudly on the window and the man inside jumped at seeing you. Hotboxing in his car, music so loud he'd heard neither the sirens or sound of screams. 

He turned off the music and you yanked the door open, holding your breath at the smell. "The building's on fire, get the hell outta here," you said, heaving him from the car and giving him a shove towards the exit. He sprinted away, more in fear of being reported to the police than of being burnt alive. You tutted and were about to leave when the whole carpark began to tremble. The Hotel was crumbling. 

You ran towards the exit, but as you did you saw another firefighter, a man from the 118. He was smashing a car window for what you presumed was a person inside, and hadn't noticed that a car on the level above, the handbrake of which clearly wasn't working, was being shaken over the edge. It was seconds from falling on him and you knew he hadn't noticed. There were no instincts telling you to flee, no fight or flight response, you just knew you had to get him out of the way. You sprinted at the firefighter with a yell as he pulled a dog of all things from the car, knocking both him and the overheating Labrador out of the way as the fence broke and the car fell. A second later and he would have been a gooey mess on the floor.

The two of you landed with a thud, out of harms way of the car but not from the rest of the building. The dog squirmed from his grip and bound away, out of the carpark before you could speak. You looked back at the firefighter, who looked from the car to you, his mouth agape.

"Are you crazy?" he asked breathlessly, and you couldn't help but let out a single laugh, and then so did he, a handsome smile on his face. "You just went head to head with a car!"

"What can I say," you answered. "Wouldn't want a car like that dropped on a face like yours."

"Well, I appreciate that," he said, holding out his hand to help you up. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I--" you were interrupted by an almighty crack and the ceiling above rained plaster down on you. It was about to get a whole lot worse. Then, as a concrete pillar fell, it smashed through the floor like nothing, and you grabbed the firefighter with one hand and the remaining pillar with the other. The floor fell away beneath your feet and the firefighter was nearly swallowed up in a hole that descended three layers, a drop he wouldn't have survived. The car, however, wasn't so lucky, and exploded into a raging fire, turning the pit into what looked like the entrance to hell as debris went flying everywhere. You felt a sharp pain in your side but didn't think much of it as you focused on the firefighter who's life was in your hands.