The Burning Desire to Save

Chapter 1

"I have no ambition in this world but one, and that is to be a fireman. The position may, in the eyes of some, appear to be a lowly one; but we who know the work which the fireman has to do believe that his is a noble calling. There is an adage which says that, "Nothing can be destroyed except by fire." We strive to preserve from destruction the wealth of the world which is the product of the industry of men, necessary for the comfort of both the rich and the poor. We are defenders from fires of the art which has beautified the world, the product of the genius of men and the means of refinement of mankind. But, above all; our proudest endeavor is to save lives of men-the work of God Himself. Under the impulse of such thoughts, the nobility of the occupation thrills us and stimulates us to deeds of daring, even at the supreme sacrifice. Such considerations may not strike the average mind, but they are sufficient to fill to the limit our ambition in life and to make us serve the general purpose of human society."

-Edward Croker, Chief of the Fire Department of New York from 1899 to 1911

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July 29, 2023

It was a quiet early morning on a Saturday in the village of Harukawa, a small community numbering no more than seven thousand people located by the sea and bordered by a town and a larger city next door, the former of which also housed an air base and military facility operated jointly by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force and the United States Navy in addition to some civilian air traffic. The sun was beginning to rise in the sky, and most people were not up yet since they did not have work on a weekend. The buildings within the village, most of them dating to the postwar era with a few prewar and newer buildings mixed in, were largely empty aside from houses, shops having not been opened yet and most government buildings being closed for the day.

At one particular building next to village hall, which was two stories tall and had two garage doors, both of which were wide enough to accommodate two vehicles, things were lifeless, devoid of any energy aside from a single room between the two garage doors where a small light was on. The second floor only extended over one of the bay doors, with the other section of the building only being one story tall. On top of the building was a metal tower that reached up to a hypothetical fourth story and had a siren and several speakers attached to it, and above the smaller double bay was a sign reading in Japanese 'Village of Harukawa Volunteer Fire Brigade, Founded 1895/Meiji 28."

Inside the room between the garages was a running computer, several binders and books, and two base radios plugged into the wall, with one wired to a small metal box attached to the wall as well with a metal pipe with more wires running up into the ceiling, and the other being next to the computer and having a microphone attached to it. Surrounding the room was an open garage, and inside were several fire engines and an ambulance. In the larger double bay, which was the taller of the two, there sat a regular-sized four-door fire engine, with a much smaller fire engine parked next to it and a large van with a portable pump and hoses in the back of it parked in front of the smaller fire engine. In the smaller double bay, an ambulance and a utility truck, the latter of which was labeled with the words 'HARUKAWA VOLUNTEER FIRE BRIGADE RESCUE', sat next to each other.

Behind the ambulance and the rescue truck were rows of lockers, most of them occupied. All of the firefighting gear looked the same initially, consisting of a long black and yellow coat with a pair of silver-colored boots designed to be pulled up to the thigh. However, while some had silver helmets with small green stripes, others had green helmets with white stripes that were lighter and did not have the large ear flaps of the silver helmets. On the top of each locker was a name written in both kanji and in Latin characters on a name tag. A few helmets had special markings on them to indicate ranks they held in the brigade.

At exactly 6:16 AM, the silence was broken when the lights suddenly turned on and several speakers inside the fire station blared an alarm sound. Additionally, a small black pager attached to its charging base, which sat on a desk next to the lockers and was plugged into the wall, beeped loudly. This was followed by the pager and the speakers broadcasting a series of four DTMF tones twice in a row, which caused the metal box inside the radio room to emit a loud clanking sound, followed by the siren on the roof tower roaring to life. The clanking sound repeated several times, making the siren produce a wailing note. From the speakers and the pager then came a voice that calmly relayed information about a call the brigade had just received.