The Burning Desire to Save

Chapter 2

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!"