Wrath

By Rich Olsen

The Church of Jesus Christ at Cana is on fire. When it is out, Linda and the others discovered the body of a woman shackled in a standing spread eagle position. She was alive before the fire started and left to burn to death.

Linda and Police Lieutenant Stan Jaworski learn that the Church of Jesus Christ at Cana take their beliefs from the Wedding at Cana, where they believe Jesus married Mary Magdalene. They believe that Jesus believed in the pleasures of the flesh, had sex with men and women and multiple partners. They also believe in reincarnation. The killers believe that the church is really a Satanic Church looking to attract sinners that will go to Hell. As a result, they are burning the Canaites to death.

Linda and her team have several suspects, but no proof, As a result they come up with a plan. They will pose as Canaites and devil worshipers and Linda will be the bait. They choose the time and place where they will try and burn Linda to death, only the murderers do not follow the plan and do it several days early. All Linda can do is hope Peter, her husband, can save her from burning to death and then arrest the murderers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rich Olsen
• Release date: Jun 29, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215347621

Book preview

Attention all Companies, stand by for a Channel Five Dispatch. Zone One-Eight is now working for an automatic fire alarm. The Church of Jesus Christ at Cana." The dispatcher then gave the address on Preble Street, the responding companies and then repeated everything again.

What the hell is the Church of Jesus Christ at Cana? Deputy Chief Linda Kertchbaum asked of no one in particular. It was about nine at night, and she was in a recliner watching television for a little bit before she would head to her office and bed. The crew at Number Four’s Fire Station had decided to watch some reality television show. It didn’t interest Linda, but she watched it anyway. There was a television in her office and her bunk room where she could watch whatever she wanted to, but she didn’t, not this early. She didn’t want to come off as being unavailable and more important than them. Yes, she outranked them, but she didn’t consider herself more important.

Linda Kertchbaum had been a firefighter about thirteen years. She had naturally blond hair which was now shoulder length and brown eyes. She was very pretty, but not beautiful. It was really Robert Johnson the former Deputy Police Chief that had made her bloom before he kidnaped, raped, tortured her and left her to burn to death. It was Robert and Peter her husband that allowed her to be happy about the woman she was, and actually began to let her figure become noticed and not feel the need to cover it up all the time. It was Robert and Peter that allowed her to dress in a manner that showed off what a pretty and sexy woman she was, not that she would ever consider wearing anything other than her uniform at work. It was Robert, but more so Peter that allowed Linda Kertchbaum to become the woman she was today.

She was the youngest chief in the Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire. She went from Captain to Deputy Chief. The reason was an agreement between her, the Union and the Fire Chief. She, her husband Peter, Fred Mandelman as well as Fire Marshal Malcolm Greene and Homicide Lieutenant Stan Jaworski were loaned to the Feds to protect the President from being burned to death by Robert Johnson. In the process, the five of them took every firefighting and rescue class available and they became experts in them. Linda was also given every leadership class the Government had to offer. The agreement also came with a two rank bump for her, Peter and Fred. As a result, when an opening for Deputy Chief came along, it was offered to her. So in addition to being the youngest chief, she was also the most qualified thanks to the Federal Government.

Hell, I don’t know, Bart Meadows, the captain on the truck answered. It was his station as captain, he ran it, not Linda. She was just a guest permanently quartered at his station, although she did have an office that was hers, well one she shared with all the other deputy chiefs. There are so many different Christian religions that I can’t keep track of them. I was raised Catholic, so I don’t even know the difference from one Protestant religion to another.

Battalion Chief Dick Englehart was quartered at Number Thirty-seven’s Fire Station. As such, he was the first to arrive at Preble Street. He figured it was a false alarm, automatic alarms were almost always false. If it had been an actual structure fire, dispatch would have said something by now. He pulled up to the church. It was huge and in an old four-story brick warehouse. There was a fire escape from the fourth floor in a scissors manner in Sector D, the right-hand side. Each flight went halfway up the side and then reversed back to the window just above the previous one. From the fourth floor, the fire escape had a ladder attached to the outside of the building that went to the roof and looped over. He couldn’t see the Sector B and C sides. There was no fire escape in the front, the Sector A side.

He stopped in front, got out of his car and saw smoke coming out of the eaves. There was a fire inside the building somewhere. The problem was all the windows had been covered with wood from the inside. Only the windows over the fire escape weren’t covered. The fire could be anywhere in the building, or everywhere. He’d have to send crews in to find it, and that could be dangerous.

Dispatch, BC One on the scene, he radioed. Then he continued, four story brick warehouse. We have smoke showing under the eaves. Keep everyone coming and give me the auxiliary companies. Then he waited. He knew that the dispatcher would send the auxiliary companies and switch this incident to Channel Six. That is exactly what they did. Then Englehart began to give instructions to his first alarm companies.

Linda stood but let the crew of Four Engine get by. They were the Go Team, one of the auxiliary companies. As Lieutenant Lester Archibald and the rest of his crew left, Linda shook her head. Too bad Bob Davidson has retired. I’m going to miss him. He drove Four Engine when I was a probie on the Engine. He retired as the driver on the Engine. He, more than anyone else saved my life when Robert tried to burn me to death. I’m going to miss Bob.

He didn’t want to retire, Meadows stated, but he was sixty-five and he figured he was too old to be humping hose, or pulling downed firefighters out of burning buildings. Yeah, I’m going to miss Bob also. Now it’s Ben (Merkel) driving. He’s good. So what, Linda, think you’ll be going?

Hard to say. It’s a big building, so I probably will unless this is a small fire, but how many small fires have smoke showing under the eaves. I better head to my office, just in case. Then she began to walk in that direction.

Thirty-seven was the first engine on the scene. They took a hydrant and headed toward the front of the building. Englehart told them to get the front door open and take a line inside and find the fire. Lieutenant Sarah Sutton, who had transferred to Thirty-seven from Chief O’Neal’s shift led her crew. She went to the front door and felt for heat. There wasn’t any so she tried the front door. It was unlocked. She told the others to stand by, she went to the side of the door, while on air and opened it. It was anticlimactic. Heavy smoke began to pour out, but no fire. Sutton radioed what they had even though Englehart was right there. Then she said they were headed into the building.

Since she had no idea where the fire was, she told her pump operator to charge the hose line. The water surged to the nozzle, causing the hose to move from side to side like a snake slithering along the ground. When the water reached them, she told her nozzleman to open the nozzle and let the water hit the ceiling for thirty seconds in case there was any fire up there. He didn’t argue or say he knew that. This was one reason she transferred to this shift. At her last engine, she got the feeling that the men resented her because she was a woman. With Linda Kertchbaum as Deputy on this shift, no one thought a woman wasn’t as capable as a man. After thirty seconds, she told the nozzleman to head into the building and look for the fire, but to be careful. The fire could be hiding anywhere in the ceiling just waiting to pounce on them like a jaguar in a tree looking for its next unsuspecting meal.

When Englehart saw the heavy smoke on the first floor and the smoke under the eaves on the fourth floor, he knew there was heavy fire somewhere in the building, possibly on more than one floor. It was more than one alarm could handle, probably more than two. Dispatch, give me a second alarm, he radioed. It was again time to wait and watch.

Kelly Ridge was the captain on Thirty-four Truck. This was her first fire on this shift. She had transferred in from Conroy’s shift. She had come from Thirteen Truck a truck that saw more fire than Thirty-four. Thirty-four was probably the slowest truck in the department at this time. It was why she could get the transfer. She came here because of Linda, to learn from the best. She both hated and loved Linda. Linda had what she wanted, but Kelly had been a firefighter three years longer than Linda. Kelly was only a captain and Linda was deputy chief.

She hated that Linda was the first woman to hold the position of chief, Kelly wanted that honor. She wished it was her at the Harrison House instead of Linda and her at the University Inn instead of Linda. If it had been then maybe she’d be deputy chief, or she’d be dead.

Kelly considered herself a good firefighter, a good captain and a good leader, but she had to admit, she couldn’t think on her feet like Linda could. Linda could be in a life or death situation and see a possible solution better than anyone. Kelly knew that if she had been in those same situations that Linda had found herself, she’d be dead and so would anyone with her. So, she transferred to this shift, to this slow truck to learn from the best.

Thirty-four Truck’s orders were simple, half the crew would go to the roof and cut a vent hole in it. The hole should be over the fire, but they didn’t know where the fire was, so it would be close to the edge, but not the eaves. Her driver, Rob Smally and the person that rode behind him, Ed Young would do that, with Smally in charge. Her and the person that rode behind her, Dave Tenneman would take a thirty-five-foot ground ladder, put it to the window and hit the plywood until it fell into the building, opening the window that way and allow them to see what was going on. Then they would have to retract the ladder and move on to another window. It would be time consuming and hard work but it had to be done. She only hoped she would be up to it. As a woman, she had less upper body strength than Tenneman since he was physically bigger. A thirty-five-foot ladder was heavy, heavy for two men to carry, but they had no choice, the building was too big for a smaller one, a twenty-four or twenty-eight-foot ladder. Even with the thirty-five-footer, they wouldn’t be able to reach the fourth-floor windows, that would require the truck’s aerial and that was being used to get to the roof. She hoped she could last as long as he did before she was too tired to continue.

With Tenneman holding the ladder, she climbed to the top, the third-floor window in the front of the building, Sector A. Unlike the aerial ladder, as she neared the top of the thirty-five-footer, she felt it rock against her weight. She knew it was safe and wasn’t about to collapse or buckle, but still it took all her will power not to climb down, scared. When she reached the window, she locked herself in with her right leg, and took the head of the axe and began to pound at the top of the plywood. After three or four hits, it began to loosen. Then she unlocked her leg and climbed down a couple of rungs. Again, she locked in and took the head of the axe and began to hit the plywood at the bottom of the window. She started at the top because if there was heavy fire behind this window, it could vent out the top of the window while she worked on the bottom. It took another four swings before the plywood fell into the room. When it did heavy smoke, but no fire, began to pour out the window. Then Kelly unlocked her leg and climbed down. One down, one million to go, she thought.

Once back on the ground, the two of them lowered the ladder and lugged it to the next window. There they raised the ladder and Kelly prepared to climb the ladder again. Cap, I’ll do this one, Tenneman said.

No, I’ll do it.

Look Cap, he said, you don’t have to prove anything to me because you’re a woman, or because you transferred in from a different truck or for whatever reason. I don’t want to tell you what to do, but why should you keep climbing the ladder and doing all the work? If we take turns, we can get more done.

You’re right, she said. Sorry, I still don’t know you and the others that well, and well......

Yeah, you got to prove yourself. I saw you do it, you don’t have to prove anything to me.

Okay, Kelly told him, glad she didn’t have to do another one. Like he said, this way they could get more done. She footed the ladder for Tenneman and watched him as he climbed almost to the fourth floor to make sure everything was okay like she had done, and then, like her, remove the plywood.

Chapter Two

Dispatch, Deputy on the scene, Linda radioed upon pulling up to the building. We have a four-story brick building one hundred feet by one hundred feet about fifty feet high. I have heavy smoke on the first and fourth floor, Give me a third alarm with a truck company on that alarm, and give me a another truck for a Go Team Task force. Also send me Unit Six Fourteen for my Safety Chief. I am assuming Preble Command. BC One will have Operations and BC Four will have Division One Command." That seemed to cover it. She knew she would probably need a fourth and fifth alarm, but she didn’t ask for them because she didn’t want that many companies all coming in and asking for assignments. She wanted to see where Englehart had people and where she was going to put the second and third alarms before she asked for a fourth.

I’m not sure about this one, Linda, Englehart told her when she walked up to him. I have heavy smoke on one and four as you stated, but I don’t know what’s on two or three. I’m assuming heavy smoke there. I’m guessing fires on multiple floors.

Yeah, me too, Linda agreed, but this came in as an automatic alarm. This is a lot of smoke for an automatic alarm. I’m thinking arson. This is a church. Then she keyed her microphone. Dispatch, Preble Command, give me an arson investigator.

Inside the first floor, Sarah Sutton and her crew were crawling along the right-hand wall. By her guess, they were about twenty or thirty feet in from the front door. They hadn’t found any fire, but the smoke was to the floor. That was a bad sign. That meant the fire could be anywhere. She told her nozzle man to open the nozzle on the ceiling and everywhere just in case. Command from Thirty-seven Engine, she radioed and was glad to hear Linda’s voice. It reassured her. Command, we have smoke to the floor. We need ventilation.

In the process, Linda told her, remembering the times she had been in that same situation. She told Thirty Engine to get the wood out of the first-floor windows. Thirty-seven Engine from Command. Thirty-seven Engine what is your location? When they answered, Linda told her that Thirty would be forcing the plywood covers over the window into the building in front of them and to be careful. She would get another company to do the same on the other side as soon as she could, not that it would do any good. Unless this building was one large open floor, there would be walls to stop any cross ventilation, but it would be better than nothing. She needed more people. Dispatch, Preble Command, give me a fourth alarm, she radioed. The second alarm was just arriving and asking for their assignments.

Linda gave out assignments, but what she really needed was to see if there was any fire on the second, third or fourth floors. She walked over to Kelly Ridge. Captain, I need you and your firefighter to check out the second floor. I have no idea if we have fire on that floor or not. I need a search for both fire and victims. Use the fire escape on the Sector D side. Take a hundred and fifty-foot rope, tie it off to the fire escape and use that to search. I don’t want you going beyond the reach of the rope. If anything happens to you, I want you to be at the end of that rope. Understood?

Yeah Chief, Kelly told her.

Look, Kelly, right? Linda asked.

Yes Chief, she said.

Look Kelly, this could be very dangerous. There could be fire on that floor, and there is probably fire below you. You have no hose line. You get the luck of the draw, searching above the fire. I’ll send other truck companies to three and four, but you get the short straw, the second floor. I’ll get you a hose line as soon as I can, but it won’t be until the third or fourth alarm arrives. If you discover any fire, let me know and back out if you don’t have a hose line. If you feel you have to back out, back out and then let me know, even if you have a hose line. You’ll have command of that floor until a chief gets up there. I remember being a truckie, I hated being above the fire without a hose line, so be careful. If you think it’s too dangerous, tell me and come out. I’m not going to think less of you for leaving a dangerous situation, I will be pissed if you don’t back out. I know you’re new to this shift and we haven’t talked, but the safety of my people is very important to me, number one. If you think it’s too dangerous, back out and get the hell out of the building. I’m more concerned with you and your partner, and anyone else up there with you, going home is more important than some bricks and plywood. You need to be more concerned with you, your partner and everyone else going home also. Okay?

Right Chief.

Linda patted her on the shoulder. If they were guys, they would have probably patted each other on the ass, but women don’t do that. Good, be careful.

Kelly went to the truck and got a hundred and fifty-foot section of rope. She also got a second pick headed axe and together her and her partner walked to the fire escape. God, I hate searching above the fire without a hose line. I’m not a truckie, never wanted to be. When I joined, captains were on the engines and there were about three times as many captains as lieutenants so I figured if I made lieutenant I could be a truckie a couple of years and then get back on the engine. Now I’m stuck on the truck until I become a battalion chief, and there’s more than five times as many captains as battalion chiefs.

I’ll lead, Kelly told Tenneman. We’ll do a right-hand search pattern. Attach the rope to you, that way if we get separated, you’ll be the one at the end of the rope.

Don’t worry, Cap, I’ll be stuck to you like glue.

Good, let’s go, she told him. They climbed up the fire escape to the second floor. She told Tenneman to attach the rope to the fire escape, but to allow others to be able to get up the fire escape to the third and fourth floors. Then she felt the window for heat, found none and tried to open it. It was locked. She shook her head. Why the fuck do you lock a fire escape window? Because then the bad guys can get in it, of course, but try and find that window lock in the smoke when you’re panicking. She took her axe and with the side of the axe head slammed it into the window. The window shattered and she cleared out all the broken shards of glass still in the window frame.

Smoke poured out the broken window. Kelly waited a few moments for the smoke to clear and any fire to follow in its path. None did, so she took the axe and hit the floor, sounding it and making sure there was a floor. Since the floor was intact she said ready?

Right behind you, Cap, Tenneman answered and Kelly climbed in the window. God, why can’t I be fearless like Kertchbaum. I’m sure she was never afraid searching above the fire, having forgotten that Linda told her she hated doing just that.

Linda watched Kelly and Tenneman head into the second floor. She remembered doing that, searching the floor above the fire for a victim and hoping they found the victim or completed their search before the fire found her and her partner. She was more afraid of those searches than she was facing a roaring fire with a hose line. At least with a hose line you could beat it back, as a truckie, you were defenseless. That pick headed axe was worthless when the flames were roaring down on you unless you could chop a hole in the wall quickly and escape into another room and hope that one wasn’t on fire. You could see the worry on Linda’s face as she watched them head into the second floor. Then it was time to give instructions to the third alarm companies.

You had no choice, Linda, Englehart told her. Someone had to search for the fire and victims and that’s a truckie’s job.

I hated that job, scared me more than I liked to admit.

Scares us all, Englehart told her. Luckily I spent a good portion of my time as a captain on an engine before Hanssen put the captains on the trucks.

"Yeah, I was on a truck and an engine as a lieutenant and just a truck, Six Truck as a captain. Some guy almost shot me because he didn’t like that I told my driver to go down a one way street the wrong way to get to the fire. The other guy thought I should back up and let him through, like he was more important than the people trapped in a burning building. Of course, that could have been an engine that I had go down a one way street.

Can’t get ground ladders to the fourth floor windows, Linda continued changing the subject and thinking out loud. I want trucks on all four sides to the fourth floor in case we need ladders on four for any escape. She keyed her mike. Dispatch, Preble Command, give me a truck on that fourth alarm. Then transfer Twenty-six Truck to Thirty-four.

Twenty-six Truck? Englehart asked her, surprised.

Fred’s on Twenty-six Truck, they are my physical rescue company.

Yeah, but you think you’ll need that here?

I hope not, she told him, but this way I’m ready. Who’s going into Battalion One, Eight Truck, Seventeen Truck? Do they make any more sense than Twenty-six Truck? Hell, if this goes five alarms, I’ll have six trucks here and that only leaves me five in the city.

True, you’re the boss, the one that thinks on her feet. I’ll admit I’d never think of that.

Well I just hope I don’t need them.

You realize that Captain Kelly Ridge and Lieutenant Sarah Sutton came here because of you, don’t you? Englehart told her.

Linda gave him a funny look. Me?!?!

Sure, they want what you have and want to learn from the best. That and the fact that you’re a woman, they figure fewer men on this shift hate women firefighters.

Did you, Jim? Linda asked. Peter did when I started.

To some extent I still think they are women doing a man’s job, don’t you, Linda?

She looked at him funny, like she didn’t know him. She turned her attention back to the building. Really?!?!

Don’t get me wrong, you, Sarah, Kelly and every other woman that’s become an officer, or for that matter has been here for a few years are different, but don’t you see some of these women probies looking upon the job as easy. You get paid to sleep. You eat at the station, you take care of a few sick people and occasionally you have to fight a fire and then have three days off in a row. They don’t understand what goes on inside a burning building, that they are smaller than men and as a result have less upper body strength, and they have to work out to compensate and that makes them heavier than most women.

Tell me about it, I’m not a size two or four, can’t remember when I was.

No offense, but with that bust size you couldn’t even get into a size two dress anyway, could you?

Four Truck, you will be joining Four Engine on the Go Team Task Force. Report to Command for your assignment, Linda radioed. No, I’d need a bigger size, but if I was a size two they might not be so big, unless they were fake. So yeah, I guess when I see some of these women that are just getting out of the academy that think they should have been treated differently I agree, they are a women doing a man’s job that thinks the job should be modified for them. They forget that the fire isn’t politically correct. Also, if Sarah Sutton and Kelly Ridge and any other woman that transferred into this shift thinks I treat women differently or make exceptions for them...... including separate bunk rooms, they are going to be surprised.

Well those two don’t, Englehart stated. I don’t know Ridge well, she’s new to the Battalion, but Sutton doesn’t expect special treatment, just to be treated like any other fireman.

Good, Linda said as Bart Meadows walked up to her. Linda was still looking at the broken fire escape window and hoping that Ridge would be okay. However, it was now time to send the crew from Thirty Truck into the third floor with the same instructions that Linda gave Kelly. Now she would have two different truck companies to worry about, and after that, Thirty-two Truck would go to the fourth floor. She turned to Englehart. You know that sign in the Deputy’s office, the one that says be careful what you wish for, you may just get it?

Yeah, he said, wondering what that meant.

I put it there. I always wanted to be a chief, now I am and now I wonder why I wished for that. Life was simpler when it was me dragging the nozzle into the fire and going up against it, not out here worrying if I’m sending people into a situation where they will be killed.

Tell me about it, and you have it worse, he said. Me, I have only one alarm to worry about, one truck company, you have all these people. Why do you think I haven’t taken the test for Deputy?

Good call, she said as she continued to watch the building. It was smoke, nothing but smoke, no sign of any fire, but it was in there somewhere, hiding, waiting for her people, waiting to pounce on them like a jaguar in a tree waiting for an unaware wildebeest to pass by.

Chapter Three

Kelly headed into the second floor with Tenneman’s hand on her boot. The smoke was more than half way to the floor. She could see under it with her flashlight. Without it the area under the smoke, the area they were crawling through, looked like a room without any lights. Just above her, if she raised her head, her flashlight penetrated less than a foot before the light was completely defused and shattered by the smoke and it was a sightless world. There was no fire on the level of the floor, but that was to be expected. This wasn’t Hollywood, this was reality. Heat rises; therefore, the fire is at the level of the ceiling, rolling along the ceiling, not the floor like in the movies. Also, unlike the movies, fire produces smoke and while is also lighter than air and rises, it banks down, so the smoke can fill the room and you get zero visibility. If Kelly saw fire, she knew they would be in a world of shit. That would mean a flash over in front of them, and the fire would be rolling over their heads. It might be rolling over their heads now and she couldn’t see it. The temperatures at the ceiling could be over thirteen hundred degrees, that’s what happens in a structure fire in the real world. That was why this was so dangerous. It might be thirteen hundred degrees over her head and at any moment the room could flash over on them. There might be fire below them, and since heat rises, the fire could burn through the floor, or they could fall through the floor weakened by the fire and into the fire becoming victims themselves. Well, I could go back to being a lieutenant, but I’m the one that remains a captain. I can’t be afraid, Linda wasn’t afraid.

Kelly came to a corner and turned right. Then she came to another corner and turned right again. She could see these turns under the level of the smoke. She could also see that there were no victims in this room. Across the room from the fire escape window, she came to a door. Since she didn’t see a victim or fire in this room, she decided to go to the next room. She felt the door with the back of her hand, an area where her glove wasn’t and it wasn’t hot. We’re going into the next room, Dave, she told Tenneman and opened the door.

The smoke was heavier in the next room. There it banked down below their heads. It was still clear at the floor, but now only about the lower two feet was smoke free. It was like a fog bank that had rolled in. The room was completely filled with smoke, but the bottom two feet were clear like there was no fire. The reason was simple, they were closer to the fire and with the door closed, there was nowhere for the smoke to go. As the room filled with smoke, it banked down.

Kelly ducked under the smoke and shined her light into the room. It wasn’t a huge room, but it was about fifteen by fifteen, with a door off to the right and across from them. There was no one in the room. She turned to Tenneman and put her masked face close to his. We’ll continue right and go to that door. If it’s a closet, we’ll continue to the one across from us. There has to be a hallway somewhere and steps to go up or down.

Right Cap, I’m right behind you, Tenneman told her.

He doesn’t sound scared, is he? Of course, now that we’re in here and haven’t found any fire, I’m less nervous. Training and experience are taking over. Probably no fire in the room we came from, maybe not in here either. What happens when we get to the hallway. Okay, breaks over, she said, trying to add a note of humor and headed to the door on the right, keeping her hand on the wall.

Preble Command from Fire Dispatch, Linda heard watching Thirty Truck enter the building from the fire escape above were Thirty-four had, and was just as worried.

Go ahead, Dispatch, Linda radioed back.

Command, we just got a nine-one-one call from your location. There are people trapped on the second floor in what they are calling the master bedroom. I have no location or how many.

Thank you, Dispatch, Linda said and shook her head. It just doesn’t get any easier, she told Englehart. Thirty-four Truck from Command, Linda radioed.

The door on the right went to another room. It was like the one they were in, smoke almost to the floor, furniture like an office of some kind but no one in the room. There was a door across from them and to their left. Kelly turned to her partner. Dave, I’m thinking these rooms go across, but the hallway is that other door. Let’s go there and see what we have.

Right Cap, he said, I’m just along for the ride.

Kelly closed that door and started along the wall when she heard Linda calling her. This can’t be good, she thought. Thirty-four Truck, she replied into her microphone.

Thirty-four, I’ve got a report of an unknown number of people trapped in what they call the master bedroom on the second floor. I have no idea where that is. What is your location?

Command, we are in a room directly in front of the one we entered. We have yet to find the hallway or stairs, but I believe the hallway is on the other side of this door. These rooms appear to be offices.

Okay, I’ll see if I can get a better location for you. I’m sending Thirty-one Engine to that floor. That will be a four-man crew with one hose line. I’m also sending BC Four.

Affirmative, Command, Kelly radioed. She was happy and upset that BC Four was coming. She wanted command of the floor, but knew that with a rescue, and possible fire, that wasn’t feasible. She’d have her hands full with just the search and the rescue. Her and Tenneman continued on to the other door.

Dispatch from Preble Command, Linda radioed. She had the second alarm in the first floor. Thirty-seven engine still hadn’t found the fire and that was bad. That meant it was deep in the building and growing stronger by the minute. Thirty-one Engine was from the third alarm and they were going to the second floor. She was sending Thirty-four Engine to the third floor to protect Thirty Truck. Her fourth alarm was just arriving. She needed more people and more information.

Command, the dispatcher radioed back.

Dispatch, send me a fifth alarm, with a truck company, and contact those people that are trapped. See if you can find a location for that master bedroom. Then Linda thought about what she was going to do with the fourth alarm. One of those engines, or the truck would probably be going to the second floor to assist in the rescue, for fire suppression or both. Dispatch, do you have the owner of this building responding, we could use a floor plan? Linda radioed.

Yes Command, their ETA was twenty minutes.

Thank you, Dispatch, Linda radioed back. Too long, Dick. Okay, I want you to take Division One command. I have too many crews on the first floor, I need a chief in there.

Right Linda, he said and headed for the front door, donning his SCBA mask as he did.

Inside the first floor, Sarah Sutton and Thirty-seven Engine were finding nothing. They had dragged the charged hose line through a wide but narrow room and were now in a room that seemed to go on forever. Sarah shined her stream light into the smoke and got nothing. Again, she had her nozzle man open the line up on the fire. She knew that a second line went left and a third line had gone straight, meeting her line. Sarah again went to the right and the other line went straight into the room. It was reported that they had benches in the room, this was probably the main body of the church, the nave, where the pews and the altar were, where the congregation met for their services. She was now heading down the right hand outside wall. Visibility along this wall was better, as more of the windows had been knocked out and the smoke was traveling to the fresh air, but so would the fire. It would be drawn to the fresh, colder air.

Heat travels to cold, so the fire will head to the open windows, where my crew is, Sutton thought. By her reckoning they had traveled close to a hundred and fifty or two hundred feet. She had a two-hundred-foot section of hose, but in the initial room they traveled fifty feet to the right and about fifteen feet into the building just to come back the same fifty feet, so while they traveled about a hundred and fifteen feet, once they got back to the beginning, they only used fifteen feet of hose.

Again they had traveled about fifty feet down Sector A, the front of the building before getting to the left side, the Sector D side. It was important to know where they were in case something went wrong. The smoke was to the floor, so fire could be anywhere.

Suddenly the smoke cleared. The fire was right in front of them and rushing to the open window and trying to get behind them. Without any need for instruction, the nozzle man opened up on the fire with a narrow fog pattern to cover more area and extinguished more fire than a straight stream. Since the fire was right there burning off the smoke and everything else, distance wasn’t a consideration at this point.

Command from Thirty-seven, Sutton radioed. You could hear the concern in her voice.

Command, Linda radioed back trying to sound calm. Linda could see heavy fire shoot out a window close to the fire escape on the right side.

Command, we have heavy fire, Sector D about twenty-five or thirty feet into the structure. We are along the Sector D wall and we have heavy fire in front of us and trying to get behind us. We could use another line in here.

Help is coming, Thirty-seven, Linda said, nervous. The building was too large to order everyone out and go defensive. The fire in the middle of the structure would never be extinguished. She cared more about her people than a building that could be rebuilt, but there were victims trapped inside and this was all the fire they had found. It was too soon to go defensive. Linda’s people came first, but the only way to ensure firefighter safety was to never send them in. That wasn’t possible, their job was to go in and face the fire, so what Linda had to do was balance her desire to pull them out at the first sign of trouble with the demands of the job, to get the fire out. All she could do was follow her instinct and hope she wasn’t just a dumb blond that didn’t know shit and had been lucky all those times. Thirty-five Engine, can you assist Thirty-seven?

Headed that way now Command, Linda heard the lieutenant on Thirty-five radio back.

Thirty-two Engine, can you assist Thirty-seven? Linda asked. Those were her other two engines in the first floor.

We just got back to the entrance to the church. We’re heading to the Sector D side, but it will take us a couple minutes to get there.

I understand, try and keep the fire from getting behind Thirty-seven. Then Linda sighed. Be careful what you wish for......

Chapter Four

Kelly and Tenneman got to the next door and again she felt for heat. The door was cool like the others had been. Kelly opened it, expecting to find the hallway. What they found was yet another room. In this room, the smoke was almost to the floor. There was only about six or eight inches of clear area between the floor and the smoke, just enough to see that there was no one in the room. She could also see that the room appeared to be about twenty feet deep and from what she could see, there were doors on all four sides. It reminded Kelly of a video game and she was the character in the game, trying not to get killed. She sighed in her mask. Dave, we haven’t found the hallway yet. I’m thinking that the doors on the sides go to other rooms and I’m hoping that the door across the room from us leads to the hallway.

What do you want to do, Cap? Tenneman asked.

Wait for the Chief, she said. Then she keyed her radio. Command from Thirty-four Truck.

Thirty-four Truck, Linda radioed back. After that, Kelly told her what she had, what she saw and what she thought. She also told her that the smoke was almost to the floor and she wanted to wait for the Chief and hose line to get to her location.

I agree, Thirty-four, I think the hallway is on the other side of that room, but wait for Division Two and go from there.

Thirty-four Truck from Division Two, Robert Parker radioed her. I’m entering the room you’re in, I see you, I’m on your rope, we’ll be there in a minute or two.

Affirmative, Kelly radioed.

Parker, with four firefighters and a hose line appeared two minutes later. Your thoughts, Captain? he asked.

We’ve crawled through these rooms. I don’t think we have fire behind us and probably not in that room, but the smoke is almost to the floor. I’m guessing that on the other side of that room is the hallway, it’s about forty or forty-five feet from the window. This place is a maze, I don’t think I would have ever thought of a rope, I’m glad the Chief told us to do that.

I agree, it’s like she sees things the rest of us don’t. Okay, we’ll spray down the ceiling, just in case, then you and your partner go to the door. When you’re there, we’ll meet you.

Right Chief, Kelly answered.

The other firefighters came up and they opened the hose line on the ceiling for about thirty seconds. Then Kelly and Tenneman headed right around the room and came to the door, without any problems.

On the first floor, the fire was still fierce. Thirty-five engine had added their hose line to the fire and that helped, but the fire was still heavy and blowing out the open window. The window acted like a magnet for the fire and the fire headed in that direction, burning everything in its path and growing bigger and stronger as it moved that way. Thirty-two had come up from the rear and while they were not yet to the fire, they could protect Thirty-seven from the flames if need be. Now Susan Sutton could have her nozzle man concentrate on the fire and not worry about retreating. The problem with this fire, the one headed to the open window, it had originated deeper in the building. It could come around them, even with three hose lines on the fire because they didn’t know where it was coming from.

Preble Command from Fire Dispatch, Linda heard. When she acknowledged the transmission, the dispatcher told her they had talked with the trapped people. Smoke was getting heavier and it was difficult to tell where they were, but from what the dispatcher got out of them, he thought they were on the second floor, in the master bedroom which was on the Sector B side of the hallway, the left side if you were looking from the front of the building about half to two thirds of the way down. They were right off the hallway.

After talking with dispatch, Linda called Parker on the second floor. Division Two, she radioed, did you hear that transmission from Dispatch?

Yes Command, we believe we are at the hallway now. If we are, the victims should be on our right on the left side of the hall.

Good, keep me informed, she radioed.

Always, Parker said. Then he went to the door and felt for heat. It was warm. He relayed that to the others and brought up the hose crew and told Kelly to open the door. She was on the side that the door opened to, so she would be protected if it flashed into the room. It if did, she would close the door and the hose line would have to deal with the fire that entered the room.

Kelly opened the door and Parker looked out. The hallway was on fire, both directions. He got on his radio. Command from Division Two.

Command.

Chief, we are at the hallway, it’s on fire, we need additional hose lines up here if we are going to get to the victims, or you are going to have to try a rescue from the Sector B side. This place is a maze of rooms, with one room leading to two or three others. Crews can easily get lost. They have to have a hose line or a rope to lead them out to the window.

Affirmative Division Two, are you secure in your position?

For now, but I have no idea how long until the fire in the hallway burns through the walls or door.

Pull back if you need to, Linda said. Then she sighed. She looked at where her committed people were. Most of the third and fourth alarms were not yet committed. She told both her third alarm engines to take a line in and follow the rope to where Division Two was located. Then she told the fourth alarm engines and truck to go to the left side of the building, the Sector B side about half way down and make entry into that window to see if they could get to the trapped victims. She sent her safety chief, Tom Barton with them. He would have command of that group. Next, she radioed Dispatch and told them that the Captain of Four Truck would now be her acting safety chief until someone else arrived. The fifth alarm was on the way, she would hold them in reserve for now.

Fire on two was probably from convection, the heat going up the stairs, a natural chimney. That means I have fire on three and four in the hallways. No one from those floors have called in about being trapped. I don’t want crews in there without a hose line, Linda thought. She keyed her microphone and ordered the two truck companies, Thirty and Thirty-two on the third and fourth floors out of the building.

Dispatch, Preble Command, Linda radioed after she ordered the two truck companies out.

Preble Command.

Ask Chief Brody to respond to this fire to take the duties of Safety please. Brody was the Assistant Chief for Operations, Linda’s boss, but she also knew that with her in command, Brody wasn’t going to respond and take command from her unless she needed him to. Now she needed him to be safety so Bart Meadows could lead the Go Team Task Force if she needed that, and she just might. With five alarms committed to this fire, the City was down to fifteen engines, five trucks and two battalion chiefs. She had more than half of the City’s manpower and apparatus here, and she might need more. If they could rescue the victims on two, that would free up additional people, but rescue was now her priority. Also, soon her people would get tired and need relief. She sighed. Be careful what you wish for....... I hope I’m as good as everyone says I am and can think on my feet.

She hated what she had to do, but she saw no alternative. Dispatch, give me a sixth alarm. I want three engines on that alarm. They are manpower only and are to report to Command with SCBA. If I can rescue those victims, I can return the sixth and probably fifth alarm, but rescue is priority.

Twenty-six Truck had arrived on the scene along with most of the fifth alarm. She told Twenty-six Truck, the fifth alarm engines and Six Truck to see if there was a set of steps in the back of the building, Sector C. There should be. If so, they were to take three hose lines up the steps and see if they could reach the victims that way. Linda had a picture of the building from what her crews were telling her. The first floor was a large open room, probably the church and altar area. She wasn’t sure how large it was, but she had an idea it took up half of the floor. That could mean there were steps behind it, about the middle of the building going up to the second floor. If that was the case, the fire from below would be coming up the steps between Thirty-four Truck, Parker and the engine companies and the victims. That would make rescue difficult. If there were a set of steps in the rear, then sending three hose lines up those steps and three hose lines from Parker’s group should be enough to let Thirty-four and Six Truck get to the victims for rescue. If it wasn’t, Linda didn’t think those victims would make it. It wouldn’t be the first time she couldn’t get to the victims in time, that was never an easy decision, but she knew what her decision would be if it came to the lives of the victims or her firefighters, her firefighter’s lives came first, period!

Linda radioed dispatch and told them that Twenty-seven and Seven Engines, Six and Twenty-six Truck would be Division Two Rescue and the captain from Twenty-six would have command of that group. Linda told Fred Mandelman what she needed and wanted. Fred was part of her team, the ones trained by the Feds. Fred knew fire behavior as well as she did and probably as well or better than a battalion chief. It was the best she could do, she hoped it would be enough.

Chapter Five

Inside the first floor, Englehart had his hands full. He had three hose lines on the fire and pushing it back to the middle of the huge room. His lines were in an ever-widening semi-circle in order to push the fire back and prevent it from coming back around them. The room, the nave, the area he figured he was in, was huge. By his reckoning it was at least a hundred feet wide and fifty feet deep, maybe deeper. He had three hose lines to attack five thousand square feet of area, sixty thousand cubic feet that could be burning. He didn’t have enough hose lines, but what could he do. He heard Linda ask for a sixth alarm. He knew she had seven engines, four trucks and two chiefs committed to that rescue, but what else could she do, the building was a maze. He was luckier, this was one huge room and it had a twelve-foot ceiling. There was little above the level of the pews except for the ceiling to burn, but if areas flashed over, the pews would burn and his people were at the same level as the pews. Still rescue came before fire extinguishment. There were people alive in the building and rescue was always the first priority.

He’d have to make do. Maybe the sixth alarm could help him out.

Division One from Command, Englehart heard Linda radio.

Division One, he radioed back.

Progress?

Slow, he told her.

What do you need?

Manpower, crews with hose lines, he told her, not that she could do much about that, not until the sixth alarm arrived and they were coming from further and further away.

Understand, I’ll send you Thirty and Thirty-two Trucks with three hose lines. Will that be enough?

For now, Englehart radioed back. She’s sending us truckies to fight the fire. Would I have done that? I’d like to think I would but everyone knows truckies don’t man hose lines. I see why Semple and Ridge transferred, I’m learning from the best also. If I ever do take the test for Deputy it will be because I’ve had the best teach me what to do.

Linda sighed. She was sending truckies into the first floor with hand lines, not axes and pike poles. Well what choice did she have. Preble Command, you are twenty minutes into the fire.

Christ, only twenty minutes. Crews will be running low on air and that will be a problem, they are in deep. She sighed. Dispatch, give me a seventh alarm, three companies, engine or truck, they will be used for manpower. I should be releasing some companies after we affect this rescue.

I’ll keep the sixth and seventh alarms in staging if I can so I can have fresh people. As soon as the rescue is complete, I’ll release two alarms........ I hope.

Barton and his crew were making good time. The nozzle man from Thirty-eight was on the wall and he was next to them. They had a rope, but for now they weren’t