It was a lazy Sunday morning at Station 51. On Sundays, Captain
Stanley let them goof off a little and they only did mandatory chores. While
the paramedics were giving the squad, equipment and supplies a check, the
others sat around the table lost in sections of the Sunday LA Times.
The Captain had pulled rank and taken possession of the Sports Section. Marco
perused the Entertainment Section while Stoker explored exotic Costa Rica
with the Travel Section. Chet labored over the Crossword Puzzle. He was bound
and determined that he was going to do it before Gage messed it up with so
many erasures that it looked like a piece of Swiss cheese. He’d started
off pretty well but was beginning to run into a little trouble.
“Hey, Guys, what’s a nine letter word for annoying household pest?
I have a c and a k already,” Chet asked.
“I haven’t an inkling,” Stoker said, without looking up from
his part of the paper.
“That’s easy,” Johnny said, as he and Roy came into the dayroom
and headed for the coffee pot. “Chet Kelly --- 9 letters with a c and
a k!”
The others found that remark a lot funnier than Chet did. Especially when
he realized that it almost fit but the k was not quite in the right place.
Roy came over to the table. He leaned across Marco to get the front section
of the paper. “Cockroach,” he said.
“Ex-cuse me?” Marco was poised to become insulted.
“Chet’s word,” Roy explained. “Nine lettered annoying
household pest.”
“He’s right!” Chet was both shocked and relieved.
“I’m right too,” Johnny grinned, biting into one of the donuts
from the box on the table. “Chet Kelly is also an annoying household
pest.”
Before Chet could retaliate their peaceful Sunday morning became a thing
of the past. The tones sounded. They could tell it was a big one.
Station 51, Station 10, Truck 7, Hazmat Unit 6, Battalion 14 Structure
fire at Cal-Pharm laboratories 8714 Commerce Blvd. Cross street Ninth
Avenue. 8-7-1-4 Commerce Blvd. Time out 10:22
“KMG 365,” Captain Stanley acknowledged the call. He glanced at
the map as Roy was doing. Commerce Blvd. was at the very northernmost edge
of their territory.
“That’s quite a ways away,” Roy commented.
“We’d better book it. This one sounds like a doozy,” Stanley
agreed, as he ran for the engine.
Station 51 had the farthest to travel to the fire. They had had to go by
no fewer than five churches. Each one seemed to have let out just minutes
before they passed and the extra traffic slowed them down even more. Therefore,
they were the last to arrive at the Industrial park that housed Cal-Pharm
labs and several other businesses.
The glazed crullers that Captain Stanley had wolfed down earlier began to
disagree with him as he approached a very solemn looking Chief McConnike
to report in. He was sure that McConnike was going to accuse them of taking
the scenic route.
McConnike was not alone. He was with a civilian who had unrolled several
architectural plans across the hood of the Chief’s Station Wagon. The
building engineer was explaining the interior layout of the three story white
stucco building. Sixteen different labs were housed inside. Most were doing
R&D for various pharmaceuticals. The whole building was crammed to the
rafters with chemicals, most of which became unstable when heated.
“This one’s a real mess, Hank,” the chief said. “The
only thing we got going for us is that this is Sunday and no one was working
today. I got some high mucky muck scientist over there with the Haz-Mat boys
trying to figure out worse case scenarios should this place blow sky high.
Good damn thing this is nowhere near a residential neighborhood. Even still,
they say evacuation of the area is not totally out of the question. We’re
going to close Ninth Avenue down to traffic as it is.
“They tell me that heat is as much a problem as fire with some of these
chemicals so I have the truckies dowsing the roof and exterior of the building.
10's is working the fire which, at this point, is contained to the first
floor. Pull your engine around to the Southwest corner here and support both
units and we’ll try to keep a lid on this if at all possible. I may
have to call another alarm in which case, I’ll re-assign your guys.
I’d lay even money on needing more manpower but we’ll try and make
do for a while. There’s a fire at a Con-Ed plant and a major wreck on
the Golden State already being worked this morning and it’s not even
11 AM yet. What happened to the idea that Sunday was a day of rest?”
McConnike sighed wearily.
“Not for the Fire Department,” Stanley vowed. He wondered if McConnike
knew that he let the guys goof off a little on Sunday. What was he setting
him up for? He glanced at the building. Flame was now showing on two exposures.
He’d have to worry about McConnike’s evil plot some other time.
He ran back to the Engine and told Mike where to park. They dropped hose
and connected to the water supply. He assigned Marco and Chet to back up
the firefighters from 10's. The paramedics from 10's had set up in a grassy
area across the parking lot from the building. It was a little farther from
the fire than they usually worked but they wanted to be well away from any
fumes that might be escaping into the air from the burning chemicals. The
first casualties were being helped out of the fire already. One of the truckies
had been burned. Another fell through the second floor as he was ventilating
it. The first paramedics on scene handled it and he sent Roy and Johnny in
to work with the truck crew. Swinging an ax might be a waste of their medical
training but at the moment not letting pockets of intense heat build up in
the labs was more important.
The Truck crew also worked a water cannon from their aerial ladder at the
part of the building which had flames shooting out the windows. The Engine
crews attacked the fire from the inside and the truckies worked the outside
of the building dousing the flames and wetting down the rest of the building
from the roof on down to the first floor.
The scientist and the Haz-Mat crew had determined that it was heat and not
water that presented the biggest danger to the known chemicals inside the
building. The scientist admitted that he was not privy to everything every
lab was working on. Industrial espionage had forced some secrecy into the
pharmaceutical industry.
Within twenty minutes they managed to get the flames pretty well under control
but the heat the fire had generated worried the Haz-Mat team so they continued
to dowse the entire building in hopes of cooling it and its volatile
contents.
Once the fire was out and the danger to surrounding buildings was gone they
aggressively went about soaking the whole structure to prevent any re-ignition
of the blaze as well as to cool everything down.
Bill Yates and Jim Layton of Station 10 carried a ladder to the Southwest
corner of the building where Mike Stoker and Captain Stanley stood with Engine
51. While most of the crew had seen plenty of action on this fire, the cap
and Mike, like the Engine was waiting in reserve.
“There’s a big lab on the third floor here. The Chief wants us
to flood it,” Bill explained as he pointed to the third floor lab he’d
been shown on the blue prints.
“Go ahead and set up your ladder. I’ll pull you a 2 ½ ,”
Captain Stanley told them. He’d been standing around doing almost nothing
and he was full of nervous energy. The crew from 10's looked tired.
He followed them to the side of the building. Once the ladder was in place
he handed off the hose to Jim, the larger of the two men, who mounted the
ladder first. Bill followed him up shouldering the hose. When they were in
place they gave Captain Stanley the high sign.
“Okay, Mike, charge the hose,” the captain called back to Stoker.
He acted as spotter for a few minutes to make sure there was no problems,
then he walked back to the Engine. He wanted to do something to unleash some
of his energy. “Why, don’t you go act as spotter, Pal. I’ll
work the engine for a while.”
Stoker had a skeptical look on his face.
“Don’t worry. I remember how,” Stanley assured him.
Mike shrugged and walked around the engine and up to the building where the
ladder was. He was scanning the building for some sigh of trouble that the
guys on the ladder couldn’t see. Steam rose from the entire building
like fog. It billowed around his knees as it literally rolled off the building.
It was coming out of all the broken windows as well. Suddenly he realized
that it was smoke not steam that was coming out of the second floor window
just under where the guys from 10's were working. Before he could even call
out a warning, there was an explosion. It blew the ladder away from the building
and the ladder and the two firefighters fell to the ground. Right on top
of Mike.
Captain Stanley looked up at the sound of the explosion. He called for help
on his handy talkie and ran to the downed men.
Jim Layton had fallen the farthest and he was unconscious. Bill had dislocated
his shouder in the fall. Johnny and Roy appeared almost immediately and
supervised the moving of the men. Jim came to fairly quickly but Captain
Stanley insisted that they both receive medical treatment. Roy and Johnny
helped Jim over to the triage area while Captain Stanley helped Bill.
Mike Stoker had wriggled out from under the ladder before Captain Stanley
had arrived on the scene. All of the attention was on the two men from 10's
who had suffered the fall. No one knew that Mike had been involved in the
accident. No one noticed that he was slightly dazed.
As soon as everyone else had left the area, Mike shook his head to clear
it. The words of his old instructor from the academy came back to him like
a chant. “Gotta put the wet stuff on the red stuff. Gotta put the wet
stuff on the red stuff.”
He retrieved the ladder and set it up against the building. There was no
flame showing but he knew where the explosion had come from. Steam was still
wafting out of the building. It surrounded his body like fog and he could
barely see his hand in front of his face.
He reached down to pick up the hose that he could feel with his foot. It
seemed unduly heavy. He shook his head again and told himself to get with
it. He tugged the hose up to his shoulder so the he could have some control
of it as he climbed the ladder.
Suddenly heavy hose on his shoulder began to wrap itself around him. “What
the hell?!” he exclaimed as he realized that where the nozzle should
have been on this hose was a head. A snake’s head. A very big snake.
One that seemed intent on crushing him. He put back his head and let out
a blood curdling scream as the snake curled around his legs knocking him
off balance. He fell to the ground screaming for help and knowing there was
no one around to hear him.
The paramedics from 10's had no patients at the moment. The guys that worked
the ladder companies prided themselves on being tough as leather and stronger
than oxen. Both of the men who had been injured earlier had returned to the
fire. Even the man that had fallen through a floor was relatively unscathed
by his experience.
“Got some customers for you,” Johnny told them. “Bill and
Jim here fell off a ladder.”
“We did not,” Bill argued. “The ladder fell but we went with
it. We never fell off the ladder.”
“I stand corrected,” Johnny grinned. He’d made that move a
time or two himself. It always scared the crap out of Roy but he’d never
actually been hurt doing it.
“We’d better get back. Looks like you guys get to do the job they
were assigned,” Captain Stanley said to Roy and Johnny.
“That’ll be the day a pill pushing paramedic can do our
job,” Jim scoffed.
“We don’t push pills, Jim,” Johnny told them. “We also
have lots of nice sharp needles in our bag a trick, right guys?” He
nodded to 10's paramedics.
“Johnny’s right, Jim. We got needles that could go clear through
your arm if we weren’t careful.”
“I want a second opinion,” Jim insisted.
“Okay,” the other paramedic said with an evil grin, “they
don’t all go in your arm.”
“Jeez,” Captain Stanley said as they walked away. “Did they
teach you guys to be that mean in paramedic training?”
“Only to doubting hose jockeys -- hey what’s that?” Johnny
interrupted himself. He stopped walking and cocked his head to try and zero
in on the sound he had heard.
There was a lot of noise at the fire. Neither Roy nor Captain Stanley heard
anything out of the ordinary and stared at Johnny. Suddenly Johnny became
more alert. “Stoker,” he said as he started to run back to where
they’d left him. “He’s in trouble.”
Both Roy and the captain followed at a run.
Since Mike was not with the engine they continued on to where the ladder
had fallen. The ladder was back in place but they saw no sign of Mike.
“Help me!” Mike gasped.
They looked down on the ground. It was difficult to see but the steam was
dissipating a bit. The three stood stock still staring in complete disbelief
at Stoker on the ground with a huge boa constrictor wrapped around him.
“We heard you needed some expert hose jockeys over here,” Chet
announced as he and Marco walked up behind the others. “Holy Shit!”
he said when he saw Mike’s predicament.
Captain Stanley took command, although he had no idea exactly what to command.
“Get an ax or something off the engine. We gotta kill that thing before
it bites him!”
“No Cap, that kind of snake don’t bite. They crush their prey to
death,” Marco told him.
“That....makes...me...feel...sooooo..much...better,” Mike had trouble
saying. He had discovered that every time he inhaled the snake tightened
its grip. He was really starting to have trouble breathing.
“Get the ax, ya twit!” Captain Stanley yelled at Marco. Dead was
dead in his book.
“Cap, how are we supposed to swing an ax hard enough to behead the snake
and not behead Stoker along with it?” Johnny asked in a stage whisper.
“I’m open to suggestion,” Stanley said desperately.
“I was thinking that if we could make the snake come after one of us
it might let him go,” Johnny said.
“You’re the fastest runner,” Roy and Chet assured him.
“Me and my big mouth,” Johnny muttered taking off his turnout
coat.
“Hurry up, he’s turning blue,” Roy said quietly as he reached
out and took the helmet Johnny handed him.
Johnny got as close to the snake as he dared and began dangling the coat
in the snake's face. He was hoping to annoy it enough so that it would forget
about Mike and chase him.
“Stop! You’re...just...making it madder,” Stoker puffed.
Johnny was getting frustrated. It if was a horse, he’d have thrown his
coat over its head and covered its eyes to calm it down. He decided it was
worth a try.
It didn’t work out as planned. The snake reared his head back, tossing
Johnny’s coat aside. Then it did try to lunge at Johnny making Stoker
feel like he was going to be broken into two pieces. He screamed and Johnny
jumped back.
Everyone’s eyes were on Johnny, Mike and the snake. They never saw the
station wagon pull up behind the engine. They never saw the woman and the
two kids get out of it and run up to join them.
“What are you doing?!” the woman screamed at Johnny angrily.
“Leave that poor snake alone!”
“What?!” Johnny yelped in complete disbelief.
“You’re going to scare him to death. As if the fire and all this
isn’t bad enough! Easy, Jake, Mama’s here.” She turned all
her attention to the snake. She took its head between her hands and cooed
at it.
“Jake?” Johnny couldn’t believe what he was seeing. A woman
cuddling a snake. Talking to a snake. Naming a snake. What was the world
coming to?
A more normal color started returning to Stoker’s cheeks as the snake
began to release him. The kids joined the woman in gently urging the snake
away from him.
No one in the engine crew could even move as they watched the strange show
unfold before their eyes. When the snake was finally off of Mike, Johnny
and Roy went to examine him. Johnny was not interested in another encounter
with the woman. Roy wanted to avoid looking at the snake and the kids who
were about the same age as his kids.
“Is that thing a pet?” The cap finally found his voice.
“Yes,” the woman said. “He comes in very handy when it comes
to keeping snoopy people away from the lab. Besides, he's such a sweety that
I enjoy his company at work. I usually take him home over the weekend but
my in-laws are visiting at the moment and some people are just so weird about
snakes,” she told him.
“Tell me about it,” he muttered as the family and Jake headed for
their station wagon.
“Now that looked easy enough. Why didn’t you think of that,
Gage?” Chet asked.
One of the truckies leaned out of the window of the room they had been intending
to soak. “Hey what kept ya, 51's? The party’s over now. They just
called the fire. You’re been released and you missed all the fun. Better
luck next time.”
“Yeah,” the cap called back.
“So, Mike, what were you doing playing with that snake, anyway?”
Chet asked Mike, who was shakily standing on his feet now.
“I wasn’t playing with it. I mistook it for a hose,” Mike
said taking a deep breath for the sheer joy of it.
He didn’t understand why the rest of the company fell all over each
other laughing till he thought about what he had said.
“I couldn’t see anything in all this mist. I just grabbed it by
mistake.”
“Then it grabbed you back,” Johnny laughed.
Mike muttered an obscenity under his breath. He started to walk away but
he couldn’t help rubbing his sore ribs.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Cap asked.
“To drive the engine back to the station,” Mike said simply.
“No way, Pal. You’re heading for Rampart,” the cap said
firmly.
“I’m okay,” Mike argued.
“We’ll let the doctors decide that after they take some X-rays,”
Roy told him.
“I have to drive the engine,” Mike argued.
“Hey, I can do that,” Cap told him. “You know, Stoker,
once in a great while, I almost get the feeling that you doubt your
captain’s abilities.”
“No, nothing like that, Cap,” Mike assured him hurriedly. “I
just don’t want to waste their time at Rampart.”
“Don’t be scared, Mike,” Johnny laughed. “I’m sure
they’ll just tell you not to get so wrapped up in your work.”
Mike shook his head. A few minutes ago, he thought that the worse thing in
the world was being in the clutches of a boa constrictor. Now he wondered
of being in the clutches of these guys wasn’t even worse. Man, did he
ever need a vacation. He wanted to get back to the Travel Section and forget
this mess had ever happened. Snakes and ladders could wreck your whole day.
