Page 64 of Backdraft
I locked the kitchen door behind me and looked back in the window to see Cinder happily diving into his bowl of food. It's a cat’s life for sure.
Chapter Eighteen
I pulled up to the scene, getting as close as possible to the building without being in the way of the pumper and engine. A deep-orange glow haloed over the structure and brightened the night sky to mimic sunrise.
Flames still flickered in the windows on one side, and dark smoke rolled into the sky. It was a large building and could have served as a rooming house. Maybe it had a at one point. Now it was a tinder box that the fire crews were doing their best to knock down.
The fire chief glanced over, and I lifted my hand in greeting. He headed over, and I climbed out to meet him.
I wanted to capture images of the external structure before I went inside. If I arrived on a scene while the building was still burning and had to wait to enter, I'd take pictures of the exterior and everything that was not burning in order to rule that area out as a potential cause of the fire.
"Hey, Drea." Rage stood beside me but kept his eye on the crew and building.
"What do we have?" I asked him.
"Older structure, balloon construction. The fire made it into the wall, so it's a bit of a challenge."
I nodded. "Okay, so it will be a bit before I can get in there. Victims?"
"Unsure. One of the tenants has not been accounted for. They can't reach him by text or phone, and no one can confirm if he was inside at the time of the fire."
"Okay, I'm going to walk around and get photos from all sides while it's still working."
I picked up my camera and fell into step beside the chief to meet his lieutenant.
"That's fine. We should have it out before long. We're watching for flare-ups, rekindles, and flashovers."
I walked around to the left, to the side of the house that appeared to be untouched. Snapping away, I continued to take pictures and was able to look in through a basement window. The glass was broken, as if the panes had blown out.
Around the back, there was another window with broken glass but no shards outside. I frowned, made a notation, and took some shots. Billowing dark smoke boiled out of the windows, and the flames were spread across under the eaves.
I took more photos and worked my way around the house and then back to stand beside my truck. I waited and watched the crews work, making notes. I was eager to get inside and start my investigation.
About an hour later, I was told it was okay to go in. The structure was unstable, but I wanted to get in to make sure there were no fatalities. The crews had done a primary search, but I needed to see for myself.
I could have a quick look around because I figured I'd have to call in an excavator to knock the rest of the building down in order to find the source.
I suited up, drawing a Tyvek over my bunker gear. I made sure I had a flashlight, put on my helmet, tucked a notebook into a pocket and lastly pulled on gloves. A firefighter would accompany me into the structure.
I shivered when I looked at the building as we approached. It was spooky, like a haunted house and the hair on the back of my neck rose. I didn’t want to go inside, but I had to. With a deep breath, I led the way through the front door.
After taking overall pictures, we cleared the main floor, it was full of debris. There were still a few hot spots in the wall too. Balloon construction buildings could be quite treacherous, so I was on high alert. But then I'm always on high alert. Hypervigilance comes with so much baggage.
I approached the stairs to the second floor. This was clearly a rooming house, so you never knew how many were living here. But knowing that one person was unaccounted for kept us moving deeper into the building. It was three stories, and we cleared the second floor. Again, watching for hot spots in the walls with the thermal imaging camera.
Balloon construction structures have studs that extend from the foundation to the rafters with no fire stops in between floors. They were also flanked by double brick exterior walls. If the fire got into the wall cavity, it was very hard to suppress. It seemed to run from the water to the oxygen within the walls in minutes, making it very hard to put out.
We still had to go to the third floor. I’d seen flames coming out the eaves, so I knew the fire had reached the attic space.
I pointed up the stairs, and the lieutenant nodded. He stopped me with a hand on my arm and indicated he wanted to go first. We ascended the stairs, and it did seem much more fragile than it originally appeared. The third-floor stairs were stacked on the second-level stairs, which in turn were above the basement stairs. So if one level went, they all would go.
I hugged the wall. If they gave way, hopefully, the stringers in the wall would keep their grip. The skin on the back of my neck prickled again. I had a bad feeling.
Something was wrong.
The firefighter in front carefully took each step and assessed before the next one. So far, the stairs seemed to be holding. I was getting antsy though and wanted out of the building, pronto. We had to hurry.
The walls groaned, and an eerie moaning sound in the smoke-filled darkness was chilling, then it was followed by a roar. The fire had reignited. Wood splintered behind us, and the stairs gave a tremor. I looked back in time to see the balcony hall we'd just been on collapse on itself.
