Chapter 47: Patrick’s Backstory: Fire Rescue
The flames made it hard to see inside the twenty story building engulfed in flames. There were five fire trucks outside the front of the building, sending the water to try and slow the flames down enough so that they could evacuate all the people possible. Especially considering that they couldn't help the building itself and so had to consider the building a lost cause.
Patrick carefully made his way deeper into the building. He was on the tenth floor, having climbed up the stairs after having climbed a ladder to get inside the building from a window. He was trying to differentiate the sounds around him, though the heat of the fire made that difficult. Especially as time moved on while he was inside the fire, it left a roar in his ears that drowned out any sounds a person trapped in these flames might make.
Part of his mind wondered what could have happened to the fire suppression system in this building. Was it damaged? Was it sabotaged? Or maybe was it poorly maintained? He could see the fixtures in the ceiling that indicated one had been installed once upon a time, but that didn't help anyone if it didn't work.
Despite that and the noise from the fire, Patrick wasn't going to give up. Especially since he had to consider that just because someone was still alive, that didn't mean they were conscious. Therefore, he still had to check every part of the floor that he could reach. Others were already searching floors above him and he had to trust that they would do what all of them were trained to do.
As he was nearing his circuit of the floor and heading back towards the stairway that he knew was secure, he paused as a sound caught his ear. Up to this point, the only people he'd encountered inside the building had already been killed. Either by the fire itself or from other means, possibly caused by other people panicking.
The sound he heard was faint and as he followed it, it led him to a room he hadn't realized he'd missed. If he had left and later found out that he had missed it, he wasn't sure if he'd be able to have forgiven himself about it. At least not if someone was found dead in there. He hadn't had that happen to him yet, but he was afraid of what it would do to him if it did.
As he entered the room, he was surprised to find that it had largely been untouched by the flames, although, it was clear that it was merely a matter of time before the flames started to eat up this room. Inside he found five children, the oldest maybe eight, huddled around a table in the center of the room. A table that was low enough for small children to sit at and have at their level.
It was clear the room was set up as a day care area for those who worked on this floor, or maybe the company even, if the company had offices on more than just this floor. The children looked at him, fear evident in their eyes. Though, it was clear to Patrick that their fear was more because of the fire and the fact they didn't know what to do rather than of him.
If it was one or two kids, he was sure he'd be able to help them get out of here quickly, but with five, he wasn't sure what to do. He didn't want to leave any of them behind, just in case he was ordered to not go back for them. He'd heard of cases where that happened and he wasn't sure he could live with himself if he found himself in that position.
Fortunately as he thought about it, he recalled the stairwell that had led him to this floor was close by this room. So, as he looked around for something to work with, his mind raced to think of a way that he could safely get all the kids at once.
He noticed some washcloths nearby, probably to help clean any messes the children made, or even to clean the children themselves. Though, unless he had some water to wet the cloths down, they'd be next to useless. If he tried to take the children out as they were right now, he doubted that they'd survive. Even if he took off his SCBA, or Self Contained Breathing Apparatus, and let the children use that, he doubted they'd survive, even if they managed to share it equally. That was also assuming they'd be able to carry it with them.
Patrick felt a sense of panic overtaking him as his mind fumbled on what to do. He was about to try to take the children out anyway, hoping that a miracle would occur in preserving the children when he noticed a faucet in the back corner of the room.