Report From Engine Co. 82 - Dennis Smith [5]
“Yeah,” Benny says, “but we have to try.”
Engine 73 stretched a line to the floor above the fire. One room was lost, but they stopped the fire there. Now they have taken up their hose, and are on their way back to their Prospect Avenue firehouse. Ladder 31 and Ladder 48 are still here, pulling the ceilings and walls. Vinny has taken his mask off, and is waiting for the men of the truck companies to finish their work. One quick bath, a final wash down, and we’ll take up.
Chief Solwin is supervising the operation, and Allen Siebeck asks him, between pulls on his hook, “What happened to that guy who was on fire, Chief?”
“The police put him in the car and rushed him to the hospital, but I understand he didn’t make it. The doctor pronounced him DOA.”
“How the hell did he get out?” Allen asks.
“The only thing I can figure is that he got out the fire-escape window, and went downstairs and through the hall, burning all the while.”
Bill Finch, Chief Solwin’s aide, enters the room. “What should I do with the gas cans, Chief?” he asks.
“Just leave them here. The fire marshals will be here shortly.”
While Billy-o was searching the rooms, he found two gas cans, and Artie found a third in the hall. The one in the hall was still half full.
“That’s somethin', isn’t it?” Vinny says, making a facial gesture of disgust and dejection. “These kids were probably torching the place, and it lit up on them. I know it sounds lousy to say, but if it happened more often people would learn, and we wouldn’t have so many torch jobs.”
Lieutenant Welch joins us, and we begin to talk about the fire, as we do after each job. “Did you notice that the whole place was charred?” he asks, as he leads us to the front of the apartment. We look at the walls in all of the rooms, and they are bubbled and crisp. “You can see,” he says, “that there was a great amount of intense heat here, but when we got here there were only three rooms going. The kids must have spread gasoline all over, and there was a flash fire. It probably burned through the whole place for a few moments, and then burned itself out, except, of course, in the front three rooms, where there was enough oxygen to keep the fire going. It’s like lighting a candle in a mayonnaise jar, and then putting the top on; the candle will burn until the flame eats all the oxygen in the jar, and then it will go out.”
Two fire marshals arrive and begin to question the Chief, Captain Frimes, and Lieutenant Welch. They are dressed in wide-lapeled jackets and colorful ties. If I were in a downtown bar I would figure them for detectives, because they wear their jackets opened and have tough but handsome faces. Their job is essentially that of a police detective, but they are responsible only for crimes connected with fires. They’re firefighters just like us, but they would rather wear a gun at their side than have a nozzle in their hands. I was asked once if I would like to be a marshal, but I figured that I applied to be a firefighter because I wanted to fight fires. If I had wanted to investigate crimes I would have applied to be a policeman. The marshals take down the information they think necessary, and leave for the hospital. One of the teenagers is still living, and they want to see if he can answer some questions before he dies. They