The Rookie (manxmen)**Hothouse Book 1**

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Sorry babies, some parts of this chapter maybe a little hard to take, but it's going to be okay.

(What a wrecking bar looks like---------->)

 Thad's POV...

Talk about starting off your day running, I barely had enough time to pull my truck into the station's parking lot, when I had to swerve around Chuck as he brought the rig around the corner. I had no time as I shot of the cab and chased the slow rolling truck before Xavier reached out and hauled me through the open door and dropped me into the seat. "Haul on your gear." He barked and pointed at my turnout suit lying in a pile next to me. I quickly scrambled into it while I tried to keep my balance as Chuck roared through the streets with all alarms blaring. Finally, I was suited up and I strapped myself into the safety harness and waited for my instructions. Xavier was busy listening to the radio transmissions and the other guys were clearly working on getting into the right head space havinf to adjust to action so early on in the morning. We were responding to another suspicious large scale fire, but this one was too close to an Elementary school, and there were already several other stations responding since the school was being evacuated, and a perimeter was being set up my the local police department to keep the children safe and the parents from panicking.

Xavier turned to us and started giving us details on the location and occupancy of the building. It was still early so the workers were not expected to be there yet. The chief was already on-site assessing what  the best course of action was to take along  in dealing with the situation right along with a few of the other Battalion Cheifs from other stations. We were sorta flying by the seat of our pants until we arrived on site. And it didn't take Chuck long at all to pull the behemoth of a truck up behind another one of our smaller rigs, that Tommy was driving. I watched as Xavier discreetly squeezed Robbie's hand before we all held hands and said a quick prayer asking for strentgh and safety before we hopped out of the truck. The chief immediately made his way over to us and began barking out instructions. We were to field assist the unit currently in place, the ladder trucks were going to be used for high spray, meaning that they were going to douse the building not only from ground level, but from above the roof as well. Here, were in search and rescue, meaning room by room search to clear the building of any people or pets as well as assessing the hot-spots for possible flare ups.

Lance's eyes briefly met mine for a minute before I pulled the fire proof headgear over my face protecting my nose and mouth. I strapped on my face mask and replaced my helmet on my head. Chuck handed me the Halligan bar before he jumped back up in the rig to position the ladder truck where it needed to be. Robbie, Shaun, Dave, and myself jogged towards the burning building, out of the corner of my eye, I saw several crews spraying the steamimg entrance with high powered geysers of water. The dark gaping doorway we were supposed to enter yawned before us, and I took a deep breath and trooped in line behind my crew. I was just about to enter the building when I felt a restraining arm on my shoulder and I looked up into the concerned eyes of my brother. He was part of the ground hose crew, and I nodded my head as he squeezed my shoulder in silent support. I turned and dashed into the building and I immediately felt the change in the temperature. The heat coming through my turnout gear had me sweating almost instantly.

Robbie connected our safety lines together and I could barely make out the other crews throuogh the thick smoke and darkened interrior of the burning building. The beams from the flashlights were steadily swinging from left to right as we went room by room on the first floor. I could hear Robbie doing a verbal check in with the chief and Xavier as we went along. We cleared several rooms before we came upon a set of closed doors. The other crew was already assessing the door, checking to see if there was the possibility of flames behind that portal. They gave the thumbs up and the door was promptly kicked in, there was a collective, "Oh Shit," when a backdraft spewed a wall of fire in our direction, we had no choice but to hit the ground as the fire flashed over our heads.