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Yet Another Day
Josh taped gauze over the burn on his patient’s forearm. Behind him, the Command Post radios played on open speaker. The lobby triage area thinned out—lower-floor evacuees treated and cleared, the ones still here waiting on transport or a second look.
“Staging to Command. We’ve got smoke in Stairwell B. Twelve and thirteen are hazing over.”
“—the hell just happened to B? We had viz ten seconds ago—”
“Copy, Staging. Stand by—”
“Division 14 to Command. Losing visibility on B side. Conditions changed fast.”
Josh didn’t know what half of it meant but something went wrong. He looked over his shoulder. The building guy had both hands up, shaking his head at the IC.
“Vent Group to Command. We did not request a change to Stairwell A. Repeat, we did not request—”
“Central to Command. We’re reading inverse pressure between Stairwell A and B. You’re going to lose containment on B if both systems keep modulating. Requesting authority on fan control.”
Well, somebody had it figured out.
“Command copies. Central has authority. Facilities is standing by. Go ahead.”
“Copy, Command. Set Stairwell A supply fan to sixty-five percent. Hold B at full positive. Standing by for confirmation.”
Wait. That voice.
“Command to Central, Facilities confirms. A at sixty-five, B at full positive.”
“Copy, Command. Pressure differential is stabilizing.”
He’d been hearing it the whole time and for the first time.
The guy who could barely wake up on Ben’s couch just cleared a stairwell full of smoke in two minutes.
Matt should have clocked out by now, but he was still on the console.
The fire was under control. Routine monitoring. He’d been pacing himself well enough to want more, and today felt like a good day to try. Just until the evacuation. Nolan let him.
“Evac Group to Command. Nineteenth floor clear. Moving to eighteen.”
He started pulling together the handover notes for his relief.
“Command to Central. Aid 33 is declaring a Mayday. Firefighter-service elevator stalled between nine and ten, two crew members on board, one injured, one accompanying. Get me a rescue company.”
In. Hold. Out.
“…Central copies. Stand by.”
Dispatch leaned back from their terminal. “Rescue 3. Rolling in five.”
“Central to Command. Rescue 3 dispatched. ETA five.”
Two more floors to go. He should finish his notes.
“Hey, rookie.”
Ben crossed the lobby toward the Command Post, past Josh working a patient. He didn’t look twice.
“Rescue 3 reporting in, Chief. Who’s in the box?”
“Gibson and Randall. They were bringing Randall down from Staging, bad leg—car quit between floors.”
“Of course it’s Gibson. They lock him up on inspection day. Who’s got my building access?”
“Joe here’s the building engineer—Joe, meet Captain Ralston. He’s calling the shots for this.”
“Joe. Please tell me I don’t have to take the stairs.”
“Car three is good to go. Here’s the key.”
“Bad one dead yet?”
Joe worked the panel. A light went off. “It is now, Captain.”
“Thanks. Chief, what’s my channel?”
“Tac 4. EOC and your boys in the car are already patched in.”
“Gibson, it’s Ralston. Power’s off, we’re on our way up—don’t break anything else.”
The telemetry was wrong.
Matt’s screen showed the elevator’s power isolated. Open breaker, dead circuit. But the feed was still drawing.
“Central to Rescue 3. Hold entry. I’ve got current on the elevator circuit.”
“Copy. Rescue 3 holding,” Ben said. “We were told it was dead. Gibson, what’d you touch?”
“Fuck you, Ralston.”
“Central to Command. What else does Facilities have on that feed?”
“Copy, Central. Stand by.”
Matt pulled the building’s pre-plan and skimmed the elevator documentations.
“Command to Central. Facilities says that bus has a standby generator on auto-transfer. It picked up when the primary dropped. Won’t clear from the lobby. Lockout’s at the generator, roof mechanical. Facilities is looking for the controller docs but can’t confirm they’re current.”
“Copy, Command. Central’s contacting the vendor directly.”
He found the service contact and dialed. On the radio, Ben was sorting roof access with Command.
“Steiner Liftworks. How can I help you?”
“This is the Cascadia Fire Department. I need someone who can walk me through the emergency-power arrangement on the elevator controller at Northport Logistics Tower.”
They took his information and transferred him to a tech who came on already talking.
“Northport, yeah, I know that system—we just did the transfer switch upgrade last spring, the whole bus got reconfigured. Are you guys on a call there right now?”
“I’ve got a live circuit after a primary isolation. I need the isolation point.”
“Oh shit—yeah, that’s the auto-transfer, it would have picked up the second you dropped the primary. So the way that’s wired now, the generator feeds through a dedicated bus on the—”
“Just the breaker.”
“Right. Sorry. Breaker seven on the transfer bus, generator side.”
“Roof Group on location. Requesting isolation point.”
Matt kept the tech on the line.
“Central to Roof Group. Generator bus two, breaker seven.”
“Copy, Central. Breaker seven. Open and tagged.”
The current on the feeder dropped to zero.
“Central to Rescue 3. Elevator circuit is cold. You’re clear to enter.”
Ben set the primary anchor on the eleventh-floor door frame and ran the line through. Garvin bolted the secondary to the stanchion across the landing.
“Guy hasn’t changed,” Wood said, rigging the lowering brake. “Still covering your ass from across town.”
“That’s Hartfield for you,” Rodney said. “Man could find a fault in a dead battery.”
“Just not his own,” Garvin said.
Jackson checked the straps on the stokes. “You know, last time we ran this—”
“Don’t,” Rodney said.
“I’m just saying, it’s the same—”
“Stick to the plan,” Ben said.
“Tell me that wasn’t on the radio,” Wood said. “Hartfield’s gonna lose it.”
That got a laugh. They went back to work.
A quick two words on the way past, and then Ben was talking to the IC, gone upstairs with his crew.
Nobody would have thought twice about it. That was the point. Josh didn’t look up again, because looking up was something a boyfriend did and he wasn’t that here.
Then Matt told Ben to hold. The elevator still had power. Josh kept repacking the supply kit because if his hands stopped, someone might wonder why the EMT cared so much about an elevator rescue.
Across the lobby, the building guy was tearing through binders at the Command Post. Josh finished the kit and started on another one. Someone was sent to the roof. Matt got the power problem sorted.
And then nothing.
Josh zipped the bag and set it by the wall. Checked the triage area for anything left behind. Folded up the last sheet of plastic they’d laid down for the treatment area.
He couldn’t call. He couldn’t go upstairs. He was just here.
Ten minutes later the rescue picked up again. Maybe longer. Ben’s crew on the speakers, calling back and forth. Josh stopped pretending he wasn’t listening. The only elevator story he knew ended with someone in a wheelchair—
“You ready, Cecil?”
It didn’t belong on the radio. Not in the middle of a rescue, not from a captain calling shots. It sounded like something from a firehouse kitchen. A dare between friends.
“Just stick to the plan, Kain.”
He could almost see Matt in the shaft, clipped to a rope, right next to Ben.
Matt walked his relief through the board. Active entries, the elevator rescue closeout, demob status on the fire-floor crews and staging.
The adrenaline was wearing off. His lower back was tightening.
This is going to hurt tomorrow.
He finished the last telemetry entry and signed off. An hour past the thirty he’d volunteered for. He was behind on water. So much for pacing.
Nolan was by the door, coffee in hand.
“Good work today, Hartfield.”
His focus was starting to slip.
“That’s what they pay me for,” he managed.
Matt wheeled out into the corridor. He probably shouldn’t be driving.
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Epilogue