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// 10-77 
// Story: Report From Rescue Company 1 
// by BRBrony9 
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'Ladder 35 to command, mayday, mayday, mayday! We have a missing firepony!'

Those words were guaranteed to send chills down the spine of even the most experienced officer in any fire department, and the MFD was no different. Chief Firebrand, at the command post in the lobby of the building, now had a much different situation on his hooves than he had when he had rolled onto the block behind Engine 25. No longer was there an unconfirmed fire that might have simply been somepony burning toast or even just a false alarm. Now, they had a wind-driven high-rise blaze that had engulfed the fire apartment and belched out into the hallway, and was threatening to spread to the floor above. To top it all off, a firepony was reported missing, out of contact with his officer and the rest of the company.

'Division 3 to Manehattan, we're 10-84 at the box,' Deputy Chief Misty Morning informed the dispatcher as her SUV pulled into the block. The transmission of the 10-77, working high-rise fire signal, had summoned the Rescue, the Squad, High-Rise Unit 1, the Field Communications Unit, and numerous additional chiefs, engines and ladders, some of whom had arrived and some of whom were still responding in, and while Misty Morning was on the block, she was not at the command post yet, meaning Firebrand still had control of the incident. He issued an order to his aid, Pumpkin Punch, who acted as the radio contact while the Chief was busy.

'Battalion 9 to Manehattan?'

'Battalion 9, go.'

'Transmit a 10-66 for our box, we have a mayday for a missing member, K.'

The alert signal rang out on every department radio that was tuned to the Manehattan frequency. '10-66 has been transmitted for Box 0783, 1560 10th Avenue, between 53rd Street and 54th Street. 10-66 has been transmitted for Box 0783, for the address 1560 10th Avenue, 53rd to 54th.'

A 10-66 was the signal for a lost, trapped, injured or missing firepony, an alert to the rest of the department that one of their own was potentially in trouble. It brought a major response- more engines, more ladders, more Battalion Chiefs, another Division Chief, another Rescue and their collapse unit, and numerous extra medical resources which would be entirely devoted to rescuing and treating the fireponies who may be injured. It was an extension of the HOOF Truck concept, units whose only task at a particular incident would be to rescue their own if the need arose.

Ladder 24 was acting as the HOOF Truck, and under the direction of Firebrand, they headed into the building to assist. Rescue 1, newly arrived at the incident, was also directed into the building for the same purpose. Misty Morning made her way to the command post, taking control of the operation from Firebrand, who she sent up to the 14th floor to oversee the rescue.

Meanwhile, on the fire floor, Engine 40's mad scramble for safety had been successful, and at the stairwell door, they opened up with their hose, spraying a stream of water at the roiling flames that were belching out of the apartment at ceiling level. It made little difference to the great heat, so at the orders of the captain of Engine 40, Striker and Dawn brought their line alongside, making sure it wasn't caught on the corners of the stairwell as it wound up from the floor below. Striker took aim and opened the nozzle, adding a second strong stream to that of the first line. Again, it made little difference. Their streams were not hitting the seat of the fire, merely the superheated gases which were billowing out. Whatever was actually burning was inside the apartment, and without successfully gaining safe access to the apartment, they couldn't hope to get water onto it.

The hallway was rapidly becoming completely untenable, filling with thick smoke which had nowhere else to go. There was also the danger that it would get sucked in through the open stairwell door and flood it, making it extremely difficult for more fireponies to make the climb and organise themselves at the staging area, which would be two floors below. But they had to get into the hall somehow in order to find the missing firepony, the Irons firepony, carrying the forcible entry tools, from Ladder 35. He was somewhere in there and his life was in danger if he was still in the hallway, as the temperature was becoming unbearable even for somepony wearing full protective gear.

Ember Dawn was not afraid, but he was nervous. Conditions had deteriorated rapidly, from a routine apartment fire into a spreading inferno with a missing firepony to worry about, and they, the first two Engines on the scene, weren't even able to actually fight the fire because they couldn't get anywhere near it. That was deeply frustrating, for it was their sole main purpose. It was why they had been sent into the building and up to the 14th floor, and despite their best efforts and that of their officers, they weren't making any headway in regaining the hallway and reaching the apartment door. Nor were they able to push forward so that the HOOF Truck could search for the missing firepony, whose rescue had now become the primary objective of this phase of the incident.

There were not many places he could be. The building had a linear layout, after all. He could be in the hallway, in the fire apartment, or in one of the other apartments. Both Ladder 35's officer and Chief Firebrand had made repeated attempts to contact him over the radio, but with no success, something which did not bode well. To search the fire apartment or to even get anywhere near the other apartments on the floor would require the fire to be brought under some semblance of control, and as Striker and Engine 40's nozzlepony continued to spray water at the flames, there was clearly no chance of them being able to stop this fire by themselves.




Elsewhere in the building, however, action was being taken. Rescue 1 had been committed to the search for the missing pony, along with the HOOF Truck, who rode the elevator to the 12th floor and climbed up the attack stairwell to join the other fireponies who were battling to push forward. The Rescue, however, turned the other way, and made their way across the building to the southern end, where they found another stairwell. They climbed to the 14th floor, where Captain Grey Spike gave them orders.

'Alright, Blaze, Flagstaff. you're with me to search the fire floor. High Line, Oak Wood, take the wind curtain to the 15th floor and join up with Ladder 4 to deploy it.'

'Copy, Chief!' Blaze acknowledged, along with the other members. They had their tasks and they knew what to do. High Line and Oak Wood continued on up the stairs, while Blaze, Flagstaff and their Captain masked up. The stairwell was under positive pressure, just like the other one, and there was no smoke in it, but as soon as they opened the door they would be in the thick of it. They knew there was fire burning, and they also knew there was a missing firepony somewhere out there. They also knew they couldn't safely make entry more than a few feet into the superheated hallway until the fire had been controlled, which was why Oak Wood and High Line had been sent up one more flight. 

The wind curtain device they carried was an ingeniously simple piece of kit. It consisted of a large sheet of fireproof material weighted down with metal weights for stability and rigidity. It could be unfolded, attached to the window frame or something inside the building with strong straps, and then lowered from a room above the fire over the window of the fire apartment which had failed from the heat. In doing so, the curtain would effectively block the surge of the wind into the room and cut off, or at least hugely cut down on, the blowtorch effect which was driving the flames out into the hallway and obstructing the progress of the hoses and the search teams. Together with the ponies of Ladder 4, the two Rescue members prepared the curtain and carefully unrolled it out of the window, lowering it down from above to form a barrier over the broken window of the burning apartment.

It worked like a charm, not quite like turning off the gas to a stove, but not too far off. The curtain stopped the wind from rushing in through the broken window, and the blowtorch of fire which had been roiling out into the hallway died down. With the dwindling of the blaze, the hallway once more became tenable for the fireponies to advance into, and Striker and the nozzlepony of Engine 40 pushed on at the direction of their officers, making steady progress, cautiously shuffling forward in case the curtain should fail and the fire should be subject to the bellows-like effect of the onrushing wind again. But it didn't fail, and soon they reached the apartment door. Engine 40, the first-due engine, made the entry along with Ladder 21, who had arrived to relieve Ladder 35 so they could search for their missing member.

Rescue 1 entered the hall from the other end, though Dawn could not see his brother through the thick smoke. While Engine 40 knocked down the fire in the apartment, Rescue 1 and Ladder 21 searched each apartment along the hallway, and that was where they found the missing firepony. He was behind the closed door of an apartment, the safest place to be given that the hallway had been an inferno. He had been separated from his company by the belching flames, which had forced him to scramble the other way down the hall as he had moved beyond the fire apartment's door. With the heat threatening to overwhelm him, he had used his tools to force entry into a locked apartment and shut the door behind him. The reason for his lack of communication was also made clear; the heat in the hall had partially melted his radio, meaning he could neither call for help or safely leave the apartment until the fire had died down. Apart from some minor burns to his side where the radiant heat had overwhelmed his protective gear, he was unharmed.

Rescue 1 helped him down the stairs to the staging area, where paramedics were waiting to treat him. The elevator would take him down to an ambulance, but Rescue 1 had to return up the stairs again, this time to the 15th floor to link up with Oak Wood and High Line. The fire had spread through the pipe chases and electrical conduits into the apartment directly over the fire, and another hose line had been stretched there to extinguish it. Together with Ladder 4, the Rescue searched through all the apartments on the 15th floor, rescuing an elderly couple who had been sheltering in their apartment. Apart from them, the floor was clear, with most residents of the building being at work as it was the middle of the day. Had the fire occurred at night, it could have been a very different prospect, with numerous potential victims trapped in their rooms.

As it was, there were no civilian injuries. Engine 40 and Engine 25 extinguished the fire in the original apartment, aided by the employment of the wind control curtain that kept conditions manageable despite the breeze blowing outside. Striker and Dawn, hot and tired, were relieved by another company, and together with Deep Blue, Dark Flash and Lieutenant Coppertop, they made their way down to the staging area on the 12th floor to rest while other units performed the overhauling and secondary, more detailed, searches of the building. With the missing firepony found, the 10-66 signal had been rescinded, turning around many of the specialist units which had been rolling in as they were no longer needed. An hour after the first emergency call had come in, the fire was declared under control by Deputy Chief Misty Morning.

Once the companies were relieved, they headed first to the staging area on the 12th floor, and then down to the street to pack up their equipment and, if needed, grab an energy drink or some chilled water from the RAC Unit. Dawn and Blaze found themselves in the lobby as they emerged at the same time from the two adjacent elevators, their work done, the task of salvage and overhaul turned over to other units.

'That looked like a bad one for a while there,' Blaze commented, his face mask swinging against his neck as he walked, carrying his tools back to the Rescue. 'Could have gone either way...that wind curtain saved us a lot of work.'

Dawn nodded. 'Yeah...I didn't even get into the hall but I could feel the heat. We only made any progress once that wind was cut off.'

'Gotta watch that in high-rise fires,' Blaze reminded him. 'If a window fails unexpectedly then boom, you're in trouble if you've pushed ahead too far. The apartment door was open, right?'

'Yeah.' Dawn nodded. 'It was open when we got there. I guess whoever lived there forgot to close it.'

'It can be worse if it's closed when you get there,' Blaze added. 'If the window has already failed and you open that door, then you're standing right there when that fire turns into a blowtorch. There's no safe way to make entry like that. Sometimes you can punch a hole through the wall from the next apartment if the hall is already involved, outflank the fire, you know? Hit it from the side so you're not exposed to it like that. But it depends what the wall's made of, of course. Other times, you're on your own.'

Dawn nodded as they made their way outside. The street was full of vehicles, flashing red and white lights all over the place, but the fire was under control. Other companies were already starting to take up from the scene and return to their firehouses. Misty Morning was at her command post in the lobby, in discussions with other Chiefs and the police liaison officer. There were many issues to resolve- clearing the street as soon as possible, rehousing displaced tenants of the fire building, accounting for anypony who appeared to be missing- but the fire itself, the main problem, was resolved.

The Rescue was parked down to the left, while Engine 25 was outside the building, and Blaze turned to Dawn, giving him a hoof bump. 'Good job up there, brother.'

'Thanks, big bro.' Dawn grinned, heading over to the engine. He was hot and sweaty and tired, but it was another job well done for him, for his company, and for the department. No injuries, other than those minor ones to the temporarily missing firepony, had been incurred, and the fire had been held to the original apartment and the one directly above, under difficult operating conditions for the fireponies on the 14th floor. All in all, it was a result they could be proud of.