Report From Rescue Company 1

by BRBrony9

Blast From The Past

The Rescue rolled out first, then the Engine, and finally the Chief. Swinging north a few feet to the junction, then turning east one block to 7th Avenue. From there it was a straight run south, through Celestia Square. Normally a busy tourist site, packed with crowds, the Square had a strange feeling to it. Ponies were running, heading north, seemingly in panic. Some were streaming across the Avenue, despite futile attempts by police units to keep them out of traffic. The Avenue itself was gridlocked. Despite Grey Spike standing on the Rescue's airhorn, the cars and buses ahead of them could barely move out of the way of the emergency vehicles. Pedestrians were fleeing in terror, getting in the way of vehicles and causing chaos.

They managed to make one block's progress inside of a minute, and Grey Spike's hoof stuck out of the Rescue's window, pointing to the right. Deep Blue and Pumpkin Punch, the Chief's driver, followed what the Captain was suggesting, and they swung right onto the street. Here, they made much faster progress, racing east to 9th Avenue and turning south again. 7th Avenue was completely clogged, but 9th Avenue was not.

'Engine 65 to Manehattan, urgent!'

'Engine 65, go ahead, K.'

'Box 0779, transmit the 10-60! We have a major steam explosion, K!'

'10-4, Engine 65.' The alert tones sounded across the radio net. '10-60 has been transmitted for Box 0779, 7th Avenue and 38th Street, for a steam explosion. 10-60 has been transmitted for Box 0779, 7th Avenue at 38th Street, steam explosion. Manehattan calling Battalion 9?'

Firebrand answered immediately. 'Battalion 9, K.'

'Battalion 9, on the 10-60 signal, are you ready to write, K?,' the dispatcher asked. The 10-60, major emergency signal, brought in a huge response from the department, and Firebrand needed to know which units were coming in and make notes on their designations. Manehattan was unique among the five boroughs in that it had a comprehensive steam network in midtown and downtown. High pressure and high temperature steam was pumped through subterranean pipes and conduits, used for several purposes, mainly as a source of central heating for many of the large hotels and office buildings, and also being pumped to several hospitals, where it was used to sterilise medical equipment.

'Battalion 9, on the 10-60, your full assignment is Engine 65, Engine 24, Engine 25, Engine 1, Engine 3. Ladder 4, Ladder 24, Ladder 6. Ladder 35 will be your HOOF Truck. Rescue 1, Rescue 4, Squad 18 and Squad 1, Battalion 7. Ladder 25 will be your SOB Support Truck. Ladder 9 will be transporting Collapse Rescue 1. Hazmat 1, Hazmat Battalion, Field Comm, Rescue and Safety Battalions, Tactical Support Unit 1. Engine 33 will be your Communications Engine, Engine 44 will be your Hazmat Tech unit. Battalion 8 will be the Resource Unit Leader, Battalion 4 will be the Safety Officer. SOB Compressor, SOB Logistics, RAC 1 and Division 3. Battalion 9, received?'

'Battalion 9, 10-4,' Firebrand replied, copying down each unit as it was read out. Knowing exactly who was responding to the scene was vital if efforts were to be coordinated properly. A major incident needed plenty of Chiefs to keep tabs on the various units and sectors that might be needed to control the situation.

As they turned onto 38th Street, a roaring sound filled their ears. Crossing 8th Avenue, Ember Dawn peered out over his shoulder, trying to look ahead at the situation, but the Rescue blocked his view, forging a path through the traffic. Here, too, ponies were running in terror. Now, it became clear exactly why.

On 7th Avenue up ahead, a geyser had erupted from the earth, but not one of water; one of steam. A huge column of the stuff was blasting skyward, filling the street, belching out from underground like some kind of elemental force. The steam was pulsating, screaming, being forced from the subterranean pipes under great pressure, like the exhaust from a rocket engine. The sound became deafening.

Rescue 1 pulled to the side, stopping on the Avenue and not entering the block. The Engine and the Chief's SUV did likewise. Getting any closer was potentially dangerous, and would block 38th Street. Other units might be needed to enter the block, and if it was clogged up with unnecessary vehicles, that would be tricky at best. Ideally, Firebrand wanted to be on 7th Avenue itself, and so he headed two blocks north before turning east, racing to the end of the block. The noise of the escaping steam made it hard to hear anything else, but he managed to locate Engine 65 and approach its Lieutenant. A brief, shouted exchange told him some of the basics, but to learn more, he would have to look for himself.

Ember Dawn and Ember Blaze jumped down from their rigs, grabbing the appropriate tools that might be needed. The rest of the crews did the same. Even from a block away, the sound of the steam leak was overwhelming. It was no wonder that ponies were fleeing in panic. Either they realised what had happened and were taking sensible precautions, or they were blind with fear. The New Lunar Republic terror group had long threatened action against Equestria, especially Manehattan, the largest city and, along with Canterlot, the supposed symbol of 'Celestian Oppression' and 'Solar Tyranny.' But this was no terror attack, unless somepony had managed to plant a bomb underground. This was a burst steam line, something which, regrettably, happened every so often in Manehattan thanks to old and difficult to maintain pipes. Sometimes it was minor, just a spurting pipe inside a building, and sometimes it was a great cacophony affecting an entire neighbourhood, with steam blasting out of a huge crater in the street. This was very clearly the latter.

Firebrand could see the source of the problem. The steam was erupting out of a cavity in the ground. The concrete and tarmac, the very fabric of the city, had been rent asunder. Debris was everywhere. He could see that windows were shattered in several buildings. More worryingly, a city bus was precariously perched right at the edge of the thundering column of scalding steam. He couldn't determine from his present position if the front of the bus it was caught in the blast, or merely dangerously close to the edge. Firebrand retreated to his car, shutting the door in a vain attempt to block out the sound of the steam release so he could communicate with the dispatcher.

'Battalion 9 to Manehattan!'

'Battalion 9, go ahead.'

'Box 0779, we have a major steam explosion and leak on 7th Avenue at 38th Street. Transmit a 3rd Alarm for this box. Have the staging area set up at 8th Avenue and 37th Street. Command post will be located at 40th Street and 7th Avenue, Have all first alarm companies come in to the north of 38th Street, and all the second alarm companies come in from the south straight up 7th Avenue. All third alarm companies report to the staging area, K.'

'Battalion 9, 10-5?'

10-5 meant I did not understand your transmission- please repeat. Firebrand had to make the call twice more before the dispatcher could hear him over the roar of the steam. The staging area was where incoming units without specific assignments would park their vehicles, far enough from the incident itself to be out of danger but close enough to be able to reach the scene by hoof in a short time. Clogging up the side streets with vehicles would not be the best practice at a major incident such as this. Given the nature of the incident, Firebrand needed units both to the north and the south of the huge steam cloud. There were buildings to search and ponies to rescue, no doubt.

Coppertop and Grey Spike trotted up to Firebrand's car, awaiting orders. He told Rescue 1 to move down 38th Street itself and assess the stability of the city bus and any victims that might be inside. Engine 25 was told to team up with Ladder 4 and begin the search of the building at the northwest corner of the intersection, an eight-story brick structure that housed offices and several small businesses. Ponies were fleeing in terror from buildings on both sides of the street, some Pegasi taking to the air and flapping away while earth ponies and unicorns ran for their lives. None of them knew what was happening. An explosion meant a bomb in the popular consciousness, especially with the upsurge in angry rhetoric from the New Lunar Republic, but baring a huge coincidence, this was not a bomb, merely an accident. Old of faulty equipment, perhaps exacerbated by the effects of the hurricane flooding underwater conduits, had most likely caused this.

Ember Dawn and the rest of Engine 25 grabbed their medical gear and some tools and headed down 39th Street to the Avenue. There was no fire for them to fight, not yet at least. No hoses were needed, though Firebrand had Engine 65, the first company on scene, stretch one anyway as a precautionary measure in case the damage caused by the explosion sparked something off. The roar was deafening, and Dawn tried to cover his ears, a hopeless task when carrying the first aid bag. The building they were to search had clearly taken damage. All of its windows were shattered, and the street in front was strewn with broken glass. Several ponies were stumbling from the entrance, walking straight through the glass and cutting up their hooves, dazed by the sound of the steam and the sudden violence of the explosion which had ripped through the neighbourhood. It may as well have been an actual bomb, for it had achieved much the same effect.

Lieutenant Coppertop turned and mouthed something to his crew, but his words were carried away by the violence of sound coming from the steam pipe. Dawn followed him into the building, where at least things became slightly muffled by the walls and the soundproofing installed to keep traffic noise at bay. The lobby of the structure held a small hoof salon and a travel agent. Stairs and an elevator led to the upper floors. The crew of Ladder 4 followed them inside.

The lobby and its businesses had emptied out already, ponies running from the erupting steam. It was the upper floors they had to be concerned with, for ponies might have been trapped by damage or debris. A quick check of the elevator showed it was not working- no power was being supplied to it. The lobby and the rest of the building had no lighting; evidently the explosion had either damaged a transformer in the street, or severed the underground transmission line into the structure. Eight floors would have to be climbed and checked.

'Alright! Dawn, Striker, search floors three and four. Flash, Blue, take one and two. The Ladder will handle the rest,' Coppertop ordered, having to still raise his voice to be heard even though they were indoors. Striker set off for the stairs with Dawn in tow. The probie had no time to marvel at the horrendous noise, or at the nature and scale of the incident. In any case his training had kicked in once again, exactly as it had been designed to do, and Dawn was focused on the task. This was a search, just routine, though normally handled by Ladder Companies and not Engineponies. Given the number of buildings that needed to be checked and the lack of fire conditions, however, it was only logical to press every hoof into service to search for victims.

Dawn climbed to the third floor. There was a branching corridor going left and right, leading to various offices. 'Alright, gotta take this steady,' Striker announced. 'Go room by room, check under desks, in bathrooms, wherever. Gotta make sure everypony's out of the building.'

'Right!' Dawn nodded, following Striker down the hall to the right, to the closest point to the steam blast. The end office at the corner of the building was a shambles, with torn and tattered blinds, broken windows, papers scattered about and upturned chairs. Some kind of board meeting seemed to have been taking place, and the ponies in attendance had evidently scattered already, scared off by the explosion. The office on the opposite side of the corridor was also empty. The next office that they entered, facing the Avenue, held one pony, smartly dressed in a shirt and tie, leaning out of the broken window, mouth agape at the huge column of steam and trying to take a video of it on his cellphone. Striker and Dawn got him back inside and explained quite clearly that it wasn't safe to stay so close to the site of the explosion. Reluctantly, the courageous videographer departed for the street, where he could at least still get a shot of the action.

Dawn had to force the door to the next office, a smart hoof kick opening it up. Nopony was inside. The same result was found in each of the remaining rooms on that floor, including the bathrooms and storage closets. Everybody had fled, with the exception of the single endeavoring camerapony. They ascended to the next floor, reporting that the 3rd floor was clear over the radio. Here, they would repeat their task once more, making sure nopony was stuck, injured or trapped. It was unusual for the Engine to be performing such a duty, but they went to it with all the vigor that would be expected of them in any circumstance.

Ember Blaze and the rest of the Rescue trotted down 38th Street. They couldn't get too close to the Avenue; the scalding steam was roaring skyward, propelled out of the underground pipe at high pressure. The city bus they were assigned to check on was visible to them from the side, and it was not in a good position. The front third of the bus was inside the column of steam itself, with half of the vehicle teetering over the hole in the street. They couldn't tell how far down the hole went, or what the danger was to the bus if it were to tip forward, but what they could see was that the rear of the vehicle was crowded with at least a dozen ponies, huddled as far back as they could go, silently screaming fear, the sounds of their voices totally inaudible even to themselves over the constant cannonade of escaping steam. They had to be rescued- but how?

Comments

[DMDash71]

My only issue with this story is that it reads like a series of incident reports. There has been zero character development of the brothers who are supposed to be the main characters. Without that, I’ve got no incentive to keep reading.

I’d recommend a rewrite with this in mind.

[BRBrony9]

10132679
There is development in there, and more will, of course, be coming. It's a marathon, not a sprint, after all. I'm not a big fan of chapter after chapter of interpersonal drama- I prefer making it more subtle and general over the course of a story. I understand if you prefer it to be approached the other way, though. Hopefully you'll stick with the story and see what else happens!