Report From Rescue Company 1

by BRBrony9

Steam And Speed

Captain Grey Spike retreated to the cab of Ladder 24, which had parked up on 38th Street. It was the only slight hope he had of being heard over the radio.

'Rescue 1 to Command!' he shouted.

'Rescue 1, go ahead!' Chief Firebrand's voice was just about audible in reply.

'Chief, we have approximately a dozen passengers at the rear of the bus!' Grey Spike informed him, as loudly as he could. 'The bus isn't stable, it's hanging over the crater at the front end. It might go at any minute, K.'

'10-4, Cap!' Firebrand called back, his voice raised and strained. 'Can you secure it?'

'We'll have to loop round onto 39th and then onto the Avenue!' Grey Spike replied. 'Can't get to it from this angle because of the steam!'

'10-4. Secure that bus! That's priority one,' Firebrand informed him. 'I'll have Ladder 25 assist when they get on scene.'

'10-4, Chief!' Grey Spike climbed out of the Ladder. 'Ok everypony!' he roared. 'Follow me!' He beckoned his crew back around the corner to the Rescue rig. 'We're gonna take the rig around to 39th and 7th,' he explained, once they were away from the steam and conditions were a little more conducive to speaking. 'We have at least a dozen ponies on that bus and we need to secure it, either with the winch or with ropes and cribbing. Gonna have to examine the situation from all sides. I don't know how close we'll be able to get.'

'Got it, Cap!' Fairway replied, climbing into the driver's seat. The rest of the crew followed as he drove the vehicle around. More units were coming in, racing up 8th Avenue from the south. The Squad was arriving, along with half a dozen ambulances. Police ponies were clearing the Avenue and traffic cops were blockinng side streets to allow the fire trucks a smooth passage to the staging area. The same situation was being played out to the north of the steam leak on 7th Avenue, where cops were redirecting vehicles along 42nd Street and stopping them turning onto the Avenue. Emergency units coming from the north were having a much tougher time reaching the scene, as traffic was rapidly backing up and snarling most of midtown with stationary vehicles.

Rescue 1 pulled onto 7th Avenue, and Fairway positioned the rig so that the front bumper was in line with and facing the rear of the bus. A heavy-duty winch was mounted to the front of the Rescue, and could be used for just such a situation as this; pulling a precariously perched vehicle to safety when it was teetering over the edge of a cliff or bridge, or, hopefully, a crater filled with high-pressure and rapidly ejecting steam. The sound made it hard to even think, let along process rational needs and ideas, even with the training which had been drilled into the fireponies. Every action was performed by rote, which was fine for routine scenarios, but when anything took things slightly out of the ordinary, it led to the potential for dangerous mistakes being made. But the Rescue Companies were the best trained and most experienced specialist units in the city, and they were adept at improvising and altering their response depending on conditions. That was their whole job, in essence, being called to incidents when other units, following the standard procedures, could not resolve the issue by themselves.

Fairway jumped down and, together with Ember Blaze, set about preparing the winch for operation. The winch could haul a significant load, but it would be touch and go as to whether it could move the bus, which weighed a lot more than a car or van, out of its predicament. The weight limit of the winch was 20,000 pounds, and a city bus weighed roughly that, but if they couldn't pull the bus to safety, at least they might be able to secure it and stop it from slipping forward, to give them more time to come up with another plan. The only question was could anypony get close enough to the steam safely to attach the hook to the bus's rear axle?

'Alright, Blaze, get as close as you can with that hook,' Grey Spike ordered. 'If you can get up to the bus, then attach it to the rear axle and we'll try pulling it out. If that doesn't work, we'll chock the wheels and at least stop it from sliding forward.'

'Got it, Cap!' Blaze nodded, grabbing hold of the heavy metal hook attached to the end of the winch chain. With his full personal protective equipment in place, including helmet, hood and visor lowered, he set course for the rear end of the bus. The steam that was belching out of the broken pipe was superheated, reaching temperatures of several hundred degrees. While that was far below the temperature which firepony turnout gear could withstand, it still presented a danger. But Blaze knew he had to get up there, get as close to the steam as he possibly could. At least a dozen ponies depended on him. The bus was in a dangerous position. The door, at the front of the bus, was inaccessible to the passengers, as the column of steam was roaring away outside it. There was no way for them to leave the bus without outside help, either by moving the bus, or by gaining access in some other way.

Blaze tried to block out the deafening thrum of steam, which poured out of the crater as if he were approaching a volcanic caldera. The poor ponies inside the bus must be driven half mad by the sound, petrified with sheer terror. Celestia alone knew what conditions were like in the front half of the vehicle, which was caught in the outflow. The heat from the steam was evident even with his bunker gear on and his visor down. Such a vast column of steam gave off a tremendous amount of radiant heat, and Blaze could feel it on him, just as he would inside any burning building. He kept his head down as he approached the rear of the bus. The back end was just in front of him, and he was able to duck down and crawl a little way under the bus, approach the rear axle, hook the winch cable onto it, and crawl back out, giving it a sharp tug to make sure it was firmly in place and would be able to remain attached if Fairway was to activate the winch motor. Once he was certain it was in place and firmly affixed, he moved around to the side of the bus and clambered up onto the rear wheel. He banged on the window to get the attention of the ponies inside, but it was no use. The roar of the steam meant they couldn't hear anything else. Instead, Blaze waved, making sure his hoof entered the eye line of at least one or two of the terrified passengers.

When they looked round, he gave them a reassuring gesture that everything would be alright. The fire department were on the scene, and the sight alone of a brave firepony at the window was enough to assuage some of their fears. The few passengers who had spotted him nudged and shook the others, pointing to let them know that help was at hoof. Blaze jumped back down and trotted back to the Rescue. Using his radio was out of the question so close to the steam leak, and even back at the rig he had to shout to be heard.

'Chain hooked on, Cap!' he informed Grey Spike.

'Alright, let's give it a try!' the Captain ordered. 'Start winching, Fairway!' The chauffeur did as instructed, activating the winch. The cable began to pull taut, and Fairway kept a close eye on the winch, its motor, the line and the bus. If there was any sign of a problem, such as smoke from the motor, the winching operation would have to be shut down. Fortunately for the passengers of the stranded bus, the winch performed its duties perfectly, with no fuss and no trouble. It hauled the bus out of its predicament, drawing it backward and away from the hole in the street. It made slow progress, but the winch gradually pulled the bus and its passengers to safety, clear of the steam. The rear half of the bus displayed the white and blue paint scheme of the Transit Authority. The front half, however, had been steam-blasted clean, the paint stripped away by the heat and reduced instead to the bare metal of the frame of the bus. It was a stark and disturbing contrast.

Once the bus was clear of the steam, the Rescue crew headed to it with tools at hoof. They had to gain access and get the passengers out. Ladder 25, which had arrived on scene, was standing by to assist, and they made their way up to the bus. The door was at the front, and Hoofigan tools were brought into action to try and crack it open. The emergency release button, located under a metal panel on the outside of the bus, refused to work, with something somewhere presumably having been fried by the heat of the steam. The metal frame of the bus was still warm to the touch, and the windows had cracked and shattered in the front half of the bus. Fortunately the scalding steam had not driven its way to the rear of the bus, where the passengers crouched in fear. It had, however, caught the driver, unable to leave his compartment. He sat slumped over the wheel, all of his skin turned a rich shade of red beneath his coat.

He was most likely already dead, but Grey Spike ordered two of the members of Ladder 25 to extract him and take him for medical examination. He had to use hoof gestures to make himself understood; there was no possibility of exchanging words with the steam continuing to billow forth from below ground. He directed Blaze and Flagstaff to the rear of the bus to help the passengers forward, while he and Fairway stood by at the door to help them down to the street, where the rest of Ladder 25 would help escort them to the paramedics, who were setting up their staging area for triage. The number of casualties from this incident was unknown, but could range from just the driver anywhere up to several hundred ponies with scalding burns or penetrating injuries from the blast. That was why thorough searches were so important. Injured ponies could be anywhere. In cars, under cars, in the crater, in damaged buildings, even in the subway below, depending on what damage the explosion had caused.

Ember Blaze headed to the rear of the bus. He had been chosen for the task of moving the passengers because he had been the friendly face they had seen at the window, under the presumption that at least some of them would remember his appearance despite their terror, and it would help to calm them down. They were a varied bunch, some old, some young, mares and stallions, including one Zebra and one Yak among their number. Public transport passengers in Equestria were in large part unicorns and earth ponies, for the obvious reason that, other than in restricted airspace around airports and military bases, Pegasi were free to come and go as they pleased, and flying was almost always quicker than taking the subway or bus.

Blaze gestured for the first passenger to come forward, and a young mare responded, the look of fear in her eyes gradually being replaced by one of relief. The fireponies were here. They were inside the bus, they were outside the bus, they were everywhere now, and they were helping. Just the sight of the black turnout gear with its reflective yellow and white stripes and the M.F.D initials on the back, along with the name of each firepony, was enough to calm most victims of fire or emergency at least somewhat.

Blaze was able, one by one, to coax the passengers to leave the bus, guided by the other members of Rescue 1. Huddled at the back of the vehicle, they hadn't even been able to really see what had happened to them, and once they were out on the street, most of them gawked skyward at the roaring column of steam which was the cause of their sudden, shattering experience. The fireponies of Ladder 25 led them away to be checked out by the medics. They were safe.

Blaze and Flagstaff conducted a quick search of the bus in case any victims had been missed. It was far from unknown for a foal to hide under something- usually a bed or table in their house or apartment- and so they peeked under each seat, but found nopony else. The bus was clear, and they indicated it to Captain Grey Spike, who ordered them off. Rescue 1 returned to Battalion Chief Firebrand at the command post, where they found that Deputy Chief Misty Morning of Division 3 now in command of the operation.

Many actions had been taken while they had been busy on the bus. Subway service along 7th Avenue had been shut down. A police cordon had been set up. A police helicopter had been called into service, with a Battalion Chief from out in Hooflyn acting as an aerial spotter aboard it, looking for anything invisible to the incident commanders on the ground. Medics had set up a triage area for victims, and some two dozen victims had been treated so far, mostly with minor injuries from flying glass. There could well be more still to be found. Fireponies were searching all of the buildings around the intersection of 38th St and 7th Avenue, one of which was a 75-storey high rise office building that would take a lot of time and resources to check fully. The other buildings were much smaller, and would take less time to check. But the incident would last for a long time, at least a day. The steam service to the broken pipe would be shut off soon enough, no doubt, by Pone-Gen crews. Once that was done, a search of the crater could be conducted for any victims.

Only when the crater was checked could they know that there were no other victims. Once the buildings had been fully searched, the crater checked, the steam shut down, could the incident be declared under control, and then the investigation would begin as to the cause of the blast. Rescue 1 and Engine 25 had played their part in the response, as they did to every call they received. They would be given other tasks to perform, other buildings or other floors to search. But there were many other units on scene now, and the incident, while not under control, was contained. The roar of the escaping steam would soon be silenced.