Report From Rescue Company 1

by BRBrony9

Showoff

'The ENS Canterlot, once the pride of the Eastern Fleet, is now little more than a burned out shell of its former self, a vacant building in the heart of the Hooflyn Naval Yard. Hundreds of fireponies fought the flames for more than twelve hours before the incident was declared under control. The Navy Department says a thorough investigation will be mounted to find the cause of this devastating fire, which claimed the lives of more than fifty ponies and injured nearly a thousand more. For WMTN news, I'm Camera Obscura.'

'In other news, the radical New Lunar Republic terror group faces renewed calls from international bodies to surrender its weapons and end its campaign of...'

Ember Dawn turned off the TV. It was the morning after the day before, and he didn't want to wake Rosebush; she was still asleep, and that piece was the only story he cared about hearing. He had been there- oh yes, he had been into the bowels of hell and returned to tell the tale, returned to his marefriend like the veritable symbol of stallionhood that the male firepony always represented in popular culture. He had wanted to prove it, by making love to her, but the moment his head hit the pillow, he fell into a deep sleep. The extent of his exhaustion had not struck him until he had returned home at the end of his shift. He had slept like a foal in the hooves of his mare, a dreamless sleep.

Dawn was lucky in the sense that the MFD had decided that every unit of the day's shift which had conducted interior work at the carrier fire would be released early and replaced by members from the next shift who had been called in to standby in case the fire continued to escalate. As a result, he had made it home not long before midnight. He had not exerted himself to an extreme degree, but, he realised upon waking, it had been the stress and worry of the whole incident which had tired him out so much. He had been worried about his own safety, of course, and of the safety of everypony else. He had been worried about not messing up, not making a complete disaster of his firefighting debut, of not doing anything that would jeopardise a fellow firepony. Above all that, he had been worried for his brother, but he knew that he didn't need to be.

Ember Blaze was a professional, and had been firefighting for years; seven, in fact. Yes, he was Dawn's brother, but he was also a firepony, and only now did Dawn truthfully realise what that meant. He had been through all the training, the lectures, the smoke and fire and climbing ladders, pulling hose lines, lugging them up stairs, rolling them up again, rope rescues, foam operations, basic hazmat training, medical courses...everything needed to be an effective firepony. The training at the Academy had given him renewed respect for both his brother and his father, and for everypony who had ever donned the helmet and answered the call. The fire had scared him, of course, but not to the extent that he lost control or voided his bowels or ran away screaming. Just to the level where he knew it was a danger, and treated it with the respect it deserved, and that was the mark of a good firepony.

Dawn sat cradling his cup of coffee. It wasn't early; nearly 9am, which would be the time for him to start his shift if he were working. But he had 48 hours off to rest up and recover after the fire. That was the benefit of the system implemented by the MFD; 24 hours on, 48 off. It helped fireponies be ready for their tour of duty, during which they would need to be ready for anything. An incident of the scale of the carrier fire could happen at any time, and even if nothing of that magnitude should develop, it was always possible that some great feat of strength or personal courage would be needed, even on a routine shift.

The coffee was warm, but cooling steadily, just like the fire he had worked. He could still see it, towering flames filling the hangar bay, but controlled eventually by stubborn determination. The fireponies weren't going to let it get away from them, and they hadn't. He smiled. He was part of that family now, the one his brother had been a member of for seven years, and his father for many more than that.

'Hey, babe...'

Dawn looked around and smiled again. Rosebush Roulade was awake, rubbing at her bleary eyes with a hoof as she entered the kitchen. She was yawning, but even having just woken up, with a messy pink mane and a sense of vulnerability to her, she was still beautiful to him. More beautiful, perhaps.

'Hey...sorry, did I wake you up? I just wanted to check the news,' Dawn replied, but Rosebush shook her head.

'Nah. I gotta be up soon anyway. I have to get to work by eleven.'

Despite her degree in Economics, Rosebush had been the victim of an economic downturn and a poor job market, and found herself working as a mere part-time bank teller. That was why Dawn's job was so important to the couple- he worked for the city, and Manehattan was good to its municipal employees, paying them a decent and steady wage, and giving them good pension benefits.

Dawn leaned back so Rosebush could plant a kiss on his lips. 'Right...maybe you should become a firepony too. You get two days off for every one that you work,' he teased her gently.

'Nah. Firepony, me?' She shook her head. 'Call me old fashioned, but I like the idea of leaving that job to the big, strapping stallion of the family.'

Dawn grinned. 'Hey, you'd like some of the mares on the job, I think. There are two on the engine with me.'

'Well don't you go getting any ideas,' Rosebush wagged her hoof at him. 'They're co-workers, not eye candy.'

'Hey!' Dawn placed a hoof on his chest to show his semi-mock offence. 'I'm not looking at them like that! But you'd better not look at Striker. He's just your type.'

'Oh yeah? Is he a handsome young firepony with big muscles and a big...ego?' Rosebush smirked. 'You'd better watch out then, he might take your place.'

'I wanna take his place. He's the nozzlepony,' Dawn replied. 'You know, the one who gets to control the hose, put the fire out.'

'What is it with stallions and their hoses?' Rosebush chuckled. 'I thought you just liked to play with them until water squirts out of them...'

Dawn rolled his eyes at her innuendos, but he had to laugh too. She made him laugh. She made him laugh all the time; that was part of why he loved her so much. 'I thought you had some breakfast to make?'

'Yeah, yeah.' She grinned at him, before heading to the fridge to gather ingredients for her breakfast. 'You just enjoy your time off, babe. You earned it. I'll see you this evening.'

'I'll just put my hooves up for a bit,' Dawn replied. 'I'll probably be right here when you get back.'

'Oh yeah. You're mister lazypones when you're not working,' Rosebush chuckled. 'Don't work too hard while I'm gone. Another aircraft carrier might catch fire.'

Ember Blaze scrubbed away at the chauffeur's door of the Rescue Company's rig. Two days had passed since the carrier fire, and so he was on shift once more, at work in Firehouse 25. Cleaning the vehicles was a thankless task, but necessary, to ensure both good mechanical working order and also a good image with the public. A dirty fire truck suggested a lack of care and pride in appearance, and that, by somewhat circuitous logic, could suggest to ponies that the Manehattan Fire Department didn't care about its mission of saving lives, either.

The previous two days had passed uneventfully in terms of the city's incident log. One second alarm had been recorded in the Ponyx, but apart from that, everything had been relatively routine. That often seemed to happen in the wake of major incidents. Blaze had noticed that over the years. Partly it was coincidence, for sure, but perhaps sometimes it was also ponies taking a little more care over fire safety when they saw exactly what a big fire could do. Over fifty dead in a blaze would make even the most ambivalent pony sit up and take notice.

Blaze was happy enough to perform the necessary task. He was very proud of his job; he was proud of his company. He was very proud indeed to be part of the Rescue family. His father had been the huge influence, of course. Blaze Beater had been a member of the Special Operations Battalion for the majority of his long and storied career, a minor legend in departmental terms, which meant that he and his brother had a lot to live up to. Of course, it also helped in sway behind the scenes with various officials and staff chiefs, which was why Ember Dawn's first assignment had been to Engine 25, the company that just so happened to be quartered with Rescue 1, thus enabling both brothers to work together.

His dad had his sly ways, Blaze mused. He was glad; he liked having Dawn around, partly because it meant he could keep a brotherly eye on him, and partly because, he knew, the friendly competition between them would only be stimulated by their proximity, and that could drive them both to be better fireponies. Alternatively, it could lead to them trying to show off, to one-up each other in the course of their duties, and that could be dangerous.

Beep-Boop.

'Engine. Battalion. Rescue.'

Ember tossed the washcloth aside and jumped into his gear. Striker was on housewatch for the tour, and he sang out.

'10th Ave and 45th Street! Motor vehicle accident with entrapment! Engine first due. Everypony goes!'

Sirens wailed through the canyons of midtown Manehattan. It was hardly an unfamiliar sound, and most ponies scarcely turned their heads as the engine and the chief's car rolled by. The Rescue, however, always turned heads, whether folks recognised it or not, and that was down to one simple reason.

The officer, Grey Spike in this case, was in charge of sounding the rig's air horn and sirens while the chauffeur was busy weaving through traffic, and the Rescues, all five of them, simply did not stop announcing their presence. The only time a Rescue responded without making any noise was if they were called to provide an escort for a firepony's funeral. Any other run they went on would see the officer leaning on the air horn, loud, deep bellows of sound that would cut through engine noise and the sound of music on car radios. The combination of the wailing siren and the almost continuous air horn with the precision driving and high speed lent a sense of urgency to the Rescue Company that no other fire vehicle could hope to possess.

Engine 25 was the first unit to arrive at the scene, pulling over to the side of the road. There was a single car, upside down. That was not unusual. What was unusual was that water was pouring out of it.

'What the...' Dawn muttered, as he climbed down from the rig.

'Shit...' Coppertop grunted, waving down Firebrand as he got out of his vehicle. 'Chief! Car's upside down on top of a hydrant!'

'Alright 25, see if you can shut that hydrant down!' Firebrand replied, placing his helmet squarely on his head as the Rescue crew climbed down. 'Rescue, stabilise the vehicle and crack that driver side door if you can.'

A pony hurried over to them, looking frantic. 'He's still in there!' she shouted. 'I-in the car! I saw the whole thing. He was going way too fast and somepony stepped out into traffic, so he swerved to avoid her. He musta hit...I dunno, a mailbox or a delivery cart or something.' She gestured to a short trail of debris leading up to the intersection where the car now lay. 'Whatever he hit flipped him up. You gotta get him out of there, he's gonna drown!'

'We're working on it, ma'am. Please step back and let them do their jobs,' Firebrand addressed her. He did a quick once-around of the car to check for issues. Water was filling the front of the cabin. The hydrant itself had sheared off from the force of the impact. Dawn, Dark Flash and Deep Blue tried to get under the car to shut it down with the hydrant key, but the car itself prevented them from doing so. The Rescue crew crabbed cribbing and wooden chocks, sliding them in place to keep the car stable as Blaze and Oak Wood got to work on the driver's door with their Hoofigans, trying to pry it open so they could pull the driver out. They could see the unfortunate victim; a young stallion, no doubt trying to show off with his new ride. He was the only pony in the car, and he wasn't moving.

A pair of police cruisers rolled up onto the scene at the same time as the first-due Ladder Company. Firebrand directed the ladder crew to stand by with their hydraulic gear in case they were needed to get the door open. Blaze and Oak Wood worked vigorously on the door, which was bent out of true by the crash. They wrenched it free, and Oak ducked in to try and grab the driver. Yanking somepony from a car wreck without any kind of neck or spinal protection in any other circumstance was an invitation to cause paralysis, but this was one of the few occasions when it was necessary; if they didn't get him out, he would drown.

Oak used a seat belt cutter, a simple gadget designed for exactly that purpose, to cut the lap and shoulder belts, and with Blaze's help, he pulled the hapless pony out of the crash, laying him on the sidewalk. He wasn't breathing, but an ambulance was just arriving at the junction. The paramedics hurried over with a stretcher and a backboard.

'He's not breathing,' Oak informed them. 'No pulse.'

The medics got to work on the victim, as a small crowd of onlookers were kept at bay by the police. Both unicorns, the medics used magic as well as technology to stabilise him, to bring him back from the brink of death. Magic was magic, of course, but it had its limitations. It couldn't bring the dead to life; at least, none of the legal magic that ponies could actually learn could. What it could do was work in conjunction with CPR and intravenous drugs to act as a kind of artificial heart, to force blood to pump around the body in order to keep other vital organs, especially the brain, from suffering from a lack of oxygen while the physical medical aid attempted to restart the heart itself. It could only keep that up for a short time, however, before carbon dioxide concentration in the blood rose to dangerous levels. If the lungs were not working, if the patient was not breathing and respiring properly, then continuing to forcibly circulate the blood would soon poison the rest of the body anyway.

It was a delicate task, but more ponies had been saved by a combination of magic and medicine than by medicine alone. That was why it was mandated, though not always achievable, that every city ambulance would run with at least one unicorn crewpony on board. Here, there were two, and that proved its worth after a couple of minutes.

'Got a pulse,' one commented.

'He's breathing,' confirmed the other, applying oxygen through a bag valve mask. 'Alright, let's get him loaded up.' A couple of the fireponies assisted the medics getting the patient onto a backboard and adding a neck brace before placing him on the stretcher and into the ambulance, to be whisked away to the nearest trauma centre.

The car was still blocking the hydrant, but a police Emergency Service Unit- an ESU truck, part mini-rescue and part tactical response team, was on scene, and was able to pull the car off of the accident spot using a tow chain. Dawn and Deep Blue were able to shut down the hydrant, and the MFD's role at the incident was over. The scene would be turned over to the police to conduct a crash investigation and remove the wreck, and to the Department of Environmental Protection to fix the hydrant. Thanks to the ponies of Rescue 1 and Engine 25, another pony had been given a potential second chance from their mistakes.