“Smoke showing, ladies!” Captain Hansen yelled back at us. We all knew what that meant. This was going to be the first working structure fire of this shift. The stress and wear of the day was already showing on everyone’s faces, as we put our turnout gear on. It made a feeling of uneasiness start in my gut. We had already been busy running calls all day, car fires, accidents, medical calls, nothing to extremely out of the ordinary. But this call was not going to be an ordinary call. At 1:00 am, on a Monday night, there was bound to be someone inside this burning structure.
“Here we go, New Man! Let’s see what you can handle.” Captain Hansen yelled at me. I could barely hear him over the noise of the siren and the wind-up screaming into the cold night air.
“I can handle it.” I yelled back at him as I looked out the window and saw the black smoke and fire coming from the little ghetto house we were pulling up to. What in the world have I got myself into, I thought? I had always wanted to be a firefighter, but this night was shedding some new light onto my career choice.
As I pulled on my face piece, flash hood and helmet, I heard Captain Hansen yell over to Carl, and me.
“ Get out your pen and paper boys, and take some notes, you might just learn something from the Worm tonight!”
Everyone in the Fire Department called Captain Chris Hansen the “Worm”. They called him that mostly because he was short, skinny and could get into tight spaces better than anyone in the department, but also because he escaped a deadly trench incident once. But Carl and I weren’t allowed to call him by that name just yet; we were the new guys on C shift here at the City Fire Department. We had both just started this job at seven this morning.
Neither one of us was new to the fire service in general, but we were new to the City Fire Department. Carl Johnson had worked for a small town in a different county and I came from an all-volunteer department I had been with for about two years prior. Carl was an outstanding ladder ops guy where he came from and I had just won the “Firefighter of the year” award where I came from. But of course none of that mattered here. Here, I was just the “New man” and Carl was the “New guy.” Here we had to prove that we were worthy of the respect of the positions we had been given. Captain Hansen was not happy when we got assigned to his crew. He was very unsure of us and hated “Breaking the new guys in” so to speak. And this first shift we were going to be tested and watched more closely than a doctor watches a dying cancer patient. So far so good with Carl, but Captain Hansen was still acting like he was still a little unsure of me.
“Here’s the nozzle, New Man. Make me proud,” Captain Hansen said as he shoved the working end of the hose in my face.
“Not only will I do that Captain, you might want to get out your own pen and paper. You might just learn something from the new man as well.” I said back with a big smirk on my face.
I knew that the comment would infuriate him the minute it came out of my mouth, but I just couldn’t resist. I also knew it would show him I had backbone, and in this job you defiantly needed that.
“Let’s go, ladies! Let’s not fight over the hose. As fast as this is burning, everyone is gonna get some nozzle time!” Commander Dupree was shouting at us like a military drill sergeant in the middle of war. I led the charge up the front steps and when I reached the door I knelt down and waited for the man behind me to bust thru the solid wood door. That man would be Carl. Having something to prove still as well, he swung the sledgehammer at the door like this was a home-run derby, and he wanted to be crowned the winner.
The door made an awful sound as it cracked and flung open and I immediately saw that the front room of the house was filled with thick, hot, lung choking smoke.
“Waitin’ for an invitation, new man?” Captain Hansen yelled thru his face piece.
“Right hand search!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, hooking up my air hose.
“Lead the way.” Carl hollered as he tapped my shoulders.
I crawled in and headed to the right, while Carl and Captain Hansen fanned out behind me. As I was crawling through what appeared to be a living room, I came across a young girl lying in the floor in front of me.
“C’mon, new man, let’s go. Keep movin! Attack this thing like a man.” Captain Hansen said as he pushed up next to me
“Capt’, I found someone!” I yelled back
“Here, give me the nozzle and take her out of here!” Captain Hansen shouted back.
I grabbed the young, seemingly lifeless body and hurriedly dragged her to the door, where other firefighters helped me stand and deliver her to the waiting EMS ambulance that was standing by. The EMS personnel and I feverishly worked, for what seemed like hours to bring this young life back into the world of the living. Finally, on one of the breaths that I was blowing into her, she coughed, and the life rushed back into her.
“Way to go, new man!” Commander Dupree hollered.
I could hear the other guys making nice comments behind me and giving high-fives. At that very moment the feeling that I had just been accepted into this fraternity of men, this brotherhood so to speak, finally started to sweep over me. I felt such a sense of closeness, a bond, to these men and the child I just saved. It was a feeling like I have never known before, but would soon feel again.
“Get back in there, new man, the first attack team is running low on air and needs to come out.”
“Yes sir, on the way.” I quickly snapped back into reality and pulled on my mask. I went back and crawled thru the front door, following the hose line I just helped carry into the house. Suddenly, before I had even got halfway in, there was a huge explosion. It was so intense, it knocked me into the wall like a rag doll and pinned me under a piece of furniture that had been blown into the room. Turning and pulling the furniture off of me, I noticed Carl quickly crawling back towards me.
“I’m out of air!” He was screaming hysterically.
“Don’t panic, you’ll make it. Just keep following the hose line out.” I yelled at him over all the commotion.
“Captains trapped! He’s hurt!” Carl hollered at me in a state of panic.
“I’ll find him. Just go.” I said as I quickly passed him and headed into the darkness and uncertainty. This was the moment that I always feared and now I was stuck in that moment. I crawled what seemed to be a football field before I found him, all covered with debris. He was alert and lying on his side when I found him. I quickly plugged his airline into my buddy breathing system, and got air flowing back to his air mask.
“Glad you could come to the party, new man” Captain Hansen gasped throatily to me.
“Wouldn’t have missed it for the world, Captain.” I barked back. About this time my low air alarm started screaming like a wounded animal, startling us both back into the gravity of the situation.
“Go, don’t get yourself stuck in here new man. You have a family to think of.”
“You’re right captain, But I think I’ll stay awhile. Somebody’s gotta Keep you company in here. Can’t leave ya in here by your lonesome.”
“I’m ordering you to go. I don’t think I can move and you don’t have enough air to keep us both alive very long.”
“Don’t you worry about that. Help is coming.” I told him, as I pulled on the debris for all I was worth.
After what seemed to be an eternity, I could hear the other firefighters moving towards us as I started to pass out from exertion and lack of oxygen. The last thing I remember was looking over at Captain Hansen as he smiled and slowly closed his eyes.
The Next thing I knew I was waking up outside, on a gurney, looking at the beautiful night sky.
“Smith” Captain Hansen whispered as he lay in the gurney next to me. “Thank you for not leaving me. I owe you one.”
“You’re welcome Captain, you don’t owe me anything.”
“Smith, you can call me worm. Welcome to the brotherhood.” He whispered to me. It was only then that I realized he called me Smith and not “New man”.
That all seemed like yesterday as I sit in the conference room with the other Captains waiting for shift assignments. Having agreed to take all the new guys on my crew, I’ve been subjected to all kinds of ribbing from the other officers. They all called me crazy, insane and say I’m looking for trouble. “You know you can’t rely on new guys to work well under pressure yet, Smith. I can’t believe the Commander is even letting you take them both.” Captain Carl Johnson laughed at me.
“Maybe I will Carl, but I think back to when you and me were new guys. Somebody’s gotta have ‘em. It might as well be me. Just because they’re new, doesn’t mean they’re any less valuable than any of the experienced guys on your crew.”
“Amen to that brother,” Commander Chris “Worm” Hansen said as he walked into the room. Behind him were the two new guys looking at me all timid and shy. You could smell the fear as they walked into the room.
“ Captain Smith, here ya go. Two fresh ones.” He said as he handed me their paperwork and shook my hand. As he turned to go, he looked at the new guys and with watery eyes stated loud enough for the whole room to hear.
“ Follow this man, boys. He will teach you everything you need to know about firefighting. He is the best we have. But more importantly, he will teach you about life, and how to save it. Always remember that you are as important as any man here. We were all like you once and should be treated as valuable as the next guy. He taught me that. He taught me true brotherhood, and I’m sure he’ll teach it to you as well.” He looked at me and smiled with the same look in his eyes I saw all those years ago.
On the way back to our station with the new guys riding in the back like two statues, the radio suddenly squawked to life.
“Engine two, dispatch.” The dispatcher loudly barked.
“ Go ahead, dispatch” I called back in a calm voice.
“Engine two we have a report of a structure fire at the corner of church and St. John St.”
“Engine two in route, dispatch.” I called back as I looked out the window and saw the smoke rising on my left. A smile came to my face as I looked over at my driver and hollered loudly back to my two new brothers in the truck.
“Smoke showing, ladies!”

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