Free Web NovelChapter 192: Chapter 143: Life is not a Novel
Some people always think they know more than the firefighters.
The procedure for extinguishing fires is to first cover and rescue personnel and explosives, trying not to disrupt the existing combustion conditions.
Although it’s burning, it’s relatively stable.
Only after the rescue personnel come out, and the interior attack team ensures safety, can they start to fight the fire "violently".
If they had directly flooded the second floor with water now, without knowing the situation on the first floor, the Special Duty Squad going in to rescue the liquefied gas would have been in danger.
The water pressure going into the second floor might have caused the fire to either rush down or up.
It might even trigger intense burning and explosions.
If there’s oil burning, it might even spread downwards along with the water, blocking their way out.
Everyone would face a fire inside that could change at any moment.
Cao Yi didn’t bother with him. Only after seeing Fang Huai come out and place the gas can did he ask, "Is there anymore inside?"
Fang Huai shook his head, "No, there’s none left. I checked again when I came out. If they didn’t mess around, there should only be some on the stove and in the corner of the wall."
Cao Yi did not hesitate any longer. Seeing the increasingly turbulent blaze on the second floor, he picked up the two-way radio and said,
"Second Squad, direct water through the second floor windows. Squad One, watch for fire spreading downwards!"
"Received, received. Squad One’s water gun position is quite open in the front, safe."
"Good, retreat to the hall if it’s not working, pay attention to safety! Car 1, increase pressure! Release water!"
"Squad One received!"
"Second Squad received!"
At this moment, the Firefighting Squad really began to put out the fire.
The sound of water inside grew suddenly louder, and Second Squad’s water gun started to discharge water from the outside, attacking the second floor.
"Thump..."
As soon as the water entered the second floor, the fire inside surged out, areas of smoldering were opened up by the water jets, and when they encountered a lot of oxygen, they became even more turbulent.
However, facing the onrush of water, the emerging flames gradually weakened.
As the broken windows were all smashed by the water guns, Hao Chengbin stepped back to observe the fire situation inside.
He tripped over something behind him as he retreated.
When he looked back, his face turned dark.
"Why did you pull the caution tape so close? Are you trying to draw a protective circle of King Kong for me, or set a definite way to die for me? Why don’t you just outline my shape on the ground with it?"
Song Lin immediately came forward with a chagrined look and moved the caution tape back.
Fang Huai, seeing the general attack launched from the side, felt somewhat anxious,
"Instructor, this place is too low, can I go up to the water supply vehicle and check the situation on the third floor?"
Cao Yi turned to look at Fang Huai’s eager look, then glanced at the several gas canisters on the ground, and nodded his head,
"Go! Report back after you observe the situation!"
Fang Huai quickly ran toward Number 2 vehicle.
Climbing onto the roof of the vehicle, his view suddenly widened, and he could see much more clearly than below.
In the two connected private rooms on the third-floor balcony, the rooms were filled with dense smoke visible through the windows.
And within the black smoke, there were flames.
A couch or something was on fire.
Definitely, the second-floor room had been flooded, pushing the fire upward, the temperature rising and igniting some flammable items on the third floor as well.
It’s not necessary to have an open flame for combustion to occur; in a high-temperature environment, as soon as flammable materials reach their ignition temperature, they can ignite without flame.
Once they start burning, it’s a domino effect; the room temperature continues to rise under combustion, which could trigger a flashover.
Fang Huai’s heart sank, and he quickly picked up the two-way radio and said, "There’s an open flame on the third floor, open flame! A flashover may occur, requesting to use the water cannon to cool it down!"
From the two-way radio came a voice of doubt, "Fang Huai, do you know what a flashover is? Don’t talk nonsense!"
It was Hao Chengbin’s voice.
I’ve been a firefighter for five years, my memory has even been enhanced, and I still can’t clarify what a flashover is?
Fang Huai could only shout, "There’s an open flame on the couch inside the room, it is relatively sealed, with black smoke, which may contain carbon monoxide and carbon particles incompletely burned from the couch and other flammable materials!
If the interior temperature exceeds 609 degrees, reaching the ignition point of carbon monoxide, a flashover could occur! Requesting water cannon cooling!"
The two-way radio was silent for a while, and the people by the door all looked over. Cao Yi picked up the two-way radio. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
"Do you know how to operate a water cannon?"
If it were any other new recruit asking to use the water cannon, he would probably have already started cursing.
But Fang Huai...
Fang Huai also wanted to curse, holding the two-way radio speechlessly, he said,
"Instructor... I’m on the roof of the vehicle, what are you asking me to operate? Isn’t it supposed to be the driver who operates the discharge? Here, I only have a valve, pushing the water cannon to adjust the direction and the flow of water, how can I not know? Even an idiot would know!"
No sooner had he spoken, three innocent fools by the caution tape looked over.
Fang Huai immediately shut his mouth.
Cao Yi then gave the order, "Number 2 vehicle, supply him water!"
Number 2 vehicle’s driver, Chen Zhenghai, got out of the car, pulled up the rear shutter door, revealing the controls for the water cannon, and opened the water valve.
He looked up at Fang Huai, "Aim the water cannon over there!"
Fang Huai immediately turned the water cannon, adjusted it a bit, and aimed at the direction of the rooftop private rooms.
Chen Zhenghai also seemed to want to let Fang Huai experience the power of a water cannon. He slammed the manual throttle lever down hard.
"Swoosh!"
A thick jet of water surged out forcefully, with a range of sixty meters, the column of water far surpassed the opposite rooftop, cascading down at a distance.
Fang Huai quickly pressed it down, and the opposite glass window was shattered by the water blast, followed by a clattering sound of broken glass.
Damn, this is what I call a real gun. What good is a gun if it can’t even break a window?
Fang Huai fell in love with the water cannon the first time he used it on the fire scene.
However, even the water supply vehicle’s capacity wasn’t sufficient for playing around with this stream for too long.
Fang Huai casually twisted the stream, breaking another window. The thick smoke inside was stirred, partially pouring out the window.
Everyone looked up and saw the thick black smoke billowing from behind the roof, knowing that what Fang Huai said was true.
At that moment, a black sedan stopped not far away, and a bald man got out of the car.
The bald man rushed over, and when he heard the porcelain shattering on the rooftop, he hurriedly shouted to Fang Huai while running:
"Don’t break those! The stuff upstairs is expensive! The sofas are fabric, and the tables are electric!"
Fang Huai knew the boss had arrived and pointed to the rooftop, "Boss, do you want a wet private room or one that’s completely burnt out?"
The boss was momentarily speechless.
He looked up at the second floor, which was gradually being extinguished but was still a sight of devastation as if bombarded, and had no choice but to let Fang Huai continue to douse the third-floor private rooms.
Soon after, the smoke and dust on the third floor cleared away, Fang Huai jumped off the vehicle and turned off the water cannon himself.
The fire on the second floor also gradually dwindled, mainly because the combustibles had been consumed. Cao Yi had already started directing Squad One via radio to advance to the second floor.
During the fire, aside from saving the gas can, Fang Huai refrained from any rash heroics.
There were no solo acts of heroism, only coordinated efforts from the periphery to curb the flames.
If one chased after merit points for firefighting and disrupted everyone’s rhythm, they’d be a liability to the team.
The fire was big, but fortunately, it wasn’t perilous.
Fang Huai walked to the entrance; inside was pitch-black darkness.
Actually, the first floor was relatively fine, just smoked black. What burned earlier were mostly curtains and sofas that had low ignition points. Some tables could be cleaned and reused.
The lobby was relatively intact; even a decorative water feature at the entrance had been saved.
Without looking, he knew the second floor was beyond salvage.
By now, even the boss was less anxious and began to ventilate the smoke.
"Come on, have a cigarette, let the brothers inside come out and have one too, rest a bit, no rush," he said.
Cao Yi laughed, "Boss, you’ve got a good attitude there. Your place is burning down and no one calls the police. It was he who reported it for you," pointing to Fang Huai.
The boss was shocked, "Wasn’t it Huan Lao San who reported it?"
Fang Huai chuckled, "If I hadn’t gotten up to take a leak today, your place would probably be burned down by now."
No sooner had these words left his mouth than the "Huan Lao San" the boss mentioned began to back away.
Touching his bald head, the boss turned and glared at Huan Lao San and charged at him with a kick:
"Fight! Go play mahjong with your mother! I asked you to watch the shop, and you ran across the street to play mahjong! You don’t even know your own shop has burnt down! Waiting for firefighters to come and report it for us, I’ll kick, kick you..."
The boss, who had just come from the mahjong table, still had the gall to curse out loud, kicking and swearing at Huan Lao San all the way, who didn’t dare talk back, only trying to dodge.
It was then that Fang Huai noticed a shop across the street with double glass doors not shut, just with curtains drawn, and light peeking through as the wind fluttered the curtains.
The mahjong parlor on the main street, doing a bit of business during the day, entertained nearby residents at night – such places were common these days.
Fang Huai walked over to the boss:
"Hey, hey, stop beating him! If you keep going, I’ll call 110 now! Don’t force me to make two police calls in one night!"
That Huan Lao San, crouching in the corner of the wall and wailing loudly, said, "Let my brother hit me! Brother, hit me then!"
Fang Huai held back his laughter.
Pretty smart, even if they beat him to death, he couldn’t compensate for a restaurant this big.
The restaurant owner was quite honorable, not even mentioning compensation to Huan Lao San.
"Instructor, we’ve found the second-floor storeroom, the door is all charred – should we take out the gas canes?"
Through the radio, Zhao Jinchen was asking for instructions.
Cao Yi clearly hesitated for a moment.
But it was his duty to prevent further hazards, so he simply said, "Use tools to open the door, stand back!"
Fang Huai suddenly realized that Instructor Cao was actually quite cautious.
Back in the county squadron, with a fire scene like this, and undetonated gas cans, soldiers would just take them out without asking for instructions.
That was good too.
Following a leader who valued life was also good.
Their lives were cheap sometimes – a simple "charge" could end them. With such leaders around, their lives became a little more valuable.
...
The gas can was retrieved, black as soot, everything in the storeroom baked into charcoal.
Surprisingly, the gas can was actually empty.
Life isn’t like novels, mostly filled with false alarms. That’s why when real danger does come, it takes so many lives.
The boss’s behavior proved all that.
When it was time to leave, the boss actually dared to walk up the burnt staircase to the third floor to retrieve two bottles of red wine, sheepishly offering one to both Fang Huai and Cao Yi.
He also brought a bunch of soft drinks for everyone to share.
Cao Yi, realizing the boss had come down from the top floor, was irritated and yelled,
"Thanks, but we can’t drink alcohol!
How can you, as a boss, have no sense of safety? Why go upstairs?
Your restaurant must send all employees to the fire brigade for a fire safety training before reopening!"
However, the boss cheerily said, "Alright, alright, we won’t drink, how about some late-night food? Guys, you’ve worked hard! I know a great seafood street stall that’s open all night, the food is really good! Let’s go, let’s go!"
That silenced everyone.
What did he just say, which stall?
General Han’s stomach embarrassingly "gurgled" out loud.
Cao Yi’s face darkened as he yelled, "Han Yong, are you telling me you’re hungry while on alert?!"
Han Yong bashfully hung his head.
Seeing the anticipation on the soldiers’ faces, Cao Yi coughed, looked seriously at the boss, and said, "Boss, according to the regulations, we can’t accept anything from the disaster-affected unit!
But, for night snacks... don’t go overboard! A bowl of stir-fried noodles will do for us!"
The boss laughed, "Stir-fried noodles it is! Some seafood in the noodles isn’t over the top, right?"
Finally, everyone cracked a smile.
