Free Web NovelChapter 271: Chapter 212: Unexpected Drill
Wednesday.
Weather: ☼
It was uncertain whether the drill had chosen the weather, or vice versa, but on this rare sunny spring day, an alarm bell rang out loudly.
Cao Yi, who was leading everyone in studying the hose laying drill along the stairs, instantly shouted towards the main building.
"Meng Qiang, what’s the situation?"
"Drill! Detachment drill!"
"Damn, wasn’t it scheduled for Thursday?"
"We’ve been tricked! Hurry up and get in your combat uniform and on the truck! Quick! Quick!"
...
On the way to People’s Square.
Mercedes No.3, driven by the newly appointed Assistant Squadron Leader, He Zhijun.
This always vacant assistant position was immediately filled by He Zhijun as soon as he rejoined the squadron.
"Little Fang, I looked at your training schedule, and you’ve set your physical training goals higher than mine, haven’t you?"
"I heard that in the Special Duty Team, there can only be one physical fitness benchmark?"
After a period of silence in Mercedes No.3, He Zhijun suddenly spoke with a chuckle.
As soon as these words were uttered, the faces of Huang Yong, Little Black, and Chen Zhenghai sitting next to Fang Huai immediately turned sour.
Fang Huai, who was checking the 20-meter rope around his waist, turned dark in the face:
"Lieutenant, which loose-lipped Captain has been saying that?!"
He Zhijun nodded and picked up the two-way radio: "Ah, let me ask the Captain if I heard wrong."
"No need!" Fang Huai pressed down his hand firmly and said seriously:
"Squad Leader, I was trained by you. Rest assured, no matter where I go, I will tell everyone that I am your soldier!"
He Zhijun had just been joking; hearing what Fang Huai said, a look of encouragement appeared on his face: "Don’t worry, Little Fang, you will step onto a bigger stage in the future. I understand; feel free to ask me anything!"
"Alright, Squad Leader! When we compete together on the national stage in the future, I’ll be your proud disciple!"
Hearing this, the others felt something was off.
These words, damn, they sounded eerily familiar.
Inside, Fang Huai was laughing hysterically.
Squad Leader Hao’s title was becoming less useful; rest assured, Squad Leader He, all the enmity drawn from now on is yours!
"All vehicles, all vehicles, the Command Center has informed us that we will conduct a fire drill at the National Culture Palace. Once we disembark, each squad will line up separately, led by the squad leaders to assemble. The Squadron Department will issue tasks by squad.
All squad leaders and deputy squad leaders, come with me. Once the task is received, carry out detailed arrangements according to the orders from the Squadron Department.
Our Special Duty Team may have to perform knee-sitting suspension and vertical inversion descent. If such tasks are assigned, they will be carried out by He Zhijun and Fang Huai, with Zhao Jinchen and Hao Chengbin responsible for the safety rope protection.
Those providing protection, you must pay attention to safety, safety, do you hear me?"
"Number 2 vehicle, received."
"Aerial ladder vehicle, received."
He Zhijun, who had never been to the drill site, furrowed his brows and picked up the two-way radio, asking:
"Instructor, it’s that National Museum that looks like a bottle of medicated oil, right?"
"Correct."
"Are there any exhibits inside? Will we be using water?"
"Use water, treat it as real combat, don’t worry; that building was just approved last year. There’s nothing much inside. The Detachment will probably set up fire points, including oil pools, and we may use foam.
Knee-sitting suspensions and vertical inversion descents—you should be very familiar with those, no problems, right?"
"No problem," He Zhijun said before turning to look at Fang Huai.
Fang Huai smiled: "I don’t have any problems either."
Although these two tasks weren’t very familiar to him in his previous life, he could do them, and after visiting the site last week, Cao Yi had him practice several times already.
With his current physical condition, it was quite easy.
Knee-sitting suspensions and vertical inversion descents use the principle of controlled descent, currently based on the figure-eight descender principle.
The descent is controlled by wrapping the rope through the large loop of a figure-eight descender, then around it, with the small loop serving as the connection to the safety harness.
The principle is to use the friction between the rope and the descender to slow down or brake the descent, increasing the friction between the rope and the ring to allow for a slow descent or halting altogether.
Simplified, as long as you firmly squeeze the rope at the lower end of your body, you can use a small amount of force, in conjunction with the friction, to slow or even stop your descent.
Of course, the D-ring is actually more commonly used. When tied with an Italian hitch, the principle is the same. The friction is greater, but it’s also easier for the rope to get stuck or tangled.
Knee-sitting suspension is a commonly seen drill in firefighting demonstrations—where you see firefighters coming down by hopping with their feet against the wall.
While it looks nerve-wracking, it’s actually quite simple. Even ordinary people can try it. With the rope knotted properly and with protection in place, you can descend slowly using hand-over-hand techniques with the rope.
However, to master it, one must control the interval between releasing and pulling the rope, coordinating hands, feet, and body to ensure each descent is even, achieving a quick yet safe descent.
Vertical inversion descent, however, is more challenging.
Descending headfirst, you need sufficient control over your body to be able to rotate into a knee-sitting suspension position upon reaching the target floor and then enter through the window.
Comparatively, it’s like the difference between doggy paddling and freestyle swimming.
As long as you understand the principle of buoyancy and aren’t afraid of the water, anyone can paddle around, though your form may not look great.
But freestyle swimming requires a certain level of skill and technique, and when you get tired, you can switch to floating. Moreover, those who can swim freestyle, even when they just float, definitely look much better and more fluid than those who can only dog paddle.
As for Fang Huai, he now seems like a fish in the water, utterly fearless of it and with an amazing ability to learn. No matter what movement he needs to learn, he almost always masters it with ease.
...
The Special Service Squadron 2 was far away and arrived about half an hour after the alarm had sounded.
When they arrived at the scene, it was a spectacular sight.
Dozens of fire trucks were lined up in three columns in the center of the square, resembling a large-scale fire truck exhibition.
This exercise involved 11 city squadrons.
Nearly two hundred firefighters, dressed in navy blue firefighting combat suits and orange emergency rescue suits, had already disembarked from their vehicles and were standing in a large formation, quietly awaiting orders.
On either side of the formation were lines of police and medical personnel.
Two small red vans bearing the Full Attendance Command’s insignia of the Detachment were also parked in the center of the square, beside which the Command’s tent was set up.
The appearance of this vehicle meant that at least Detachment-level or higher leaders were present.
If a vehicle with this insignia appears at the scene of a disaster, it indicates that it is a significant emergency.
Once Full Attendance Command leaders arrive at the scene, it means they take over the overall command of the entire disaster situation, ready to notify the Command Center at any moment and direct nearby squadrons to provide reinforcement based on the situation.
Only a single entrance for fire trucks was left open in the entire square, with caution tape strung all around the perimeter of the square.
On the outside, there was a mix of onlookers, photographers, passersby, and traffic police directing the traffic.
Several vehicles from the Second Squadron stopped in the fourth row. As soon as Fang Huai got out of the vehicle, he gathered his Special Duty Squad together into formation, taking their place on the far right side of the square’s formation.
Today’s highest commander of the Detachment, Zhang Zhongting, stood beside the Full-time Command Car. Seeing the arrival of Fang Huai leading his team at a run, he knew the last squadron had arrived.
He smiled and turned his head to a few middle-aged men in jackets and police uniforms in the vehicle and said:
"Mayor Liu, Director Chang, all personnel are now in place."
"Let’s go," Mayor Liu stood up from the middle seat.
The leaders walked up to the podium that had been set up in advance. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
After the leaders took their places, Zhang Zhongting walked leisurely to the side of the podium, saluted, picked up the microphone, and loudly said:
"Comrade Mayor Liu, the comprehensive fire disaster drill with an extensive scope for Guiyang in 2008 has everyone present onsite, awaiting your instructions!"
Mayor Liu stepped forward and spoke solemnly and loudly into the microphone array:
"I declare the immediate initiation of the City Government Major Fire Accident Emergency Plan, the exercise begins now!"
As the words fell, alarm bells began to sound, echoing throughout the square.
Thick smoke began billowing from various floors and the roof of the National Culture Palace Building ahead, which resembled a bottle opener.
Surrounding the square, exclamations from the public erupted, and countless onlookers stopped to watch, their voices buzzing with discussion.
Even the soldiers from the Special Service Squadron 2 couldn’t help but be surprised.
This scale far surpassed the previous Big Team exercises, and judging by the scale of smoke on each floor, it was significantly beyond last year’s or the year before’s Detachment exercises—it was as if the whole building was on fire.
Zhang Zhongting also turned to face the crowd below and picked up the microphone again:
"All Squadron Commanders, gather at the Full-time Command Department! All two-way radios switch to Channel One as the public channel. Combatants, get on your vehicles and await orders!"
As his words ended, Squadron Leaders in front of each team immediately issued instructions:
"Get on the vehicles, sound the horns and wait!"
"Squad One, run!"
"Squad Four, run!"
"121!"
...
Once all squadrons had boarded their vehicles, the only sound in the entire square was the sirens.
The commanders had also gathered inside the tent of the Full Attendance Command.
Honestly, they were somewhat panicking in their hearts.
How had a Detachment exercise ever been conducted so unexpectedly?
For a large-scale exercise such as this, where the mayor is present, the Detachment would have had at least two or more rehearsals and a fixed dispatch plan!
In these exercises, before everyone arrived, they would know well what tasks their own squadrons were to undertake. Even some equipment, like the mobile water cannons, spare hoses, etc., were secretly set up on site before the drill.
Even some squadrons had personnel ready and waiting upstairs.
They couldn’t afford any mistakes!
How could this be so sudden? No preliminary preparations whatsoever, plus the exercise time was changed at the last minute!
Wasn’t this setting the stage for a failed exercise?
"Are you all worried?" Zhang Zhongting and Chief of Staff Zhou were sitting in the center of the tent, with a table in front of them.
In front of them was a blackboard.
Zhang Zhongting, holding a chalk stick, walked to the blackboard, quickly sketched the outline of the building ahead, made a few marks, and said with a smile:
"This time, it was I who asked the whole corps’ leaders to pose this challenge to us. We received the whole corps’ scenario only three hours ago and then asked the staff in the building to start preparing the site for us.
Before this, not to mention that you didn’t know what to do, even I had no idea what to do!
Boss Wu has always been very dissatisfied with the realism of exercises, so this time, we’re going to get real!
The time has come to test your true skills!"
