Free Web NovelChapter 272: Chapter 213: This Feeling Is Like... A Wedgie While Flying!
Everyone stood tense.
Such a big scene, and the topic was thrown at them on the fly.
That meant the difficulty was no less than dealing with a real fire.
Even more so, with the scrutinous eyes of the Detachment upon them, it was even harder than tackling a real blaze.
"Bang, bang, bang." Zhang Zhongting knocked on the blackboard:
"This place is no longer the National Culture Palace Building, but a large shopping mall!"
Upon hearing Zhang Zhongting’s words, everyone immediately felt the tension.
A shopping mall meant there was no organized entity to coordinate with. Evacuation would become complicated, and the difficulty of search and rescue would increase significantly.
"There are several people trapped inside the building, with many injuries and deaths!"
"The injured and those needing evacuation are staff members; the dead are firefighting mannequins weighing 120 kg."
"Your task is to put out the fire, rescue people, and retrieve bodies! The casualties could be anywhere on the entire 12th floor. This isn’t just about arriving and marking the spot. You must complete all rescue tasks! If you declare the rescue over and there are still casualties inside the building, the mission is considered a failure."
At this point, everyone couldn’t help but stick their heads out to look at the high-rise outside the tent.
Oh my god, over a dozen floors, with at least seven or eight hundred square meters each, filled with smoke everywhere.
When they had assembled in the square earlier, they felt that eleven Squadrons, 40 vehicles, and 260 people handling this building was a bit of an overkill.
It was probably just to demonstrate to the Municipal Government leadership where the firefighting funds were being spent.
But now, hearing Captain Zhang’s words, they suddenly felt they didn’t bring enough people.
Such a task, in this ’mentholated spirit’ building, was enough to exhaust the stamina of an entire regiment.
"Bang, bang, bang!"
Zhang Zhongting once more drew the attention of these red-helmeted men back to the task at hand.
It was time to assign duties.
"Now, a fire has started in the storage room on the fourth floor of the Cultural Palace’s shopping mall. There are many flammable materials inside, including textiles and plastic products, and the fire is mostly smoldering.
The first responders, Nanming Squadron’s First Squadron, arrived at the scene to find the fire beyond control and immediately called for support from the Detachment. freēwebnovel.com
After a preliminary external investigation of the building, smoke was seen emerging from the fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth, eleventh, and twelfth floors. According to our Detachment’s inquiry with the floor managers, the scene has a large total amount of combustibles, of various kinds, hidden and concealed, with high temperatures and an incredibly complex environment.
The building is a steel-reinforced concrete structure, and the fire is rapidly spreading upwards from the fourth floor.
Now, the Command of our Detachment orders that the initially deployed Nanming First Squadron enters the fire scene for investigation and assists with evacuation, while the Special Duty Squad arrives 20 minutes later to commence interior search and rescue!
The other Squadrons will, following the arrival order of Nanming, Yunyan, Baiyun, Wu Dang, and Huaxi, with a five-minute interval, start launching water from aerial fire trucks, cooling down external smoke points, and proceed with interior attack!
During the Special Duty’s search and rescue process, based on the on-site safety conditions, you may request support from comrades of other squads for assistance with the rescue!
Priority is to ensure personnel safety!
The interior attack ops for each fire spot will be issued by the Chief of Staff after the investigation by Nanming First Squadron is complete! Commanders, switch your two-way radios to channel two, get in the vehicles and await orders, move out!"
"Yes!"
The Commanders quickly ran to their respective vehicles.
Cao Yi and Ye Jiahong, after consulting with the leaders of First Squadron, ran to each of their Squadron’s vehicles’ windows to inform the situation.
"Our task this time is interior search and rescue! It begins in 20 minutes!"
"Get your arms and legs moving; we’re in for a tough fight! Firefighting Squads One and Two will start the search and rescue from the fourth floor upwards; the Special Duty Squad and the Rescue Team will start from the top and work their way down, while the First Squadron will disperse and search from the middle of the floors.
First, be thorough, second, be quick! Third, pay attention to safety! We’re short on manpower. If we encounter a large number of casualties, inform the Squadrons attacking the fire on the same floor for help..."
His words hadn’t even finished.
The two-way radio on Cao Yi’s combat uniform shoulder bag suddenly came to life.
"All Squadrons, now Yunyan Second Squadron has received another alarm and must evacuate the scene. Special Service Squadron 2, in addition to search and rescue, will take on some of the interior firefighting tasks. In fifteen minutes, the Chief of Staff will issue your Squadron the fire suppression orders."
Everyone was stunned.
Zhao Jinchen stuck his head out of the window: "Instructor, we have to fight the fire and search and rescue at the same time?"
Cao Yi took a deep breath: "Make the call, get Captain Zhang, the Logistics Officer, and Chang Ming from home, quick!"
Oh my god, it’s all hands on deck.
...
Outside the square, in an unassuming domestically made off-road vehicle with civilian plates, Boss Wu, dressed in plain clothes, put down his mobile phone, rolled the window down halfway, and looked at the fire trucks with flashing lights heading out of the square, a smile spreading across his face.
...
Inside the Full Attendance Command tent.
The Chief of Staff scratched his head, clicking his tongue twice:
"What should we do? Boss Wu has thrown us a curveball and specifically targeted Special Service Squadron 2. With more than a hundred civilians upstairs and over 40 mannequins, how will we explain to the municipality if the exercise takes too long?
Should we... inform the observers to cut them some slack?"
Zhang Zhongting couldn’t help but laugh: "To wear the crown, one must bear its weight. I’ll go speak with Mayor Liu. If it takes longer, then so be it; we can’t change the standards."
...
Ten minutes later.
Eleventh Floor.
The entire corridor was shrouded in darkness, devoid of light, and in some places, thick smoke persisted.
Two soldiers from Nanming’s First Squadron reached a door with a small oil pool fire, indicating the presence of open flame, and attempted to open it for inspection.
A staff member wearing an oxygen mask came up to them and made an "X" sign with his hands.
"The fire inside is too big! You can’t go in!"
The two soldiers instantly understood something. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
Someone had been specially assigned here to bar passage, suggesting there was likely something important inside.
One of them took out his two-way radio and said:
"Captain, we’ve found an unchecked fire on the tenth floor that might have people trapped."
At that moment, the radio crackled again: "Captain, there’s one on the twelfth floor too!"
"And on the seventh floor."
"At the end of the corridor on the eighth floor, there’s a room door guarded by someone. When we were evacuating, he said there was a big fire inside!"
"Are there any more situations like this on other floors?"
"No."
"It seems like there aren’t any on the lower floors."
...
Outside, channel two came alive.
"Reporting to Command, there is a safe staircase on both the east and west sides of the first floor.
Several trapped individuals have been discovered on-site; some have already lost consciousness, with numerous fatalities. Floors seven, eight, eleven, and twelve contain high-temperature fire areas currently inaccessible for investigation."
Upon hearing this alert, Special Service Squadron 2 knew that their mission performance was about to begin.
Cao Yi cursed from within the vehicle:
"Wasn’t it supposed to be a realistic simulation? And now we’ve got all this fanciness?"
Hao Chengbin couldn’t help but laugh: "The leaders are here, and we still have to show these maneuvers."
Pointing towards the vehicle’s front, he said:
"The Chief of Staff has arrived; go get your orders."
...
Five minutes later, Special Service Squadron 2 assembled and stood by after dismounting from their vehicles.
Cao Yi looked back at the building, then said somewhat speechlessly:
"He Zhijun, Fang Huai!"
"Present!"
"You two, along with He Shun and Liu Shoulin from First Squadron, move quickly to the rooftop, rappel down with a rope, and enter the fire scene to conduct an investigation using a seated suspension.
Fang Huai, you head to the left side of the tenth floor, He Zhijun to the left side of the eighth floor.
"Perform... no, try to keep the rappelling process as neat as possible, the city leadership is watching from below."
Fang Huai struggled to hold back a laugh: "Yes!"
"Be serious!"
"Yes!"
"Squad One, Squad Two, come over here, I’m assigning you the interior assault task! Special Duty Squad, Rescue Team, you’re in charge of rescuing people!"
"Yes!"
...
Although the task was important, it wasn’t very serious.
An exercise was, after all, very different from a real fire. In an actual blaze on a high floor, no one would dare to use rappelling for investigation; it was simply a way to make the drill look more impressive.
However, as Fang Huai and He Zhijun used the staircase on the right side of the building to ascend, they still felt the seriousness of the detachment this time.
During their climb, they encountered smoke from time to time.
Additionally, it was the extremely eye-stinging kind of smoke, including cooking fumes.
At some points, observers in camouflage uniforms were seen covering their noses and recording with cameras.
The two hurriedly donned their air masks and ran up the stairs, showing a sense of urgency.
Protectors Hao Chengbin and Zhao Jinchen followed close behind.
Along the way, sounds of water hoses being laid up the stairs could be heard, accompanied by urging voices:
"Hurry, hurry, hurry! What are you doing? Stop dawdling!"
Further up, employees being evacuated down the stairs were met with a gentle voice:
"Keep to the right, slow down, slow down, the stairs are steep, watch your step for safety!"
The stark contrast highlighted the vastly different treatment.
When Fang Huai and He Zhijun pushed open the rooftop door, they found it bustling with people in camouflage uniforms.
Some had cameras; others were responsible for watching over oil pools. Those not in combat uniforms were service personnel.
Most of them were from the detachment’s government agency.
It seemed they all knew that Fang Huai and He Zhijun were there for the rappelling, watching them curiously.
Liu Shoulin and the others also arrived via another safety passage.
Fang Huai removed his face mask, turned off his air mask, and began looking for a suitable place to attach the rope for rappelling.
"Let’s tie it to this iron pillar!" He Zhijun had already found a spot.
"Okay!" Fang Huai responded and pulled out a four-meter rope prepared in his bag, starting to tie a seated suspension protective knot.
These days, with inadequate equipment, conducting such activities, the squadrons hadn’t universally adopted safety harnesses. The received instructions were to use a rope sling for seated suspension.
It meant tying a rope around the body to create a crotch strap for protection.
A safety harness distributes the force over a larger area, whereas the rope sling concentrates most of the force onto the crotch strap around the waist and buttocks.
Why keep the body more horizontal during descent?
It’s to relieve the force on the crotch area.
You’d rather tie the rope a bit lower down. If it’s tied too close to the thigh’s root, once you descend and the rope tightens...
Excruciating pleasure.
Of course, without a full-body harness, vertical inversion was impossible. The rope sling’s protection was limited to above the crotch and waist; if one tried to descend upside down, the body could easily slip out.
After securing the ropes, the squad leaders responsible for their protection also came up.
They were principally tasked with watching the tie-off points for the safety ropes to ensure no issues arose.
Hao Chengbin helped to check the safety rope, found no problems, and then patted Fang Huai’s shoulder:
"Fly slower when it’s your turn!"
Fang Huai felt a surge of excitement, glanced at the squad leaders who were almost ready, and rubbed his hands together in anticipation of the command.
Soon, a walkie-talkie in the hands of a camouflage-dressed officer on the rooftop buzzed to life.
"Notify the personnel prepared for rappelling that they can start descending."
The group exchanged glances, then walked to the edge of the rooftop, clipped onto the D-ring with an Italian hitch, and climbed onto the rooftop’s one-meter-high parapet.
The top level was on the 16th-floor rooftop.
The wind was strong below, and the building was very tall.
Standing at the edge, the wind whooshed loudly.
Fang Huai held the rope, back facing the open air, feeling almost as if he could take off flying.
He could vaguely sense that spectators on the ground were watching and shouting at them.
Two seconds later, He Zhijun yelled:
"Descending!"
The four jumped, dropping about three meters before decelerating together.
14th floor.
13th floor.
Thrilling.
Too bad Fang Huai’s target floor was only the tenth floor.
He leaned his back as much as possible to use his waist for support to avoid rubbing against his thighs.
At the same time, he scanned the conditions inside each floor’s windows.
Suddenly.
Fang Huai’s eyes widened.
This was a washroom.
A woman wearing a bath towel stood in front of a window on the 12th floor, locking eyes with him for a brief second.
Fang Huai instinctively straightened up a bit more.
"Ah!!"
A scream came from inside the building, and from outside too.
"Ouch!"
Fang Huai felt the rope bite into his crotch.
Instead of quickly lowering himself further, he pointed inside and shouted angrily:
"Don’t you know there’s a fire in the building?! What are you bathing for? Get down quickly!!"
