After Being Reborn, I became a firefighter again?

Chapter 273: Chapter 214: There Must be a Reason for the Unbelievable Event

With a single command, the woman fell silent.

Damn, that scared the hell out of me, almost turned me into a hooligan.

Luckily, I managed to intimidate that woman.

Fang Huai hurriedly descended as well, not wanting to be left too far behind by the others.

The descent outside the building was like opening a blind box.

Approaching the tenth floor, Fang Huai slowed down, sliding gently to observe the situation.

All the windows that could open were open, except they opened by pushing up instead of to the side.

The place where Fang Huai landed was a rather large office.

Inside there was no oil pool either, which meant there was no open flame.

However, there were altogether five mannequins lying on the floor.

Those 120-pound mannequins!

There were five in this room alone, how many more could there be elsewhere?

Damn it, in a dull exercise where actual fire couldn’t be lit and no doors could be smashed or walls chiseled, the only way the command had to amuse themselves was squandering their sweat.

One mannequin equaled one corpse.

That meant, in one office without open flames and with the windows wide open, five people were presumably smothered to death.

Fang Huai thought and thought until he could hardly think of any real situations where something this bizarre could happen.

He sighed, found the nearest window, and flipped himself through it.

To be fair, the opening of this window was quite high from the windowsill, separated by a pane of glass.

It was rather hard to climb through.

Once inside and quite high off the floor, Fang Huai unbuckled his safety catch, lowered himself, and landed with a thud.

He casually took out his two-way radio and said,

"Instructor, there are five casualties on the tenth-floor office, no open fire in the room."

As he spoke, he moved toward the door.

Once he opened it, there was a larger room outside, surprisingly containing three oil pools, indicating a raging fire.

There was also a member of the observation team, filming.

Fang Huai quickly closed the door, picked up the two-way radio again, and shouted loudly,

"There’s an open fire in the room along the corridor on the tenth floor! A big fire!"

"Received, received, please retreat along the outer window ropes!"

"Fuck your..." Fang Huai cursed under his breath.

Damn it, they truly didn’t care about human life!

He was now certain that they chose him and He Zhijun for this task because only the strength of their arms allowed them to climb in and out of such a high and narrow window.

A normal window would’ve been fine, just step on the windowsill and you’re in, but for this type of window so high up, they insisted on making it a hanging knee suspension exercise!

Absolutely ridiculous.

The difficulty of the exercise was way higher than that of actual firefighting!

If there were a real fire, Fang Huai would probably already have pulled out his fire axe and shattered the glass barrier by now.

Cursing, Fang Huai found a table to prop himself up, reattached the safety buckle hanging at the window, climbed back up, flipped out again, grabbed the safety rope, and continued to descend.

What Fang Huai didn’t know was that their task was the only performance piece within the whole activity, and it was the most important part of the day.

The leadership hadn’t intended for them to enter through the window easily at all.

You could say that this tall and narrow window was precisely to the leadership’s taste.

...

Down in the square, Mayor Liu looked up at the soldiers who jumped off the windowsill, caught the narrow window to climb in, and then struggled to climb out, unable to hide his concern.

"Such high windows... Jumping in from the windowsill and out again seems quite dangerous, doesn’t it?"

No sooner had he spoken than his secretary looked at Mayor Liu somewhat inexplicably.

Mayor, do you realize the price of saying such a thing?

The person beside you is here to ask for something!

Zhang Zhongting, who was next to him, immediately seized upon the remark and nodded,

"Ah, Mayor, we’re still short on equipment! Many rescue and detection efforts have to be conducted through manpower."

The soldiers didn’t even have safety harnesses, using the most basic of safety ropes instead. Every time they spent a long time rappelling from a height, their buttocks and waists would be chafed raw, marked with lines of blood.

Situations like these are common, and the inadequacy of safety measures is a very helpless matter."

After speaking, he let out a long sigh, "Soldiers are bleeding, sweating, and crying, Mayor."

Zhang Zhongting had invited Mayor Liu over not to show him where the firefighting funds had gone, but because this year’s city funds had been delayed again and again. He was here to press for payment.

The exercise had been postponed again and again, just waiting for the Mayor’s schedule, so that leadership could be present at the scene.

Mayor Liu was speechless for a long time.

"Tsk, this year’s firefighting funds, I’ll resolve it as soon as possible!

Detachment Captain Zhang, you must understand, with the Olympics imminent, many tasks are urgent. Right now, all work must prioritize the city’s image—not just you, many departments are crying poor.

However, you are the guarantors of the city’s safety, and no matter how poor, we can’t leave you short. Like this — finances are indeed tight recently, but by May. I will definitely resolve it for you!"

Mayor Liu certainly wasn’t foolish, but his presence meant he indeed felt the firefighting funds shouldn’t be delayed.

Well, since I’ve come and promised you the money, dragging it until the end of next month, not even two months away, you can’t bother me again, right?

Zhang Zhongting pondered for a while and realized there was no room for further bargaining, heaving another long sigh:

"Then I’ll trouble you, Mayor."

The mayor nodded with a smile, "It’s part of the job."

Today’s highlight of the exercise was thus settled.

Zhang Zhongting also turned his head to the command, starting to busily engage in the real exercise.

...

"Director’s department, add fuel."

At Zhang Zhongting’s command, the dissipating dense smoke on the entire floor gradually rose again.

And it was getting fiercer.

Many places that had been calm were now engulfed in waves of black fog, shooting straight into the sky.

The entire floor grew more and more like a real fire.

Even passersby nearby began to stop and discuss, many newcomers simply couldn’t believe it was just an exercise.

Fang Huai, who had just arrived downstairs, sensed something was wrong when he saw the suddenly intense scene upstairs. freёweɓnovel.com

At that moment, the alarm sounds around him blared again.

Zhang Zhongting’s voice rang out on the two-way radios around the plaza:

"All units be advised, the seventh-floor furniture market has been ignited by high temperatures. All aerial ladders, use water cannons to cool the exterior walls. Special Duty Squad, hurry into the building to rescue people.

Other squadrons, be quick to extinguish the open flames on the seventh, eighth, eleventh, and twelfth floors. Within half an hour, coordinate with Special Duty to complete the rescue task and complete an internal attack.

Observers, pay attention to whether the water output at the fire sites and the placement of the water gun positions are up to standard."

...

Inside the building, black smoke billowed.

Amid the urgent voices issuing commands on various two-way radio channels, the atmosphere suddenly became tense.

"Quick, quick, quick!"

The thumping of footsteps resounded throughout the building.

"Huff, huff..." ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com

Fang Huai, carrying two stretchers in one hand, dashed crazily upward. Meanwhile, he shouted into the two-way radio tuned to the Special Duty Team channel:

"Second Squadron Special Duty Squad assemble on the tenth floor! There are five dead bodies and several unconscious people. First, pile everyone up at the staircase entrance—prioritize the living and move quickly!"

"...Z... Received."

In these stairwells, the radio signal was always poor, continuously calling until reaching the open area on the eighth floor before someone responded.

Relieved to hear the response, Fang Huai finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Since his transfer to this team, today was the first time he felt himself small and powerless.

In a building where two hundred firefighters were participating in fire suppression and rescue, not a single team larger than a squad could complete even the rescue of one room.

Upon reaching the tenth floor, Fang Huai immediately spotted the tall squad leader Wu Di.

In the corridor, several members of the Special Duty Squad were gathered at the door of the room he had initially observed catching fire, waiting for the squadron responsible for firefighting to "suppress the situation."

Fang Huai’s eyes widened at once:

"What are you looking at? Provide cover with the water gun, charge in!"