After Being Reborn, I became a firefighter again?

Chapter 377: Chapter 307: Crossing Water, Arrival (5K5)

"Hoo..."

As Fang Huai entered the duty room and pressed the alarm bell, the people in several vehicles collectively shuddered.

The drivers of the vehicles also checked their wrists almost simultaneously, swiftly pressed down on the clutches, and engaged the gears.

The combatants in the vehicles instinctively poked their heads out, intending to ask what the alarm was for.

But seeing Fang Huai walking out of the duty room with a grin, everyone laughed.

"Hey, Little Fang really knows how to make an entrance," someone said.

"Damn, that just scared me awake from my nap," another complained.

"It’s been a long time since I heard that sound..." someone else remarked.

Right! It’s quite exhilarating! Let’s move out!" another voiced enthusiastically. ƒгeewёbnovel.com

In the midst of the alarm bell, their spirit was high.

...

Along the way, the weather changed every ten miles.

In those days, Guizhou’s highways were not as developed as they would be in the future, capable of claiming "the fifth longest total length and the highest density in the nation." To reach many county towns, one would have to travel over two hundred kilometers of highways and county roads, and the weather would shift numerous times.

The sky was clear in Guiyang, there was light rain in Qian Nan, and fog came in the evening in Anshun.

Even more miraculous was that, occasionally, while driving through a certain section, the car roof would be pelted with rain as if it were hail, making a loud pattering sound. But after just one tunnel, it was as if they entered another world—there was no rain at all, and even the road surface was dry.

General Han, who was in Car 1 with Fang Huai, expressed his amazement, "It’s like the rain is chasing us!"

Fang Huai explained with a smile, "This is called the Sunshine and Rain Boundary Line. We just happened to pass through the edge of a rain cloud. It’s not the rain chasing us, but the wind."

Once they passed the Getu River, the rain began to pour down incessantly.

And night had fallen completely.

The rain hitting the roof made a constant swishing and pounding sound, and it was unnecessary to use the windshield wipers in front because the water collected into streams as if the car was caught in the entrance of the Water Curtain Cave.

How can one describe the heavy rainfall that day without using the word "rain"?

The firefighters present would certainly not say "the day Yi Ping went to borrow money from her dad," nor would they say, "This umbrella is two hundred? ...Okay, two hundred it is, give me one."

Instead, they would say, "The night of May 27th, 2008."

They had not even entered the city yet, and they were already in a waterlogged section.

And it was the kind of water that would not allow the engine to be turned off.

This was Fang Huai’s first time responding to a flood dispatch, and seeing the houses submerged to at least thigh-high on both sides of the road, he suddenly realized that he had underestimated the situation.

Why would the Southwest Guizhou Detachment need to transfer the alert?

Wasn’t the whole street an alert already?

"It’s so flooded here, this must be a market town, right? Why are there no people around? Instructor Cao, shouldn’t you call and ask?" Fang Huai said, somewhat worriedly.

Cao Yi also looked around.

The departure had been hurried, and according to Old Teacher He, two local leaders whom he knew well had been on the phone the whole time. However, the Brigade had already coordinated with the local authorities about sending reinforcements. He was instructed to call 119 upon arrival and contact the Command Center directly, which would then inform them of some of the alerts yet to be addressed.

In light of the situation, Cao Yi had no choice but to pick up the phone and dial 119.

The call connected to the Ziyun County Squadron, which fell under the jurisdiction of Anshun.

The Anshun side did not have a Brigade Command Center at the time; the call was taken by a dispatcher from the squadron.

After Cao Yi reported his unit and communicated briefly, he mentioned a local place name by the roadside. The dispatcher said they had not reached Wangmo yet and must be in a village near Monkey Field Town.

However, the dispatcher mentioned that the rainfall in Monkey Field Town was even more significant than in Wangmo, with over 210 millimeters recorded yesterday. But now, the rain was lessening, and the water level was diminishing.

Moreover, the rain started earlier in the area, and the terrain was relatively elevated compared to Wangmo. Thus, it could not retain water like Wangmo, and rescue operations had already begun early. The Anshun Brigade had dispatched personnel and no further reinforcement was needed.

Cao Yi had the phone on speaker.

When the dispatcher mentioned that "the rain is now diminishing," everyone in the vehicle was taken aback.

That statement—quiet, yet shattering silence—sounded like Gai Lun had spoken.

The water is lessening?! This can’t be some hidden ocean within the mountains of Guizhou, can it?

But as they continued down the road, indeed, they did not see anyone on the streets. On such a long road, it wasn’t feasible to knock on each door to verify whether anyone needed rescue.

They could only keep moving forward.

On the county road, it took several minutes to pass a large bend by the mountain, and the speed of the car slowed down.

The sharp bends on Guizhou’s mountain roads appear perilous, with not even a single barrier on the roadside.

The mountains had lost their layer of soil, revealing piles of rocks.

The ground had no soil, which made the phrase "clean as a whistle" entirely appropriate.

But the terrain here was noticeably higher. It seemed that the road to Wangmo was descending on a mountain highway.

On the road, water seemed unable to accumulate, streaming continuously downward, and only at the bottom of the mountain did they see signs of flowing water. Passing through a low-lying section, the persistent sound of rushing water was audible. freewēbnoveℓ.com

"How similar the road conditions here are to those in Beichuan," remarked Hao Chengbin, sitting in Car 1, as he looked at the continuous steep mountain roads and couldn’t help but recall the past.

Fang Huai shook his head and sighed, "When a place is poor, everywhere looks the same. A thousand kinds of wealth, a hundred kinds of poverty. Where poverty exists, bad roads are the prime cause."

At that moment, Cao Yi dialed 119 again.

From the speaker came a voice.

"Attention from the Southwest Guizhou Province 119 Command Center..."

Hearing this voice, they knew they had entered the area.

"Hello, thank you for answering so quickly," he said, as a female voice came through.

Cao Yi quickly spoke up loudly, "Hello, I am from the Provincial Special Duty Team. We have been ordered to reinforce. Could you please send to my cell phone the more urgent cases where people are trapped and no squadron has yet responded?"

There was a brief silence on the other end, "Do you have a public security short number on your phone?"

The dispatcher couldn’t confirm Cao Yi’s identity over the phone, and couldn’t freely provide dispatch information. Public security system’s internal shortened phone numbers were indeed the best proof of identification.