Free Web NovelChapter 402: Chapter 327: Uphill Fire
Fang Huai was pulling the hose up along the mountain peak when the wind, it really came.
Downhill wind.
It was just a breeze, and the sparks began to scatter everywhere.
The sky full of red light also caused Cao Yi on the mountain to panic so much that he put his hands together into a megaphone and shouted:
"The wind is coming!"
Only then did he remember the two-way radio.
"The wind is coming, Fang Huai, hurry up!"
The two-way radio in Fang Huai’s left chest pocket, on "Command Channel 6," made a sound.
The two-way radio in his right chest pocket, on Channel Two, also became chaotic, with reports coming from everywhere that there were floating embers.
But Fang Huai didn’t need any reminders; he had already seen it.
He raised his hand, brushed off a leaf flying towards his face with embers attached, and picked up the left two-way radio:
"I’m on my way up!"
Then, he picked up the one on the right: "All teams continue with your tasks; this wind won’t get strong! Extinguish the fires outside of the designated isolation zone promptly!"
With that, the channel went silent.
Damn, now I believe it.
Fang Huai is just too damn miraculous, calling a breeze a breeze, and a downhill wind a downhill wind.
Of course, if it were a meteorologist, they might nonchalantly say "This is science, give me the instruments, I can measure even farther."
But he just looked up for a while; how did he calculate it?
There is nothing else, only the skill and intuition bestowed by the system.
Wind speed is classified into 18 levels at a height of 10 meters above the ground, from level 0 calm with smoke rising vertically, to level 2 light breeze felt on the skin; level 4 gentle breeze able to lift dust... level 7 strong wind makes walking difficult; level 10 gale, able to uproot trees; all the way to level 12 hurricane, capable of causing storm tides and destroying large buildings.
Above level 12, all are hurricanes.
The system gave him not only knowledge but also the experience of estimating wind speed; his eyes were the measure.
After circling inside and avoiding some trees, Fang Huai reached the mountaintop.
The hose quickly straightened out.
The distance of a hundred meters, with some winding places, seemed to be just right at about 120 meters.
But from here to Fang Huai’s chosen firefighting platform, which is directly above the burning stratum, there is a horizontal distance of about 20 meters, and so the entire hose needed to be dragged over.
Fang Huai gradually began pulling the hose, winding it up behind him, and soon a long white dragon soared into the sky.
On the other end of the hose, He Zhijun was holding tight.
"Squad Leader He! It’s straightened out!"
Fang Huai shouted down the mountain, clenched his teeth, and once again gave the hose a powerful tug, making the hundred-meter hose finally leap up!
People both above and below witnessed this hose!
Captain Wang from below couldn’t help but exclaim:
"God damn..."
What kind of arm strength is this?!
Fang Huai was also struggling, mainly because there was a He Zhijun on the other end frantically pulling back, and the two of them were like pulling in a tug-of-war.
"Someone help! Pull with me!"
Cao Yi, who was closest, hadn’t expected Fang Huai to move so fast and start as soon as he arrived. Seeing this, he quickly sprinted over, eagerly catching Fang Huai with both hands.
Only then did Fang Huai shout: "Squad Leader He! Fling it that way!"
A hundred meters, in these mountains, is not far for voices, which carry far and strongly with echoes.
The cries also came from the other side: "One, two, three!"
Fang Huai bellowed: "Go!"
Both of them exerted force at the same time, swinging their arms high and swaying upwards.
Suddenly, the entire white dragon jumped over some obstacles, leaping several meters towards the platform.
Following the momentum, Fang Huai ran quickly to the other side, nearly causing Cao Yi behind him to be thrown onto the ground.
"Damn... a pair of tough guys!"
"Truly a display of ’force conquers all’..."
"Damn it, who needs to saw trees? Just call them to uproot them directly! He Zhijun, Fang Huai, like uprooting weeping willows!"
All over the mountain, countless exclamations resonated.
The hundred-meter-long white dragon kept leaping sideways, gradually approaching the burning area with each leap.
These two beasts kept shattering everyone’s imagination with their every move.
The Forestry Team members couldn’t help but sigh; active duty is different after all, with such fighting power, it’s insane.
"Water on! Water on!"
The fire was obviously bigger than before, and the area had also increased somewhat, deviating from what was expected. Seeing that the middle section of the hose was nearing the high-temperature zone, worried it might burn through, Fang Huai didn’t dare to get closer and could only hope the last bit of distance could be covered by the water flow itself.
The water gun was connected, and the water pressure arrived quite fast.
Although the water pump pressure was less than that of a normal fire truck, it had the advantage of a narrower hose.
The difference in capacity between the 65 and 40 types of hoses is not 65 to 40, but rather the square of 32.5 times 0.5 compared to the square of 40, 1056.25 to 400.
The proportion of water in the same length of 65 hose is more than 2.5 times that of a 40 hose.
As the water jet surged upwards, a long line of water stretched from high to low.
Standing on the slope, Fang Huai swept across, and some of the burning tree crowns immediately began emitting white smoke.
Looking at the long water dragon, Fang Huai couldn’t help but look at the small water gun in his hand and kicked the hose beneath his feet with his foot.
It didn’t weigh much.
The pressure was quite strong, and the water flow sufficient.
"This thing is actually pretty handy!"
It shoots really satisfyingly.
Shooting fire from above, the force of the water flow already accelerates due to gravitational potential energy, and when hitting the not-so-intense canopy fires, it really does extinguish fires left and right.
For someone with obsessive-compulsive disorder like him, it’s really therapeutic.
But, members of Firefighting Squad One have also arrived.
Zhao Jinchen waved his hand and shouted:
"Fang Huai! Go check on the tree cutting over there! Leave the water gun to us!"
Fang Huai’s face fell.
But he could only reluctantly hand over the water gun and called out loudly:
"The water gun to suppress the canopy fires above, Special Duty Squad and Rescue Team, take advantage of the water flow now, use the Wind Force Extinguisher to press down the fires below! Push forward as much as a meter if possible! Take care of the extinguishers! Squad Leader Zhao, don’t let the water hit their extinguishers; those things have ventilation holes everywhere, they’re not waterproof!"
The supply of water from the fire truck to such a high mountain was not unlimited, and at this moment, having a water gun covering them from above made things much safer. The wind wasn’t strong either, so it was a good time to take the offensive.
"Don’t worry!" Zhao Jinchen raised his hand and made an "OK" sign.
"Good!"
The few people from above also took the extinguishers and went down. The rugged mountain path couldn’t stop their agility at all.
Having well-trained comrades is really great.
Fang Huai looked at the clouds around him again and noticed that the sky had suddenly darkened a lot.
When night falls, it’s actually quite abrupt, in that brief moment when the sunlight is completely blocked, you can even see some brightness in the distant sky, the rays spreading into the heavens, while over here, it has already gone dark.
The only lights still shining were the fires below the mountain.
Fortunately, he had night vision capabilities, although the surrounding sky was blurry, the clouds could still be faintly seen moving slowly.
As Fang Huai descended the mountain, he picked up the channel 6 two-way radio and said, "Captain Wang, we’ve started water suppression on the mountain. What’s the situation with the Meteorological Bureau?"
"Z."
"The Meteorological Bureau says the forest fire meteorological risk rating is only at level two! The temperature isn’t high and the relative humidity is quite good! The spread of the fire should be difficult! But now that it’s already this big, we’re just worried about the wind!
The weaker the wind, the harder it is to monitor! They can only confirm there won’t be strong winds above level 6 tonight!
However, you were right! There should be rain nearby tonight! It’s just not very heavy! They’ve started to send over Rain-Increasing Bombs already! It’s just a bit of a hassle with the procedures, might be a bit late!"
Fang Huai nodded as he listened.
It’s normal for there to be procedures for using those kinds of devices.
Meteorological Bombs, though they carry the name ’meteorological’, and the launchers are carried by pickup trucks, they are bona fide rocket shells, except the warheads have less explosive and about a gram of Silver Iodide Particles inside.
Silver Iodide is the key factor in seeding clouds to artificially increase rainfall.
It’s just a pity that there are no silver iodide flares these days. Otherwise, you wouldn’t even need to fire cannons; you could simply burn the flares on high mountains. The effect would be stronger than Rain-Increasing Bombs.
"I’ll go down first to help you cut the trees! We still need to create firebreaks, just in case!"
...
"Timber, the tree’s falling down the slope!"
When the reinforcements arrived, they were met with Fang Huai’s howling.
It was just a small tree falling, but the warning cry from the old logging days was bellowed out by him with a thunderous roar.
But such occasional shouting really energized everyone at work.
Soon, Chen Zhenghai started to imitate him, shouting:
"Toppling sideways on the mountain!"
Fang Huai grimaced and corrected him: "You wimp, it’s called falling down the slope! ’Toppling sideways on the mountain’ means the direction the tree falls is parallel to the mountain slope!"
"Fang Huai! We’re here! Stop pushing the trees, let us come up first!" Squad Leader Jiang Jun from Firefighting Squad Two, who had arrived first, shouted from below.
"Come on up! Did you bring the gas up?"
"Brought it! We also borrowed two chainsaws from the construction squadron!"
"That’s good, just in time! You take the chainsaws, go help clear the firebreak over there, cut down the taller weeds on that side!"
Their tree-cutting speed was very fast, and the surrounding Forest Fire Brigade members were also clearing firebreaks in a way they had never seen before.
Rolling the earth!
A dozen people lined up, slowly rolling up layers of soil already disconnected from the ground, as others constantly cut off the ground attached to the soil with shovels, surprisingly rolling up the soil in sections!
What was once a ground covered in many fallen leaves was now a layer lower, yet as smooth as new.
Ye Jiahong was damn astonished, murmuring quietly to his wood-cutting comrades:
"Damn, ’coming back strong,’ I didn’t reckon those words ’coming back’ were literal!"
Besides rolling the earth, there was also burning.
When the winds from further down the mountainside passed, a torch soaked in gasoline was poking everywhere, igniting scattered leaves and twigs.
Occasionally, a gust of wind would bring fiery leaves from dozens of meters away to this place, looking beautiful as they fell. If it weren’t for the scorching temperature they carried, it would indeed be a fascinating sight to linger on.
However, along with the rustling sound of leaves in the wind, the continuous falling of fiery leaves seemed to lessen.
The surroundings quieted, leaving only the stifling heat.
But through the two-way radio, an anxious voice emerged.
"Wind! Uphill fire is coming!"
Fang Huai’s breathing suddenly became rapid, and without caring about helping below, he quickly took a side path and ran up the mountain.
Uphill fires are the most terrifying.
Because fires moving uphill are faster and fiercer, making them extremely difficult to suppress.
"Where’s the water gun? Keep suppressing with the water gun!" Fang Huai shouted into the two-way radio.
"We’re suppressing! Just now a gust of wind blew, and some smoldering areas burst into open flame all at once; it was too fast!" freewebnσvel.cøm
(I’m going to give back the Sovereign Badge for this Chapter, will continue writing later. If I can add more, I will, otherwise, it will have to wait until tomorrow)
(I won’t make up Chapters for the two days off during my one-month leave, huh. Work for 28 days, take 2 days off, plus make-up Chapters, you guys are too cruel.)
