Free Web NovelChapter 404: Chapter 329 The Five-Second Vote
An hour and a half.
Upon hearing this, Fang Huai immediately began to patrol all around, observing the situation on the mountain.
At this moment, fire points were scattered all over the mountain like beacon towers on the Great Wall, barely discernible through the canopy of trees.
If it were a regular house fire, an hour and a half might only mean the fire spreading from the kitchen to the living room.
But with a wildfire, it was hard to say.
Now, without their suppression, whether the fire could last until the rain depended on the sky.
Moreover, to endure that long, it was crucial to control those fire points that hadn’t yet erupted.
"Our power is barely enough to control this local wildfire," Ye Jiahong sighed heavily, "this mountain really spreads the fire, I’m afraid even if we call over the entire detachment, it’ll still be tough to handle."
Fang Huai touched his head.
In fact, he was also reviewing the situation.
If he had a team of 60 people trained in forest firefighting, each with a wind force extinguisher, he would have dared to divide and conquer the fire upon arrival today, implementing an encirclement.
With two water pumps to quench the crown fires on the upper part of the mountain, they might have completely controlled the situation by now.
The thought just sprouted in his mind when he quickly snuffed it out.
But beside him, Cao Yi had the same thought.
"Hey, Fang Huai, do you think we should include forest firefighting in our area of expertise?" Cao Yi said, moving closer to Fang Huai, his eyes locked on the wildfire, brimming with an uncontrollable fighting spirit.
He felt he hadn’t performed well in today’s wildfire; the constant and uncontrollable accidents made him feel terrible.
Hearing that, Fang Huai was much calmer. He turned his head and looked at him with a half-smile, "Didn’t you just tell everyone not to act rashly? How come you can’t hold back now? Biting off more than you can chew... I think we should wait for the future."
Yes, he had thought about tackling forest firefighting; it was on his mind all the way here.
But what did that entail?
It meant that, from now on, they would often find themselves amidst wildfires. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
Without an Armed Police Forest Corps in Guizhou, and situated in a mountainous region, their plan was for "multi-directional, major emergency response," aimed at police dispatch for all provincial disasters. Once it started, they might not be able to handle all the future wildfire alarms.
Moreover, a forest cop, when nothing happened, it was all good, but once something happened, it was always a big deal.
It wasn’t much less severe than the chemical explosion in Tianjin.
The Liangshan wildfire claimed the lives of 31 heroes, 31 crying families, 27 of them firefighters.
on Ganzi grassland.
in the Xintian wildfire.
Daxing’anling...
In the past twenty years, there have been many large wildfires. Besides those that claimed the lives of firefighters, there were also Hekou Village, Yuxi, Yunnan; Qipan Mountain, Shenyang; Nixi Village, Linzhi, XZ; Duanxi Village, Sha County, Fujian...
Today’s fire couldn’t even rank, but it was visibly hazardous.
Many wildfires extinguished themselves, but who knew what kind of dangers a specialized team would have to face in the future.
They might even have to go out and provide reinforcements for big fires.
He could understand Old Cao’s desire to train everyone into hexagonal warriors, but after all, Old Cao hadn’t lived through the online era, had a narrow information scope, and was unaware of how perilous the future of forest firefighting would be.
So, as soon as the idea emerged, he almost instantly gave it up.
Yet Old Cao beside him hadn’t.
"Are you kidding me with that biting off more than you can chew crap? We’ve always been responding to forest fires," Old Cao argued, "we may lack experience in other areas and have to fumble our way through, but wildfires? We can definitely handle those!"
Fang Huai remained motionless, just shifting his position, continuously scanning the fire points on the mountain.
Cao Yi followed him closely, step by step.
He had been contemplating this issue since he climbed the mountain, but without Fang Huai’s support, Captain Zhang would have doubts, and with Fang Huai’s enthusiasm, he would be much more confident about professional training.
Seeing that Fang Huai remained silent, Cao Yi’s brain worked furiously.
"Cough, and another thing," Old Cao finally thought of something, his eyes lighting up:
"Don’t you want to do aerial rescue? I remember the other day when we discussed the plan with the detachment, you also talked about its feasibility, right?
With forest firefighting as our duty, our province would fill a gap. Helicopters, perhaps in the future... we could really vie for one.
If we don’t have this, how long would urban firefighting have to wait to get equipped with aircraft?"
With this, Old Cao successfully hit Fang Huai’s weak spot.
Although Fang Huai had acknowledged the reality, knowing that for a second-tier city like Guiyang, for urban firefighting to be equipped with helicopters, it would take at least 10 years, and it might not even be Second Squadron’s turn; even if they got one, he might not be at the squadron level anymore.
But, he wanted to build a "special forces" firefighting team, and lacking an aircraft was indeed very regrettable.
If they had this title... even if the superiors didn’t allocate funds, once there was enough money at hand, damn it, he’d sponsor it himself, renting...
There’d always be a chance, right?
After all, most of the funds for firefighting came from the government and some civilian sponsorship.
Fang Huai couldn’t help but indulge in wishful thinking.
Later, when his throat moved to speak, he found Old Cao staring at him intently, and his awareness instantly snapped to high alert.
Damn it, he was being played by Elder Deng again.
Cao Yi certainly didn’t think the superiors would give them a helicopter; he was using a hope smaller than the chance of winning two billion in a lottery to fool him.
But Fang Huai knew in his heart that once the forest rescue team was reported, getting a helicopter was truly hopeful.
And it was not a small probability.
Damn... it was tempting.
Very tempting.
Fang Huai touched his head.
At that moment, the words of refusal seemed to be stuck in his throat and he couldn’t say them out loud.
"I think..." Fang Huai started with difficulty, "this matter is too risky, the danger everyone will have to bear in the future is too great, let’s wait until the fire is out and discuss it together before deciding."
Upon hearing this, Cao Yi immediately said, "Alright then! We’ll put it to a vote when we get back!"
Fang Huai came to his senses and suddenly felt uneasy.
...
It started to rain.
Although the rain wasn’t very heavy, it significantly lowered the surrounding temperature. The raging fire became flickering, and it also boosted the soldiers’ spirits.
The rainfall began just past 9 o’clock, three hours after Fang Huai predicted the weather.
When the rain truly started, exclamations of wonder at Fang Huai’s divine calculations filled the two-way-radio channel.
"Thanks to Master Fang for summoning the rain! I can’t stand the heat anymore!"
"Damn, Fang Huai, you could set up a stall!"
"Next time we respond to a call in the countryside, we should have Master Fang divine first. If there’s heavy rain locally, we wouldn’t need to go!"
Fang Huai cursed under his breath.
Reading the clouds to predict the weather is science, historical wisdom. How can I tell if there will be heavy rain? Do you really think I can perform magic?
If I could, would the rain have only started now?
The Meteorological Bureau’s vehicle arrived a bit later than the rain, around 10 o’clock.
Clearly, the launch procedures for the rocket were more complicated than those for the heavens to rain.
When Fang Huai heard that the rain-increasing bomb had arrived, he immediately sprinted down the mountain to greet it.
The Meteorological Bureau staff were rather cautious.
They reiterated that although the rocket’s explosive charge was small and not very stable, they needed help to watch for duds and locate where they fell. They had to retrieve them, or else they could face a lawsuit if a farmer picked them up, and the person who picked up the rocket could be detained.
Fang Huai agreed somewhat speechlessly and informed everyone over the two-way radio before they let him step aside.
"Pia!"
With a distinct red glow and a whoosh, the rocket was launched into the sky. Upon reaching a high altitude, it made a muffled sound, but the explosion itself wasn’t very loud.
Three rockets were fired in total.
The light from the rain-increasing bombs gave the soldiers on the mountain a rush of confidence. Over the channel, they shouted for an all-out assault. Even the Forestry Team and the Volunteer Fire Brigade were organizing everyone to grab shovels and sieves to dig out the fire.
Fang Huai shouted into the two-way radio:
"Stay calm! Wait a bit longer! You can put out the small fires first, but wait for the big fires! It’ll take three hours for the rain-increasing bomb to take effect!"
...
The rain, falling heavier and heavier, didn’t have a very abrupt effect—the rain-increasing bomb simply acted as a catalyst. Besides the occasional drops larger than regular raindrops, it seemed like a normal rainfall.
The constant chatter on the two-way radio continued until the middle of the night, slowly tapering off as some radios ran out of battery.
With the rain, it was easier to handle. Exposing any smoldering fire by digging it out was all it took.
When the whole mountain turned dim, personnel finally started gathering at the original fire site.
Everyone had turned into blackened coal balls.
"Damn, I thought the rain was heavy, and I just charged in. A hay pile erupted in a burst of flame, and it burned off all my hair!"
Squad Leader Hao, who used to direct fire operations from the periphery during dispatches, ran into trouble today.
The blackness over his face, caused by the soot and smoke from grass and trees, couldn’t even be washed away by the rain. When he opened his mouth to speak, his yellow-stained teeth from smoking all year round looked starkly white.
While Fang Huai felt sorry for him, he couldn’t help but feel a bit amused.
Then, pointing at the forest land where flames still churned, he signaled for the final assault.
"Shut down all wind force extinguishers to prevent water ingress! Pick up your digging tools, finish the job, and wrap it up!"
Having said that, he picked up a long sieve from the ground and rushed into the fire scene first.
He hadn’t put out much of the fire today, being too preoccupied with directing operations. His military merit value was going to take a severe hit. Now, he had to recoup some of that loss no matter what!
Seeing his lead, the soldiers became anxious and hastily grabbed their tools to follow him.
"Fuck, you’re super fast when it comes to seizing an easy fire, leave some for me!"
...
Tonight’s supper: egg-fried noodles.
It was a close call to getting a free meal.
Since the snack bar, not far from the fire-stricken mountain in the town, the lady owner saw that mountain burning all night long. Numerous small lights flickered and darted about there until many neighbors gathered on the street to watch for a long while. Everyone was exclaiming how hard it must be for the people on the mountain.
Now, seeing the soldiers with blackened faces up close, the lady owner insisted on not taking any money.
It was only after Cao Yi sternly mentioned discipline that she accepted the payment. She then gave each person a drink, promised to add more meat, and went into the kitchen to start cooking the noodles.
The soldiers felt uncomfortable hearing this.
If they had known there was such an audience down the mountain, they wouldn’t have been so cautious and could have extinguished the fire sooner. Now that they had put it out after the rain started, it made them seem incompetent.
Cao Yi, a man who knew exactly when to seize the moment, took advantage of the wait for the noodles to speak up:
"Today, Ye Jia, Fang Huai, and I discussed and decided to apply to the whole corps through the Detachment to make forest firefighting one of our professional trainings! It’s not about reallocating personnel but involving everyone from our Squadron, apart from drivers. All members will participate in the training, and in the future, everyone will be on standby for battle, ready to fight. We each might get our own forest firefighting equipment! But you should know today’s risks from the forest fires, whether you are a new recruit or an old soldier. Today was just a localized wildfire, but if the application is successful, in the future, we may face forest fire alarms that are ten or a hundred times more dangerous. It’s likely that people will die. No, actually there’s a high probability of fatalities. I have to make the dangers clear to you. So, this is not a decision for the Squadron Department to make. Let’s decide by vote..."
Before he could even finish, freeweɓnovel.cøm
A hand shot up high.
Hao Chengbin.
"I agree! I strongly agree!"
In less than two seconds, over twenty hands were raised simultaneously.
In just five seconds, except for Fang Huai, the decision was unanimously approved.
No one spelled out their reasoning. Their helplessness facing the wildfire, and frantic running about, was reason enough.
The only one not raising his hand, Fang Huai leaned back slightly and sighed deeply.
I knew it.
When it comes to a suicide mission, not a single one of you hesitates!
