After Being Reborn, I became a firefighter again?

Chapter 527: Chapter 416 The Fire That Can’t Be Extinguished

"Oh."

"I’m the leading cadre, the deputy squadron leader, Fang Huai, I don’t have a short number yet, please ask the Command Center to save my phone number in your cadre directory, in case you need to reach me, call my full number."

"Alright, should I contact Captain Bai directly? Please tell me his full number."

"Yes, just read it out."

"Okay."

Fang Huai hung up the phone and looked up.

Meng Qiang beside him had already pointed towards the thick smoke not far away.

"No need to call anymore, we’re here."

Fang Huai looked carefully in that direction, pondered for a moment, nodded, and picked up the two-way radio, pressing the talk button.

"Car No.3, the fire at the ignition point is quite fierce, this stretch of road is narrow, it’s difficult for your large vehicle to turn around, follow at a distance, we’ll find a good spot for you when we get to the scene, then you come over."

"Received."

The closer they got, the more terrifying the fire’s intensity became, with flames visible even in the bright sunlight.

In less than two minutes, Car 1 followed the direction of the smoke and entered a six or seven-meter wide dirt road.

The road seemed to have been repaired before; one could tell from the straight highway outside, but this road was sandwiched between factories, with trucks rolling in and out every day, ruining the surface.

Inside was a line of vehicles, both large and small; thankfully, with the police and firefighters on guard, all the vehicles were lined up by the road, leaving space for one vehicle to pass through.

Car 1, being smaller, made its way in along the road.

People were everywhere along the road, with groups every few meters, standing with hands on their backs, looking up towards the factory.

Fang Huai wanted to shout at them but knew it would just be a waste of time; as soon as they moved away, the crowds would gather again.

Up ahead, two people in handcuffs being escorted by the police caught everyone’s attention.

Having responded to many fires, Fang Huai had seen many man-made fires, but it was rare to see people apprehended on the scene.

And there was someone with half their shirt off, showing an arm and grimacing in pain—apparently with a burn or scald on the hand, someone was pouring soy sauce on the wound.

Seeing this, Fang Huai finally rolled down the car window, pointed at those people, and shouted loudly:

"If it’s a chemical burn, wash with clean water! Don’t resort to those quack remedies, which will only alter the wound and further damage the skin! Rinse with plenty of running water for 20 minutes! Then hurry to the hospital!"

People always resorted to these folk remedies for burns and scalds, applying soy sauce, soap, toothpaste—all just a way to trouble themselves.

"Little Fang, we can’t get in any further."

Fang Hongliang spoke up, pointing ahead.

The car had reached the entrance of the burning factory area, blocked by several fire trucks, with the fire blazing inside.

Fang Huai holding the two-way radio shouted, "Xiao Haishan, Han Yong, get the warning cones, warning tape! Clear the area from the entrance, chase the people out! Don’t allow any more vehicles to enter!"

With that, he got out of the car.

A two-meter brick wall, a few steps inside the gate, presented a scene of chaos in the factory area. Several fire lines set up from trucks had established two water cannon positions, with four or five hoses spraying water inside.

The fire was overwhelming.

Engulfing everything, a three-story factory building over ten meters high was completely ablaze, billowing black smoke pouring upwards.

A nearby four-story building was also scorched black by the fire, and the blaze was clearly spreading, with flames visible in the windows of two homes on the edge of the small building.

But the firefighting power here was clearly insufficient. This area was a mix of factories and residences, bordered by large residential buildings very close to each other, with no time to spare for them.

Upon seeing the situation, Fang Huai assessed the surrounding conditions and quickly made his way to a man wearing a red command cap shouting in the middle of the factory area, tapping him on the shoulder.

"Are you Captain Bai?"

The man turned around, his face slightly blackened, probably from being inside the fire scene; upon seeing Fang Huai, relief showed on his face.

"Yes! Are you from the Special Second? Is Instructor Cao here?"

Fang Huai shook his head, "I’m leading the team! I’m the deputy squadron leader, Fang Huai! The vehicles at your gate, can you move them inside a bit? Our cars can’t get through; they’re all stuck outside!"

"Oh, okay!" Captain Bai turned to look at the situation behind him and immediately called out to someone nearby.

"Du Bin, push the water cannon position forward a bit. Liu An! Go tell them to move the vehicles, let the Wudang Second Squad move further into the factory area, the Special Second is here!"

Fang Huai looked back following his words.

There wasn’t much open space in the factory area, enough to park about a dozen cars. The big vehicles were deployed quite crampedly and had to utilize the roadway at the entrance. Now they had to move all the vehicles in to allow the special duty trucks, which was like embroidering on a fingernail.

If the fire were to expand, there would be no chance to evacuate.

Talk of "safe deployment" under such circumstances was utter nonsense.

Fang Huai frowned and said, "The vehicles with insufficient water supply should go out first! I’ll let our thirteen ton move in! Our water supply truck carried one and a half tons of foam!"

"Alright, alright!" Captain Bai said, "Inside there is a large amount of nail polish, nail polish remover, perfume, the ethanol content is very high, it’s very hard to extinguish without foam! We’ve been working here for more than an hour now, and the surrounding personnel have been fully evacuated, but there are still two people who haven’t come out, and we can’t control the fire inside! The firefighters are already exhausted! Your team coming in, take over for us!"

Fang Huai’s face darkened.

"There are two people who haven’t come out, why didn’t you organize an assault team to go in and rescue?"

Captain Bai closed his eyes for a moment, shook his head, and said, "We can’t get in, the inside temperature is too frightening, this is not an ordinary fire, it’s all flammable materials inside. The incident started when two workers made a bet and lit a bag labeled flammable of chemical products, the liquid flowed out, becoming a flow fire, with flammable materials stacked everywhere, quickly burning the entire first floor!

We went in and rescued eight people, and two from our squadron got injured!

When the factory manager reported that there were still two people inside, the fire had been burning for 40 minutes. Even wearing fire-fighting suits, we couldn’t go in; if there were people inside, they would have no chance of survival."

No wonder they were arresting people directly.

Making bets with flammable materials, that was deliberate arson!

"Does the factory have fire-fighting equipment?"

"No, only fire extinguishers!"

"What about fire hydrants?"

"No! We’ve been fighting the fire for over half an hour, and one of our trucks is almost out, only that road outside leads to the main highway. There’s a fire hydrant if you go another 300 meters ahead!"

"Huh..."

Hearing this news, Fang Huai let out a long sigh, with no time to feel sorrow or anger, and looked around again.

In this environment, high-spraying water from above was needed to prevent the fire from spreading further, or else if it continued to burn for a while, even the residences further away could be ignited by the high temperatures.

Thinking quickly, Fang Huai immediately took up the two-way radio and began to arrange, "Squad Leader Hao, hurry up and call Chen Zhenghai to bring the elevated water tower truck over.

Car No.3, one person get off, call the police officers outside, let them cooperate and have all the vehicles outside moved!

The vehicle from Wudang Squadron will be out soon, let Car No.3 come in!

Car 1, follow them forward, let Car No.3 enter the Factory Area first!

After Car No.3 enters the factory, Car 1, back up and deploy by the small burning building next to the factory area, first extinguish the fire inside, then find a high point in the building and cover the factory building with foam from above!"

"Received."

Outside, the alarm of Car No.3 and the "beeping" horn sounded quickly, and Hao Chengbin was also shouting through the vehicle-mounted loudspeaker:

"Gui A, 35568, whose car is that, move it!"

"All the cars on the road, turn around and get out, quick!"

The "beeping" sound of Car No.3 quickly reached the door.

"Come on, come in!"

Captain Bai from Wudang First Squad and the Commander from the Second Squadron were all commanding everyone to quickly clear the space.

"First Squadron, retract the hose from Car 1!"

"Second Squadron, move the water divider to the side!"

Fang Huai immediately shouted, "Don’t panic, the position for First Squadron is not to be withdrawn! Just swap the supply vehicle! Drop your guns for now, we are switching to foam nozzle guns!"

He had barely finished speaking.

"Kong, kong."

"Bang!!"

"Quick, retreat!!"

"Bang."

A large piece of roofing tile slid down from upstairs, and on the edge of the roof, several firefighters near the factory were instantly struck.

Everyone was stunned.

But those firefighters still stood still.

It seemed the roofing tiles had already burned crisp and just slapped right over them, leaving a few holes, then landed on the ground.

Protected by their helmets, they had been slapped like this, but it seemed they were alright.

Yet they all seemed collectively dazed.

Afterward, their unified action was to touch their helmets with their hands, realizing they were not dead, then scrambled on the ground to drag out the fire hoses that were covered by the roofing tiles.

Not a single person retreated.

Fang Huai was impressed.

This damn psychological quality was also exceptional; having just been whacked on the head, they were still looking for water guns and hoses on the spot.

"Quick, pull them back!"

"Shi Hui! What are you doing! Get out of there!"

"I’m coming!"

"Is your head okay?"

"Fine! Just felt like someone smacked the top of my head fiercely! I was wondering if I had made a mistake somewhere, why did the captain hit my helmet with a water gun again?"

"Hahaha... damn!"

A confounded soldier’s remark made everyone laugh.

Fang Huai, however, was cursing under his breath.

These soldiers had moved their water gun positions forward because they needed to move vehicles, there wasn’t enough space to deploy.

Mahler Gobi, with lousy roads, little space, no fire hydrants, this kind of planning in a flammable material factory was allowed to operate; the Fire Prevention Office should be brought here to do push-ups for three days!

"Car No.3, connect the water hose from Wudang First Squad, 10 to 1 foam! Stand back, spray down from the factory building’s third floor!"

to 1 foam, that was serious.

Generally, foam ratios are just 3%, 6%, or 9%, this was like intending to use up all the foam with one load of water. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm

Sun Jingwu’s voice came through the Two-Way Radio: "Conserve it! Foam is expensive!"

Fang Huai responded with the Two-Way Radio:

"Don’t worry, the foam will be paid for by someone! Today this factory will definitely be fined the maximum amount!

The surrounding area is all residential buildings; we must control the fire quickly now! At the very least, we need suppression, hold on until the high-spray vehicle arrives!

Have the outside vehicles been moved? We need horizontal space for the high-spray to enter, all cars outside the courtyard wall must be moved!"

"We’re moving them! We’re contacting the drivers!"

"Good, Car 1, you can go back to the factory entrance now, the personnel on the vehicle should deploy, head to the adjacent residential building, find a high point for foam release, make good use of the water on the truck, and suppress the fire as much as you can in a short time!

Meng Qiang, take videos from outside all the way in, record all the license plates, and submit them to the Big Team."

"Okay!"

Two minutes later, the white foam from the foam nozzle guns started to flow into the already collapsed third floor of the factory building.

Fang Huai discussed with the commander of Wudang Second Squad, aiming the water at one spot to increase the impact of the foam solution, allowing the foam to cover further into the depth of the factory building.

This combined the streams of water and foam solution on the third floor into one, bursting through the burnt windows, creating a massive flow that spread around.

The best use of foam was not to extinguish the fire but to cover it. To form an effective suppression, more areas needed to be covered from this window.

In this situation, Fang Huai abandoned the standard water conservation tactics, continuously shouting:

"Increase pressure, increase pressure!"

"How far is the high-spray? Has it arrived yet!"

"Water gun positions upstairs, are you set up yet? Hurry up and discharge, start cooling the east side of the factory building! There’s a residential building over there, it’s already smoking from the heat!"

The voice was anxious and frenzied.

For the first time, Fang Huai faced such a vast blaze alone, three squads listened to his orders, yet he could not suppress it quickly.

He wanted to call for more help, but if there were reinforcements, they couldn’t get in either.

For the first time, he experienced the difficulty of being a Commander.