International Rescue: The Next Phase


Home » The Archives » Chapter 10 » Winds of Change
Re: Winds of Change [message #1608 is a reply to message #1607] Fri, 27 July 2012 15:52 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
Tikatu is currently offline  Tikatu
Messages: 813
Registered: April 2012
Location: South Carolina
Karma:
Field Commander
Ubiquitous one

From: susanmartha Sent: 5/13/2007 7:12 PM

Gordon checked his doors to be sure they were locked. He also checked his gun. Since he was alone in the Fire Truck, he planned on being extra careful. "The paranoid mage dies of old age," he muttered to himself. Reassured, he drove the Fire Truck off of the ramp and out from under Thunderbird 2. "OK, Van Gogh, I'm clear."

"FAB," replied Virgil. "Lowering Thunderbird Two now." Virgil was soon back in the air, heading toward the last known position of the downed helicopter.

Gordon had already called Mobile Control. "Where do you want me, Frankie?"

"I have the Fire Tender going to the rum plant. According to the fire chief, the area about two miles east of you needs help. They are building a firebreak using the road to start and plowing to one side of it to widen the firebreak. They have three trucks already there but they're low on water and the firebreak is nowhere near wide enough. Plus there's a gully running under a bridge at that point. The fire will swing around behind the plant if we don't stop it at the road. You are set up for off-road use, so stop the fire from getting into the gully."

"FAB. Heading out now." Gordon turned right and started off. Ten minutes later he came to the bridge. Two fire trucks on his side were trying to wet down the gully while a third truck was pulling out. Gordon pulled onto the bridge, stopped the truck and hopped out. He approached a knot of people by the end of the bridge. "Hi. They sent me to help. What do you want me to do?"

A tired-looking man in a hard hat answered. "I don't suppose you can just put the fire out, can you?"

"Nope. Sorry. I left my magic wand at home. I was told to help with the gully. Are all your people out of there?"

The man, his hardhat said Ned, motioned someone over. "Everyone out, Frank?"

"We still have two groups below the bridge. I'm already called them back. The fire's just too fast."

Gordon nodded. You could see the flames from here. They looked about a half of a mile away -- no time at all for a fire. "How long until they're out?"

"Not more than five minutes."

"Thanks." Gordon turned back to Ned.

Ned continued. "Do you use water?" At Gordon's head shake, he continued. "Move your truck. We're going to station the trucks on each end of the bridge and have them pump water down into the gully. Hopefully they can pump enough water to stop the flames. I want you on the far side; we can get water for the trucks about a mile down the road on this side."

Gordon headed for the Fire Truck. Behind him he heard Ned snort. "Cocky kid."

"From what I've heard of International Rescue, he has a right to be." Gordon smiled at Frank's reply.

"Let's hope so. We need the help. But fires are tricky." Then the voices were cut off as Gordon closed the door.

He started fiddling with the controls on a panel. "Let's see, Dicetyline variation three. Right. Range, fifty feet out, set the angle, maximum spread..."

A group of men climbed out from under the bridge. The leader of the first group walked over to Ned and Frank as a second group appeared. "It's no use. We couldn't even complete a line across the gully, much less anything of any width."

Ned clamped his hand on the man's shoulder. "You did what you could. Let's just hope we can pump enough water down the side to stop it here." He looked over at the bridge, then frowned. "Why hasn't that idiot moved his fancy machine? I'd better..."

He was cut short by a "Boom" from the Fire Truck as it launched a shell. All 3 men ran over to the bridge to see what had happened.

Starting about twenty five feet from the bridge, white foam covered the ground. It was about 100 feet wide and spread out to cover both sides of the gully up to the place where bulldozers had dug wide firebreaks already. Gordon moved the Fire Truck to the far side of the bridge, climbed out and walked over to the three men.

Frank recovered first. "So what does that stuff do?"

"It's a variation of our firefighting chemical, dicetyline. It will act as a retardant for about two days. Then it should break down with no side effects. I can't guarantee it will stop a fire 100% of the time but it should do as good or better of a job as digging a firebreak the same size would."

"Not 100% huh," Ned commented.

"Nope. 95% was the best we could do. Unless you don't mind some really nasty chemicals sitting on the ground for the next five years." Gordon shrugged. "If something does catch, water won't wash this off until it starts to break down. So you can put any fire out with a regular Fire Truck and water without hurting the firebreak. Or I have some regular dicetyline in my tanks."

Ned's eye's narrowed. "How many more shells of that stuff do you have?"

"Three," was Gordon's quick response. "Plus two regular Dicetyline shells for use where it's already burning."

"Right. We have two more places like this we need to build firebreaks for. One of them may already be burning. And one area that's too steep to do anything with. Get moving." As Gordon headed back to the Fire Truck he heard Ned giving more orders. "Truck 53 is back. I want it stationed here. Frank, get the other two trucks moving. I want them to refill, then start patrolling the road to be sure the fire doesn't jump the break anywhere. John, how tired are your men?" Gordon closed the door and buckled himself in.

"Mobile Control from Fire Truck. One firebreak built. I've been sent down the road to help with others."

"Fire Truck from Mobile Control. The fire has moved into a gully and is about to jump the firebreak. It's about five miles down the same road from you."

"On my way."


Jeff heartbeat Dianne plain My IR:TNP OTP!
 
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Read Message
Next Topic: Feedback - 10
Goto Forum:
  


Current Time: Thu May 09 03:19:30 EDT 2024

Total time taken to generate the page: 0.01921 seconds