Putting Out Fires - Randy Wong

Vince Rawlings had been a fire chief for over thirteen years. Throughout that time, he’s seen acts of heroism, suffered personal tragedy, and experienced the destructive force of nature’s most powerful element. He’s experienced all types of danger in this line of work. The environment itself can sometimes be more hazardous than the fire itself.

Whenever Station 47 would get a call about a jack-knifed big rig, Chief Rawlings shook his head. Tired drivers behind the wheel of a large semi-truck along with high speeds and hazardous road conditions were always a recipe for disaster. When they arrived on the scene, the big rig was lying on its side and stretched across several lanes. The highway patrol had already formed a block on both sides of the freeway as a precaution. The truck was engulfed in flames and the bed containing cargo was already melting.

The driver had survived the accident and he told them that his brakes had locked when he tried to come out of a pinwheel turn onto the freeway. The tires locked and the truck turned onto its side. With the truck skidding to a stop, the driver was able to jump out of the truck to safety. However, the friction of the semi across the freeway on its side ignited the fuel, and that is how the fire started. The driver said that wine was his cargo, and he was hauling it from Napa to receiving yard in Oakland.

Chief Rawlings decided to douse the area with water in an attempt to cool down the area. It was unlikely that they would put out the fire to save the cargo, but they were concerned that the heat of the inferno would damage the freeway structure itself. So, he ordered firemen Hatfield and Dennis to engage the water cannon to continuously douse the truck with water. The water cannon roared, deluging the entire area with hundreds of gallons of water. The air sizzled with a crackling and popping as cold water battled hot metal.

Fireman Dennis was manning the water cannon. While he kept an eye on the water pressure gauge, he felt something hit him in the arm. It was so sudden and sharp that he gave out a yell in pain. “What the hell was that?”

“Dennis, what’s wrong?”

“Chief! Something hit me in the arm! It feels like I’ve been shot!”

Before he could process that message, fireman Hatfield, who was standing next to the fire engine, screamed out. “Ow! What the …?”

Chief Rawlings had heard enough. “Everyone get down! Someone is shooting at us!”

The fire crew hit the deck and some hit behind the engine. Chief Rawlings caught the attention of one of the patrol men. “I think someone is shooting at us!”

With the declaration, the highway patrol immediately when into response mode. Within minutes, a police chopper flew over the area and began to cover the area in a tight circular pattern. Several more patrol cars appeared in the area. Between the smoke, the crackling and popping, and incredible heat, it was difficult to pinpoint the source of the attack. Finally, the chopper gave the “all clear” – whatever was happening, they did not find a shooter or any other evidence of being fire upon.

“If we’re not being fired upon, then what the hell hit us, Chief?”

“That’s a good question, Hatfield. You know, with all this heat and all those bottles of wine, I wonder …”

Chief Rawlings stopped as he felt something and blunt hit him in the chest. The object was soft, but it was traveling at a high rate of speed. The impact was quite painful that he let out a yell. His eyes caught a brownish blur bounce off his chest, kick straight up in the air and spin several times before it fell to the ground, bouncing around like crazy. His fingers went to the impact area on his chest and he could already feel the welt starting to develop. He bent down to pick up the object that did the damage. It was a wine cork. The incredible heat had caused the internal pressure of the wine bottles to increase so drastically that it caused the bottles to explode and eject the corks like a bullet shot out of a gun. All the bottles had similar amounts of pressure, so they all more or less were exploding at the same time. The Chief told his crew to back everything up so that the corks would not hurt anyone. It took several hours to put out the fire. In the aftermath, cleanup crews had to deal with broken glass and rubber corks scattered throughout. Cleanup was going to take hours.