Miles' Dream of Heroism

By J. R. Miller

NOTE: Although this story is fiction, which is not the purpose of our site, it so clearly depicts the life of a firefighter, that I decided to publish it on this site.

This was based on a dream that I had on the night of May 16th, 2001. Nothing happened that day to spark the dream, it just came to me. I did change a lot in the story to make it better and longer.

It was July 6th, 2010, and it was my shift to work. I work at the Denver Fire Department in Colorado. I have been there for three, almost four year now. It was a gorgeous day in the Rocky Mountains just like any other day. I was 15 minutes early to my station and just as I walked in, the phone rang. So I answered it, to hear the voice of one of my coworkers. The caller, Jeff, was very excited and it was hard for me to understand what he was saying, but after a while I understood that he needed the day off because his wife was in labor with their first child. Me being the father of four, going on five, understood his excitement and told him that I would cover for him. We were able to do this because at Station 17, we put an extra person on the engine, so I volunteered to go to his station, Station 13, and take his seat on their engine. There are no officers at Station 13 and, because I was a lieutenant, that put me in charge of the entire crew for that day. This is a once in a life time opportunity for me to prove to the chief that I am a good person for the captain position that just opened up. Also because I was the superior officer, that meant I had to ride in the officer's seat on Engine 13, which in turn meant that if there was a fire, I was the first person to go in. Before I go on with the story of my day, let me explain how I got to be the person I am today.

I was in the 8th grade when I had to do a volunteer project for school. Time was running short and I hadn't done the project yet. One day my mom came home and told me about a program at the local fire department that would get my volunteer work done, so I signed up. My first intention was to go in, get my time done, and leave. Well, fire fighting was so neat to me, I decided to stay. I stayed all through high school and majored in it during college. So after college I got married, moved to Denver, and here I am today.

To start off the day, we had four small car accidents. We had to send three people to the hospital. That was spread out from 0700 hours until 1200 hours. Then we had lunch, which was interrupted by another car accident. This time we are told that there are four cars involved, one motorcycle, and an eight-year-old pedestrian. Turns out that there was a small fender bender between two cars, the other two cars stopped to prevent other traffic from running into the current accident. The motorcycle belonged to a Good Samaritan that forgot to put his stand down and therefore the bike just fell over. And like all eight-year-olds, the little guy was curious.

From the way today has been going, I knew it was going to be a day filled with a lot of B.S. runs. By that, I mean a lot of bull s**t runs. So after cleaning up the small mess of broken glass and car parts, then showing little "Curious George" our fire truck and letting him blow the siren a few times, we headed back home to eat our lunch. After lunch, we washed the engine and ladder truck, swept and mopped the bay floors, did the dishes, finished our laundry, and got some of our paper work done. We had our occasional B.S. run here and there but nothing like this morning. Then it was dinner time. We grilled chicken on the grill outside in the warm evening sun, made some hearty mashed potatoes, and a salad filled with every vegetable except tomatoes because they aren't very popular around the station, and cold ranch dressing. Needless to say, we all ate like kings and felt like a bunch of stuffed pigs. After resting for about an hour, we all decided it was time to do our work out for today. Normally we can chose between playing some basketball or going to the weight room, but because we all ate so much and had a lot to burn off, we did both. Basketball was first and of coarse my team one with a score of 5-3. Then we hit the weights. After an hour of that is was time to relax for the night, except for our expected B.S. calls. I decided to call my beautiful wife who was caring for our children at home. Our son and youngest daughter were already in bed; the twins were up watching their favorite cartoons before they went to bed. I told Kim about how I am at a different station today and explained that Jeff was soon to be a father and all of our runs this morning and the dinner we had and how much I missed her. Now I know that I am going to see her in about 1 hour, but those 12 hours I am away from her seem like a lifetime. So we finished talking, I told her that I loved her and would see her soon, and we hung up. Then it hit.

The alarm rang louder than ever, seemed to have a different ring to it than normal, and I got a strange feeling in my stomach. I had the feeling that this wasn't another B.S. run I expected, this was going to be something serious, something I will remember for the rest of my life. The alarm stopped and we all waited for the dispatcher to tell us the nature of our call. There was a pause between the alarm and the sound of her voice, and then she spoke with uneasy words, very hurried, very frightened.

We all listened to hear if she was going to request our engine or ladder and what the call was. Finally after what seemed to be hours, she told us:

"Station 10,12,13, and 15, medic 12,13, and 14, respond to 5163 Maple Street for an apartment fire, per officer on the scene, flames are visible from the second and third floors, smoke is heavy on the fourth floor, and flames are venting from the roof." There was a short pause, and then she came back again, "Station 10,12,13, and 15, along with medic units 12,13, and 14, respond to 5163 Maple Street for an apartment building on fire. Your time of dispatch is 1925 hours."

We threw on our gear quicker then ever and jumped into our engine and were on the way. I picked up the mic and said to the dispatcher, "Engine 13 in route," then waited for her response.

"Engine 13 in route at 1926 hours. Break."

Shocked when she said, "break," it took me a minute, then I pressed the trigger and said, "Go ahead."

"Engine 13 be advised there are two children trapped on the fourth floor and cannot be seen. Also be advised that Engine 15 was involved in an accident and Engine 16 will be taking the call for them."

"Engine 13 clear," I responded. Then I thought about that engine crew. Did anybody stop to help them? "Engine 13 to dispatch!"

"Go ahead Engine 13."

"Can you advise if anyone remained on the seen with Engine 15?"

"Affirmative, Ladder 15 remained with them. Shall I dispatch another ladder to cover for them?"

"Affirmative, send Ladder 16 our direction. Also Dispatch medic 17 and 18 to their seen."

"Clear Engine 13."

And that was it, we were on our way to a severe fire with two children trapped inside, probably unable to breath because of all the smoke on the floor, and scared to death. It seemed like our worst nightmares were coming true that night. We feared for the worst. I kept asking myself if they were still alive, and if they were, what was I going to do. I am going to be the first person on the scene and inside. What if I can't get to the kids in time? What will I tell their parents? These are all questions that I am sure other fire fighters go through each time they are called to a scene like this one.

"Engine 13 on the scene, four story, wood structure, second and third floors are fully engulfed, fourth floor has heavy smoke venting from the windows, fire is also venting out the roof," I advised the dispatch center. "Engine 13 setting up Maple Street Command."

"Engine 13 on the scene of a four story wood structure, second and third floors are fully engulfed, fourth floor has heavy smoke venting from the windows, fire is also venting out the roof. Setting up Maple Street Command at 1928 hours."

Because we were the first engine on the scene, we had to set up the command center which meant that I was in charge of this scene. I was not ready for this. Then came a voice I was happy to hear. "Battalion Chief 13 on the scene, assuming Maple Street Command." It was an officer ranked higher than I was which meant that I wasn't in charge anymore. I thanked God for that, although now that means I have to go in and search. But I was more ready for that than the command job, so I attached my regulator to my mask, and my partner and I set up to go in.

"Team 1 is entering the first floor and will proceed up the stairs to the fourth floor and search for the victims," I radioed to command to let them know were we are. In we went, ax in my left hand, my right hand on the wall. We were doing a right hand search. My partner held his ax in his left hand and kept his right arm on my boot so I knew that he was there. We quickly moved up to the fourth floor. "Team 1 to command, we are on the forth floor, beginning search for victims."

"Command is clear, Team 1 is on the fourth floor searching for victims," radioed the chief. You could tell by the sound of his voice that he didn't like the way things looked and was very nervous.

We were going down the hall and got to the first room. Felt the door and it wasn't hot, so we went in. Searched and found nothing. We continued this pattern of going down the right side of the wall, going in every room we came to. On the seventh room, we noticed that the door seemed a little warmer than the others did. We still entered the room hoping to find the two children that were missing. As we proceeded along the right wall, it seemed like everything was piled on that wall. Everything you could imagine in that room was on the wall we were on, which made it a very difficult search. I stuck my ax out as far as I could every time I swung it. We entered into what seemed to be a bedroom, the smoke was so dark we couldn't see our hands in front of us. Finally I swung the handle of my ax out and felt something. I told my partner to hold on to my leg and keep a hand or something on the wall so that I could see what it was I hit. I slid my hands along the steaming floor. I felt what seemed to be a leg. Moved further up and found the arm. Even further up and I could feel every detail on the face. I found a child. I quickly grabbed the child and began back to get the child out to safety. Then it hit me.

I remember that there wasn't just one child, there were two. But I can't take the child in my arms now back into the fire. I looked at my partner and told him to take the child back, I have to go find the other one. He did as I told him and took the child back. I turned around and returned to the place where I found the first child. I thought that the children would be in the same area if they were scared, because I know that I wouldn't want to be alone in this kind of a situation, like I am right now.

I searched around that area and found nothing, so I continued the right hand search alone in the room. All of a sudden I heard an alarm go off. It took me a while to realize that it was my air pack. I was running low on air. This warning meant that I had about 5 minutes to find the child and get it out to safety before I ran out of air. Then I found something I prayed I wouldn't find--I prayed even more that what could be in it wasn't. My prayers weren't answered that time. I found a baby crib, as I reached inside of it, I could feel the outline of a small child under a blanket. Probably it's blanky, something that made this child feel safe in the worst of times. I reached in expecting a lifeless body but when I touched it, I heard the voice of an angel. The baby begin to scream either with fear of the fire or the sight of me I don't know and never will, but it was the most pleasant noise I have ever heard in a time like this one.

I picked up the baby and started to go back, then realized that this baby can't breathe this smoke. I had a low bottle so if I took my mask off, we both would run out of air very quickly. Then I remembered the child's blanky. I went to the baby crib and picked it up. Knowing that my lungs are more used to the smoke than the baby's, I gave the child my air mask and put it's blanky over my nose and mouth to filter the smoke as much as possible. I got to the stairway and began downstairs. Because I was in a hurry, I decided to go a head and stand up and walk out. As I turned the corner for the third floor, the fears I thought about on the ride here came true. Suddenly I was thinking about my wife and our children and that I'll never get to see them again. I just want to tell them I love them one last time.

As I turned that corner, I found that the fire on the third floor found its way to the stairway. The only stairway in this building was on fire and we were trapped. Then when things seemed like they couldn't get any worse, they did.

"Command to Team 1!" shouted the chief with an enormous amount of fear in his voice.

"Team 1, go ahead," I acknowledged.

"Team 1, the building looks like it is about to collapse, you need to get yourself out, leave the kid," chief announce very quickly.

Then I remembered that I never told them I found the baby or that I was trapped. "Team 1 to command, I have found the second victim, a baby, and am trapped on the fourth floor. Flames have blocked my exit."

"Team 1 you need to find a way out quickly. We don't have a ladder truck here to get to the window. You are going to have to find a way out soon!" he shouted.

Now is when I began to panic. Not like I haven't been since I found the baby. Suddenly, the floor begins to crack and flames are becoming more and more visible threw the floor. I begin to run. I don't know where I am running to but all I care about is getting this baby out to safety and letting it live a good life, even if that means losing mine. I begin to get the feeling that this is my child, which makes everything worse. I don't want to leave my family. I want to watch my son grow up, and live a long life with my loving wife that has been there for me all the time. I can now start feeling the floor to fall beneath my feet with every step I take. I glance to my right and notice a window. I run towards it. I radio to command that I have found a window and will be coming out of it shortly. They respond with "hurry, we don't have any time to lose."

I stopped to break the window open and begin to climb down the wall. I draw my ax back and swing into the window. Glass flies everywhere and not only does the glass fall, but the whole building seems to too. I turned around and could see the fire spreading rapidly over the wooded structure. Then I hear the bottle's alarm stop. The bottle is bone dry now, the baby has to use the blanky to filter the smoke and I don't have anything anymore. Then all at once I hear a loud explosion. In the state of panic I was in, I instantly turned around and jumped out of it, then looked four floors down to the grassy ground, hoping that my fall will help break the baby's fall. Just as my feet leave the windowsill, flames pop out and wrap around us for a split second. I can't feel my face anymore and the baby is still crying. Then we hit the ground, my legs first, with a loud thud and then blackness. I can't hear anything, I can't see anything, and I can't feel anything. I can't remember where I am or what I was doing. It is just pitch-blackness.

Finally I begin to see a bright white light. Then first thing I see is the beautiful face of my wife with tears in her eyes. I notice she is holding my hand but I can't feel it, she kisses me but I couldn't feel that either. I tell her that I love her and she tells me she loves me too. Then I look around and see my kids standing around the foot of my bed. I tell them that I love them too. They all look at me and tell me that they are very proud to have me as a dad. They are proud to have a dad that risked his life to save the life of a complete stranger. What makes it even better is that the stranger was a baby, and because of my efforts and quick thinking, that baby will be able to live a long and healthy life now.

In my dream, I didn't make it out the window and the baby did. The baby lived and I did not. Another point in this story is for all the people that seem to not understand why firemen become who we are. It is times like these, whether it be small B.S. runs or the large fires, we get pride out of knowing that we saved another life. It is the pride of knowing that we made a difference, large or small, that keeps us doing what we do best.