Hearts on Fire Read Online Free PDF

always one faulty electrical switch away from a disaster, and multiple fines from the fire marshal had resulted in numerous band-aids to keep the place limping along and up to code. Nobody on Jess’s truck was surprised at their current destination, and everyone aboard had been there more than once before for minor issues.
    But a five-alarm fire meant this particular building was done for, for good. And probably meant death for some residents as well. The firefighters sat in solemn silence as the truck approached the building.
    Chaos reigned. Firetrucks, firefighters, ambulances, EMTs, and police choked the street surrounding the complex, and a riot of noise met her ears. Water hoses snaked along between cars parked curbside, and as usual some jerk had blocked the fire hydrant with their car, which now had both front windows knocked out and a hose snaking right through the inside. Water pooled in the streets as the ladder crews continued a steady stream into various sections of the structure in an attempt to tame the inferno, and smoke billowed from blasted-out windows.
    Chief Clay met them as they stepped off their truck and briefed them on the situation.
    “Okay, listen up. We just got word that a couple of guys from C shift are trapped on the third floor south stairwell. They can’t go down farther due to the fire and they can’t go up because the fourth floor stairwell section collapsed behind them. So there’s a hole on fifth you’re going to get to and drop lines for them to get back up. Kyle, Jess, and Danny go up the northern stairwell to the fifth floor and make your way to the south end. Tommy, get that truck maneuvered in on the south end, over there,” he pointed, “and Mark you get a water cannon ready. I’ll be along to help shortly. We need to get that stairwell fire out just in case.”
    “In case of what?” Danny asked.
    Chief Clay’s expression was grim. “In case they can’t get back up to fifth.” He looked each one of them in the eye in turn. “Jess, did you pay for that new helmet?”
    “Of course not, Chief.” She began opening compartments on the truck, grabbing spools of rope and loading it onto her shoulders. “No venting issues I assume.”
    “Venting is completed. Just get your asses in there and bring out our boys.”
    “Jess, it was your turn to bring the S’mores stuff,” Kyle quipped as he lead the way into the building’s northern stairwell.
    Jess shook her head with disdain. “How can you joke about something like this?”
    “How can you not ? It’s how I deal with it, blondie.”
    “Test. Test.” Danny keyed up his radio and the others gave a gloved thumbs-up. “Let’s do this.”
    The stairwell was eerily quiet and pitch black and Kyle shone his flashlight in to chase away the darkness. Jess cringed as two rats scurried past, their claws scratching along the concrete floor like fingernails inside a coffin.
    “Well, well, no fire alarm and no emergency lights,” Kyle observed. “I smell a lawsuit.”
    Jess’s heart gave a lurch for the residents that such negligence may have doomed to their deaths, silently praying that against the odds everyone made it out. As they passed the third floor, they could finally hear an alarm.
    “Chief, why can’t we just go down the third floor hallway to the other side? Over.” Jessica stopped her ascent, waiting for the answer.
    Chief Clay’s voice crackled over the radio. “The entire middle section of the second and third floors are gone. Fourth floor is questionable but we know the fifth is still good. Over.”
    “Roger that.”
    They continued on two more flights and entered the north-end of the fifth floor hallway. Here there were working emergency lights and alarms and they made their way slowly toward the other end. A smoky haze cut the light to dim at best, and near the middle of the long hall there was no light at all. They stepped over and around piles of trash and discarded furnishings that screamed “fire