Holiday Advent Story 4

“All right everybody,” yelled Jess. “I’m gonna make this quick. Right now we are all that is standing between Hesthead and that fire.” She pointed at the wildfire that moved towards them. “The town is mostly empty, but there are still critical patients in the hospital that need to be moved. We are going to try and save this town. Failing that, we need to buy the medics’ time to clear the area. We have a lot of ground to prep, I want to make sure everything from the 205 to Main Street is ready. That’s three miles of ground covered in dead grass, brush, and trees. You know your jobs, grab your tools, and get to work.” The small crowd disbursed to their assignments.

Jess stared at the assembled crews. She had men from two stations on site plus a handful of civilian volunteers. She’d asked for more firefighters but they were onsite in other locations trying to keep the blaze from spreading. She’d made some calls and there was a construction crew on the way to help clear brush and dig a trench but they might still be ten to fifteen minutes away.

The two crews, station 24 and her men, were moving the tanker trucks into place and hosing down the ground in hopes of slowing the blaze. The civilians were using shovels to dig a trench by the road. Jess looked at the work. It was a ditch at best. They didn’t have time to put up proper barriers.

“Allen!” Jess called for her assistant. She’d put him in charge of communication and logistics. She wanted to make sure everything was covered and they didn’t miss a message. She had to know if something went wrong. She also had him monitoring the weather. If the wind shifted towards the town the blaze would start moving faster and then she had to clear her people out of the area.

Allen jogged up. “I just talked to Hall construction, they’re just past the worst of the traffic and should be here soon. Five ten minutes, tops.”

“What about the weather?” asked Jess. “Give me some good news.”

“Better than we hoped,” said Allen. “There was a storm south of us and the wind changed. It looks like it might hit us.”

“What kind of storm?”

“Snow,” said Allen. “I hadn’t heard how bad it would be, but the map shows a lot of red. If there’s no lightning we should get some help out of this.”

“Not great but I’ll take it.”

“Hang on.” Allen stepped away and listened at his headset. Jess watched as he spoke to whoever was on the other side.

Allen quickly turned back to Jess. “That was one of the spotters. The fire is moving quicker than estimated.”

“How long?”

“They’re saying we’ve got a half hour at most.”

Jess swore. They’d been told they had an hour to prep, now their time has been halved. If he hadn’t know better, Jess would swear the fire had a vendetta against the town. “We’ll need to tell the crews to start wrapping up out there. I don’t want them caught in this. I want them to work on backing up and covering the ground further back.”

“On it.” Allen jogged off shouting into his gear.

Jess grabbed a shovel and started working with the civilians. This wouldn’t stop the fire but it could buy a couple of minutes. She glanced to the fire. It was closer now; no longer a glow on the horizon. Jess could make out flames now. It was moving too fast.

She slammed her shovel into the ground and ran back to the command truck. “Allen!”

Allen jumped out of the back of the truck. “I was just coming for you. I’ve called the crews back but our guys are having a problem. The truck is stuck out there. It sank in the dirt and they can’t get it moving.”

“Tell them to abandon the truck and move. We can replace the truck.” Jess looked up again. “Tell them I’ll come out so we can get some of the equipment” Jess grabbed a small golf cart that had been left by the hospital grounds crew. The engine turned on with an electric hum and she drove it towards the tanker and her team.

Jess tried to stay to the trail not wanting to get mired in the field where water would have been sprayed. She pulled up as her team were unloading equipment from the truck. Air tanks, med kits, and a handful of other tools. They chucked the gear in the back of the cart. Jess jumped out and told Lucius to drive it back to the command truck. She joined the rest of her team on the long trudge back. They jogged it, with forty-five pounds of gear, they hustled back to the fire break.

As they approached the command truck, her visor fogging up, Jess called out to Allen. Something hit her visor and stuck. Oh god thought Jess, ash. This meant the fire was closer than they thought and worse, the wind was blowing the ash towards them. The wind had changed.

“Allen!”

Another tap on her visor. Jess was running towards the truck. She needed to call the other team back. Another tap on her visor. Jess suddenly realized that it was white; not black the color ash would be.

Allen ran towards her. “Finally a break.”

Jess looked at him. “What happened?”

“The storm,” said Allen. “It’s the storm. It looks to be the biggest blizzard to hit the area in years.”

The words registered with Jess. “This is the storm? The one you were talking about?”

“They’re calling for at least a foot by morning.”

As Allen finished talking a wall of snow pelted the area.

“Oh hell yeah,” yelled Allen.

The loud cry of a horn broke through the night. The work crew was here. “Call the guys from 24 and have them pull back. I want them to help support the construction crew as they clear the ground.” Jess jogged to the first truck. Tony the foreman jumped out before the truck had stopped moving.

“Tony,” yelled Jess. “Thanks for coming out.”

“Not a problem,” called tony over the noise of the trucks. “I got two Cats and a trencher. It’ll take a couple of minutes to unload those. Where do you want them?”

Jess looked at the huge machines. “Get the Cats clearing the fields. As for the trencher, we need a trench, here along the highway. The deeper and wider you can get it the better.”

“I’ll let the guys know,” yelled Tony. “I also brought the rest of the crew. We got shovels and can help clear brush.”

“Tony, you’re a life saver.”

“Glad to,” yelled Tony. “This snows a bit of pain.”

“No Tony,” said Jess. “This snow is a life saver.”

end
Let it Snow