Ren Yi’s heart sank. He cursed, “I told you not to let go of the hose! I told you not to let go of the hose! Do you all fucking want to lose your jobs?!”
Sun Dingyi asked, “Did he call for help? How long has he been missing?”
“No, less than two minutes.”
“Pair up and tie yourselves together with ropes before you go looking for him. I’ll say it again: no one acts alone. Anyone who does it again can pack their bags and go home!” Ren Yi glanced at the readings on his SCBA. “Everyone, keep an eye on your remaining air supply. When it drops to 10%, retrace your route and return to change cylinders. The layout here is complicated, so you must leave yourselves enough time.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Sun Dingyi, take the other four and look for A-Wen. Follow the hose back the way you came. Report immediately if you find anything. The other three, continue forward with me.”
“Yes, sir!”
Fortunately, they hadn’t gotten lost this time and managed to find North Gate 1. They had identified it by comparing the view outside the windows with what they had seen on the first floor. In reality, however, North Gate 1 was still hidden behind the raging fire, invisible to the naked eye.
Li Sa panted. “We only have one hose line. I’m afraid we won’t be able to get through.”
Without a second hose line to protect their backs, Ren Yi didn’t dare advance recklessly. But the shutter had to be just ahead. They couldn’t afford to wait for a second hose line. First, the fire would continue to grow until it became uncontrollable. Second, their SCBA air supplies might not last long enough for them to lower the shutter on the seventh floor. The time lost going back and changing cylinders could easily cancel out the time they’d gain by lowering the shutters.
Ren Yi asked, “Command, what’s the wind direction right now?”
“Southwest.”
Ren Yi pointed at the windows on the western side. “Find something and smash that window. It might buy us some time.”
“Okay.” Cui Yisheng looked around and brought over a chair.
Ren Yi spoke into his radio. “Wang Meng, Wang Meng.”
“I’m here. Go ahead.”
“Can you send a hose line to support us at the sixth-floor connecting passage?”
Wang Meng was panting heavily, his voice so hoarse and dry it barely sounded human. “I’m evacuating civilians right now. I can’t spare anyone. Ask command to reassign someone.”
Ren Yi switched to the command channel. “Captain Chen, Chief of Staff, the fire on the sixth floor is too intense. We only have one hose line. I’m requesting backup.”
“Wait a moment. Yan Jue from Xijiao Station, can you support the sixth-floor connecting passage?”
“Reporting to the chief of staff: the two hose lines supporting the connecting passage are currently assisting on the fourth and fifth floors. I can only give the sixth floor… one minute.”
“One minute is enough,” Ren Yi said. “Cui Yisheng, don’t smash the window until I give the order. Yan Jue, notify me when you’re in position.”
“Understood.” Yan Jue switched from the command channel to a private channel with Ren Yi. “Sihuo, the fires on the sixth and seventh floors are extremely intense. Are you sure you want to take this risk?”
“I know. We’re running out of time.”
Building A was only seven stories tall. Once the flames reached the seventh floor, they had nowhere higher to spread. With sufficient oxygen, the fire would seek out combustible materials elsewhere—in this case, the horizontally adjacent Building B. That was why the fire in the connecting passage grew more intense on the upper floors. It was also why Ren Yi had chosen to tackle the sixth and seventh floors.
“Two or three water trucks have already arrived at the scene. If you can wait another five minutes, I might be able to spare a water cannon for you.”
“I can wait. My air supply can’t, and neither can the fire.” Ren Yi’s voice grew grave. “Based on my experience, I judge that the sixth and seventh floors are close to flashover. The ceiling has already started collapsing. If we want to get the fire under control, the critical window is the next ten minutes.”
Yan Jue took a deep breath. “Be careful. My water cannons are in position.”
“Good. Turn on the water.” Ren Yi shouted to Cui Yisheng, “Cui Yisheng, watch out and get clear! Smash it!”
Cui Yisheng swung the chair and hurled it at the western window, then threw himself to the floor in the opposite direction.
The instant the chair shattered the glass, the opening in the window acted like a vacuum cleaner, sucking the flames inside toward it. At the same time, Yan Jue’s water cannons began spraying the sixth-floor connecting passage. The two measures worked together, greatly reducing the intensity of the fire inside.
Although Cui Yisheng had executed the textbook-perfect evasive maneuver, the wind was now feeding the flames. In that instant, the fire spread at more than a hundred meters per second. He was still caught by the flames.
Li Sa and Xiao Cai rushed over, grabbed his arms, and dragged him away. Ren Yi’s hose line promptly extinguished the fire on his body, but his protective suit had been burned through in several places.
Cui Yisheng rolled onto his back and lay there, gasping for air, unable to utter a single word.
Ren Yi nudged his shoulder with his foot. “Are you hurt?”
Cui Yisheng shouted, “I’m fine!”
“Good. Get up!” Ren Yi handed the hose line to Cui Yisheng and Xiao Cai. “You two cover me here. I’m going to lower the shutter.”
“Yes, sir.”
With the hose line clearing the way, Ren Yi raced toward the shutter, fighting for every second. Yan Jue’s water cannons could only support him for one minute. He had to get the shutter down within that time.
The fire-protective suit Ren Yi wore was fire-resistant, but its principle was essentially the same as wrapping meat in aluminum foil. It wouldn’t burn through, but the person inside could still be roasted alive. In theory, the suit could keep someone alive for two to three minutes even if they were completely engulfed in flames.
Fortunately, the fire along this short stretch had already been diverted or suppressed. But the hellish heat couldn’t be diverted, and pouring water onto the flames had produced steam whose temperature had long since exceeded a thousand degrees.
The agony of being seared alive was almost impossible to describe. An ordinary person’s instinct when confronted with extreme heat was to retreat as far away as possible. Firefighters, however, had to do the opposite: advance instead of retreat.
Clenching his back teeth, Ren Yi moved as fast as he could toward the shutter. He wedged the crowbar against the manual release lever and pressed down. He heard creaking overhead, along with the piercing sound of metal grinding violently against metal, but the shutter didn’t come crashing down as expected.
Ren Yi looked up and saw that one of the shutter’s hinges had released, but the other was jammed!
“Fucking hell!” Ren Yi cursed loudly. He pushed the lever down with all his strength, but the jammed hinge wouldn’t budge. The entire shutter had descended only halfway, leaving it tilted at an angle.
“Captain Ren, it’s jammed! We have to chop through the hinge!” Cui Yisheng shouted.
“Someone get over here!” The entrance to the connecting passage was exceptionally tall, and one person couldn’t reach the hinge alone. Ren Yi looked at the few people remaining. None of them wore fire-protective suits. He hesitated. Getting here in his own suit had already been agonizing. Someone wearing only a standard rescue uniform—
“I’ll do it!” Li Sa shouted. “I’m the lightest.”
Of the three people remaining, Cui Yisheng’s rescue uniform had been burned through and he couldn’t safely approach the fire again. Otherwise, the exposed areas of his skin would surely be stripped of several layers. Xiao Cai was tall and heavyset, weighing even more than Ren Yi.
The minute was almost up. Ren Yi could no longer afford to hesitate. He waved his hand and roared, “Get over here! Hurry!”
Li Sa dropped the heavy equipment she was carrying over her shoulder: the hose, rescue rope, spotlight, and even her air cylinder. She took a deep breath, held it, and ran toward Ren Yi, drawing the fire ax from her waist as she moved.
Ren Yi crouched halfway down and crossed his hands to form a platform. Li Sa placed one foot on his hands and the other on his shoulder. Ren Yi let out a low growl, grabbed her ankles, and slowly straightened up.
In an environment like this, physical energy drained faster than water flowing from an open faucet. Ren Yi’s equipment alone weighed forty jin, or about twenty kilograms. Although Li Sa had discarded her air cylinder, her body and remaining equipment still weighed more than a hundred jin. As Ren Yi rose to his feet, his legs shook violently, buckling several times.
But in the end, he managed to stand upright.
Holding her breath, Li Sa endured the scorching heat, which felt as though it were tearing her skin apart. She raised the fire ax and brought it down hard on the hinge.
Once. Twice. Three times.
With a loud crash, the shutter broke free of the hinge and slammed heavily onto the floor!
Ren Yi’s legs could no longer bear the strain. He dropped to his knees with a thud, while Li Sa lost her balance and began to fall.
Xiao Cai rushed over in time to catch her.
Ren Yi panted heavily. “Take… take her out first.”
Xiao Cai dragged Li Sa away and connected her to an air cylinder as quickly as possible. Clutching her face mask, Li Sa gasped desperately for air. The excruciating pain in her skin made her writhe and roll on the floor.
Ren Yi used the wall to pull himself to his feet. With the shutter now blocking the fire in the connecting passage, the flames weakened considerably. He slowly made his way back to his teammates.
Cui Yisheng wore an expression halfway between laughter and tears. “Captain Ren, we found A-Wen. That idiot was knocked unconscious by a falling shelf. He was trying to save a sales clerk. Neither of them is seriously hurt. They’ve both been carried downstairs.”
Ren Yi let out a long breath of relief. His voice trembled as he said, “Good. Very good. Go join the others.”
The four of them helped one another to their feet and headed toward the emergency exit. Before long, they reunited with Sun Dingyi, Liu Hui, and the others.
Ren Yi notified command to send a mobile unit upstairs to extinguish the fire on the sixth floor. They still had to proceed to the seventh.
“Cui Yisheng, go downstairs. The fire on the seventh floor is the fiercest and most dangerous. Your suit is no longer usable.”
“Captain Ren, I’m—”
“Downstairs,” Ren Yi ordered. “Change into another suit and bring up several air cylinders.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Everyone, report your remaining SCBA air.”
“Twenty-one percent.”
“Twenty-three percent.”
“Eighteen percent.”
“Fourteen percent.”
“…”
“Anyone below fifteen percent goes downstairs. Anyone below twenty percent stays in a safe area and provides backup.”
“Captain Ren, how much do you have left?”
“Stop talking and go downstairs.”
Ren Yi counted the people left. Only six remained. He looked at Li Sa. “Are you still okay?”
Li Sa nodded. Her face was covered in carbon soot, so dirty that her original features were barely recognizable. But her eyes shone like stars.
“No problem.”
“Let’s go.”
Ren Yi led the team toward the seventh floor. He glanced down at his own SCBA reading.
Twelve percent.