John was exhausted, sweaty, gritty, and dirty. It had been a long, tough fight and even though he had done his very best, he still felt guilty and helpless.

The call came in as a simple house fire. The kind he had been to a thousand times before. And like every other time, he had jumped out of bed, scrambled to get dressed, and get on the truck as fast as possible.

But he wasn’t as young as he used to be, and he could feel the toll the years had taken on him. He was still in decent shape, he thought. He had recently passed his physical and he was still able to keep up with the younger members of his crew. But jumping up from a dead sleep and running to the truck was getting harder and harder these days.

As they drove to the address that flashed on the screen of the truck’s laptop, sirens blaring and lights flashing, his mind raced trying to formulate a plan for when they arrived. The Captain of his fire crew, he mentally went through a checklist of a hundred different questions he needed to answer before they got there. What was the weather like, what time of day was it? Was anyone still inside? What about traffic? Would other units be arriving? How big a fire would this be? These and many more questions would have to be considered and he had precious little time to do it in.

As they rounded the corner and saw the fire scene for the first time, his heart sank. It was big. What once was a very nice house, was now a raging inferno with orange flames erupting from every window and curling into an evil smile at the top of the door. A quick scan of the area showed several people standing outside in their robes and nightgowns watching the fire. Were any of these people the building residents?

John barked out his initial orders – “I want a line to the hydrant and two preconnects to the door. Tom, I want the monitor ready to deploy. Jim and Alan, you are with me – get ready to make entry!” he screamed over the sound of the siren. The driver stopped at the hydrant to let one man off to “catch the hydrant”, and then drove the last few yards and pulled up in front of the building. The remaining crew bailed off the truck while the driver began his ritual to get the truck pumping water.

Most of the fire seemed to be coming from the middle of the building, although it was hard to tell from the outside. It was widespread and looking at it initially, he doubted they could do much to save the building. He instantly called for a second alarm – two more trucks and a dozen more firefighters. The Assistant Chief had pulled up right behind them and had taken charge of the operation, leaving him free to go in with his men and fight the fire.

Still unsure if anyone was inside, the three man crew knelt at the front door, putting on their gear and preparing to enter the hell that awaited them on the other side of the door. He looked at the way the smoke acted around the edges of the door and the window next to it. He noticed that it seeped out then curled back. He noted that this fire was starving for air. The perfect setup for a backdraft! John pulled his men around behind him and stood to one side of the door. He forced the door open, and with a whoosh he heard the fire suck in a huge breath of fresh air.

With hose lines stiff and hard with water, the crew entered the building. It was hot – hotter than usual. The fire had had a good start on them, and he could see the orange glow everywhere it seemed. He could just make out the stairs to the right, and knew from the outside appearance that the bedrooms were probably upstairs.

The crew began working their way upstairs with him leading the way. Knowing another crew was going to be there in a couple of minutes, his first task was to make sure the occupants were not inside still. And rescue them if they were. So, as he made his way up the stairs he hoped – he prayed that he would find the bedrooms empty.

John and his crew reached the first bedroom and pushed the door in. On hands and knees, he searched the room. Nothing on the bed. Nothing under the bed. Nothing in the closet (he knew that kids often hid from the fire). This room was clear, thankfully.

He shut the door and put a mark on it so others would know it was clear. He moved on to the next room, performing the same search with the same results. The third, and finally fourth bedrooms were similarly searched. The top floor seemed to be clear. Maybe they had made it out! He opened the window in the last bedroom to let some of the smoke and heat out before going downstairs to continue the search.

That’s when it happened. Opening the window had created a path for the superheated air to escape. With the door downstairs open and the fire sucking in fresh air from it, opening the window caused an explosion that blew him out the window and onto the ground outdoors!

He woke to a cool hand gently washing his forehead. A nurse in her mid to late 20’s looked into his eyes and smiled. “Welcome back,” she said softly. He was lying naked under the sheets of the hospital bed. Confusion and a sense of guilt raged through him.

“How long have I been here?” he asked. “What about the rest of my crew?” He tried to get up – he had to know the rest of his crew were safe!

She held his shoulders and said “Easy there, hero! You aren’t going anywhere for a while! You had yourself a hell of a fall from what I’ve heard. You came here unconscious, and have been here since last night. The ambulance brought you in on a backboard, and we have had to run some tests to find out just what happened.

The good news is you didn’t break your back when you fell. The bad news is, as you can tell yourself, you are pretty beat up. You’ve broken a couple of ribs, got a concussion, battered and bruised – even if I let you out of here, you couldn’t do anything! You just lay back and do some mending before you rush off to play Superman again!

The young nurse was right. As much as he wanted to get up and find out about what happened to his crew and the fire, he was in no condition to be walking around, much less get back to work! About the time the nurse finished talking, a face peeked around the doorway. It was Jim, one of his crew.

“Hey Cap’n! You’re awake finally! Didja have a good sleep?” he said, jokingly.

“Hey Jim! What happened? How are the guys? What about the fire? Did you find the family?” John said, almost frantically.

“Whoa, hold on there! Okay, everyone is okay – the guys are all fine, and the family had gotten out and is safe. The house is a total loss, but we knew that was the case when we pulled up,” he said.

“Well, that’s good to hear. What the hell happened anyway? One minute I am upstairs with you and Alan, and the next I am laying here on my back in a hospital!”

“Well, seems to me you got it pretty good!” Jim said, winking at the lovely nurse, “I mean a soft comfy bed and this pretty thing to take care of you – maybe I should get hurt next time!”

“Yeah, she’s been taking real good care of me. But how did I get here?” he asked.

“Well, I know you were aware the house was set up for a backdraft from the way you acted at the front door. When you opened the window upstairs, you gave the backdraft a place to go ... and it was kind enough to take you with it! It blew you out the window and you hit the ground like a sack of cement about 30 yards away! I’ll tell you Cap’n, you really need to brush up on your flying – your landing sucked!” Jim said, “Alan and I were knocked against the walls of the room, then we got up and rushed downstairs to see if you were still with us. The other trucks took care of the fire. Once we knew you were on your way here, we went back and finished putting out the fire. The family that lived there had got out and had went to the neighbors.”

“So no one else was hurt then?” he asked.

“Well, I did hit my funny bone on the closet doorway when it blew me against it!” Jim said, jokingly.

“Good. You can do the 10 pages of reports and forms necessary to get a Workman’s Comp claim from the City!” he said.

“No thanks! I’ve seen what that is all about! Unless I cut off an arm or something, it ain’t worth it!” he said. “Well, I guess I’ll get back to the station and tell everyone you’re still among the living. So much for my promotion!” Jim said, laughing.