[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.The woodland had burned down to a no-man’s-land of blackened stumps.A soldier beckoned them into a space between two other trucks, as if he was guiding a plane into a terminal building slot.Petra heaved on the wheel, manoeuvred the engine into the space and stopped.A soldier opened the door.‘We’ll re-equip your vehicle while you get some rest.Fifteen minutes and you’re out again.Leave the keys in the ignition in case we need to move it.’Wanasri followed Darren out, moving across the seat in slow motion.She had never felt so tired in her life.Her muscles were aching from moving about in the heavy turnout gear, and mentally, too, she felt exhausted.She was grateful to be off duty, but daunted by the thought that she had to be back on in fifteen minutes.Andy prodded her.‘Come on, lazybones.There’s a bottle of iced water with my name on it and you’re in my way.’Darren put out his arms.He lifted her out as if she was a feather and set her down on the ground.‘Come on, let’s perk you up.’ He knew how she felt.They’d all been rookies once.Wanasri’s feet protested as soon as she started to walk.Her boots were stiff and new and she had been running about in them for so long that her feet were a mass of blisters.Her turnout gear still felt as stiff as a suit of armour.She longed to take it off so that she could move freely.Her head throbbed – probably from dehydration after spending so long in such fierce heat, breathing in hot gases.She wanted to take her helmet off but the peak shielded her eyes from the fierce afternoon sun.Darren marched her through a row of parked engines to a big khaki tent.Water bottles were stacked in crates along a trestle table.Petra cracked one open and downed the whole lot in one go.Darren thrust one into Wanasri’s hands.She twisted the lid off with her teeth, spat the cap out and drank gratefully.The water was warm, but she didn’t care.She just needed to sluice away the taste of cinders.The first bottle finished, she scrunched it between her hands and started on a second.Beside her, Petra, Darren and Andy were also gulping away.It was only when Wanasri was on her third bottle that she was able to take it more slowly and look around.The tent looked incongruous in the middle of all these fire engines, like something from a genteel summer fete.The whole place stank of smoke.Firefighters walked around, massive as grizzly bears in their protective clothes.Everywhere she looked, reflective yellow stripes glinted in the sun.Wisps of steam rose off the engines and everything was coated in oily smoke.She tried not to think how much of that oily residue was from vaporized human remains.Petra crumpled another finished water bottle and dropped it into an overflowing bin.‘Come on, guys,’ she said.‘We’d better make way for others.’Wanasri, Darren and Andy followed her to the next tent.It looked like a jumble sale, with boxes of equipment laid out on tables.Petra went in, took her radio off her jacket, prised the cover off the battery compartment and swapped her old batteries for fresh ones.Meanwhile a soldier with a clipboard came up to her with her instructions.Petra listened carefully, then returned to the others.Darren gave Wanasri a pat on the arm.‘Come on, time to get back to work.’Wanasri couldn’t believe their fifteen-minute break had passed so quickly.She followed Darren and Andy back to the truck.The soldiers were just finishing up.Two of them clipped the pike poles back on the side of the engine.Another rolled up a hose attached to a big water tank.Petra got in the cab and started the engine as Darren, Andy and Wanasri climbed in the other side.A soldier stood in front of the truck, beckoning Petra on.She put her hand out of the window and acknowledged him, then eased out towards the perimeter.As they drove towards the exit, tongues of orange flame continued to flicker among the blackened stumps of trees.The fire was still stalking the camp, trying to get a hold.Once again, soldiers pursued it and smothered it, keeping the firefighters’ haven safe.Petra took Engine 33 back onto the road, out into the fiery city again.Away from the bustle of the camp, they could hear the sounds of the sirens again.The sky glowered black with smoke, the sun blazing through it like a furnace.Petra changed up to third gear and accelerated towards the town centre, her jaw grimly set.‘We’ve got new instructions.We’re going for a big strategic push.The army are helping too.The teams on the outside are going to drive the fire inwards; the teams on the inside – that includes us – are going to drive it outwards.Hopefully we’ll meet in the middle.This is no longer about saving individual structures.It’s about putting this fire out once and for all.’Chapter SeventeenBen picked up the jerry can, ducked under the wing of the microlight and unscrewed the big cap on the tank behind the cockpit.Kelly twisted round in her seat to watch him as he refilled the fuel tank [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]