Chapter 275 - 216: Firefighting Porter

The units outside the building are in an exercise.

But inside, it’s not the case.

It’s about physical training.

This building, still in the rough construction stage and not yet fully in use, put the waterproof materials through a thorough test during this firefighting exercise.

As well as load bearing tests.

Upstairs, water guns were frantically calling for increased pressure, releasing firepower... no, water power, in an effort to quickly meet the detachment’s standard for water output and determine the success of extinguishing the fire.

In just twenty minutes, even the main urban firefighting vehicles, which could sustain water output for almost half an hour during a real fire, had already started connecting to water supply vehicles to refill.

As the main force in rescue, Special Service Squadron 2 was also busy without a moment’s rest.

Cao Yi was trying his best to create a sense of urgency through the two-way radio, constantly asking about the number of injured and dead that had been found, and how many had not yet been brought to the outside of the building.

"Report! 6 injured have been found on the seventh floor, all brought downstairs! There are too many corpses!"

"Report! 4 injured found on the eleventh floor, taken downstairs!"

"Report, a large number of trapped people found on the thirteenth floor, currently being evacuated downstairs!"

...

"What about the tenth floor?"

"Give a report from the tenth floor!"

"Report, the squad leader of Special Duty Squad Fang Huai is over by the safety passage moving bodies, and Little Black has also gone there! The signal might be bad in that area!"

"Z... I’m on the seventh floor! The evacuation and rescue on the tenth floor have been completed. Special Duty Squad, all come down and help! We have a mountain of corpses here!"

"Fang Huai, you guys finished that fast? Did you carefully check each room?"

Fang Huai shouted, "I’m not sure; I’ve handed it over to the others in the squad! But right now the situation on the seventh floor is extremely urgent, we must consider prioritizing the relocation of most of the personnel!

We don’t have much time left! Half an hour, now there are only ten minutes! Whether we’ve searched thoroughly or not doesn’t matter anymore. If we delay any longer, the people we’ve just found won’t be saved!"

There’s a classic moral dilemma: 5 people are tied to the railroad tracks, and the train is about to arrive. You can pull the lever to switch the tracks, but it will hit a scavenger. What would you do?

As a firefighter, Fang Huai wouldn’t hesitate to pull the lever and change tracks and then rush out as quickly as possible to rescue the scavenger.

This has nothing to do with the law, nor humanity. He can only think about saving as many people as possible in the shortest time.

With five people all tied together, he obviously can’t rescue them alone, so he must prioritize their safety, whereas for the scavenger, he might still have a chance.

As for how soon the train will arrive and whether it will immediately hit someone, he has no time to consider that. He only knows that every second he spends thinking is one second less he has.

There was a silence over the two-way radio.

"Second Squadron, anyone still searching, quickly proceed to the seventh floor to assist with the rescue!"

"Roger that!"

"Received, on my way."

...

Seventh floor.

The atmosphere actually isn’t as tense as imagined.

This exercise pulled out all the stops with the detachment’s gear.

At the stairwell, red, yellow, and green dummies were stacked on top of each other, forming a large pile, looking like something out of a toy wholesale market from afar.

The Special Duty Squad members were all a bit impressed with Fang Huai’s strong sense of immersion.

Hearing his deep tone just now, they all thought that the scene must have been set up to be utterly tragic, and everyone came rushing in to support.

Their mood was somewhat solemn.

But upon arriving, everyone was somewhat taken aback.

"What the hell? Why are there green dummies too? I’ve never seen them in my life!"

"Crap, what model is this dummy? Why is it so much bigger than the ones we usually train with? Come and give me a hand!"

At this moment, Fang Huai, who had just dragged another dummy out of the building, panting heavily, pulled out a twenty-meter rope from his waist, and tossed it to Zhao Jinchen, who had just finished extinguishing a fire on another floor and rushed over.

"Squad Leader Zhao... can you, can you help me tie this up, the dummy, tie as many as you can, and drag them straight down. We have seven minutes left, hurry!"

Zhao Jinchen hurriedly got to work, but tied while asking in confusion, "Can we manage to haul so many at once?"

Fang Huai rolled his eyes and gave a breathy response.

"If we can’t manage, what then? Drag together!

Don’t waste time going upstairs! If we don’t finish in one trip, we’ll need another trip up, do you guys still want to climb the stairs?

Anyway, I’ve had enough of climbing today! There are twelve dummies here, two twenty-meter ropes, let’s split into two groups, thread six each, and bring them all down in one go!"

When everyone heard this, they all thought it made sense.

Load-bearing climbing is one of the two nightmares of the firefighters’ individual events, along with the four hundred meter equipment relay.

A five-kilometer run won’t kill anyone, but these two can.

Today, the dummy evacuation of the four hundred meter equipment relay and the load-bearing climbing had a dream team-up.

Which events could make Fang Huai gasp for air? Apart from the second floor of the bathhouse, it’s only these.

Even Little Black, usually always smiling, was too occupied catching his breath to joke around today.

"Alright, let’s do it all in one trip!"

...

When Zhang Zhongting stepped out of the tent, he said to the Chief of Staff at the door keeping track of the situation:

"Old Zhou, how many have been rescued?"

"The public have mostly been brought out, 117 people, just missing two," the Chief of Staff, busy writing, casually responded.

Zhang Zhongting nodded.

Not bad, only two short with half an hour’s time, the performance was already pretty good.

A real fire reaching the scale of today’s exercise wouldn’t leave more than two-thirds of people rescued.

Of course, once firefighters actually enter the building, it won’t be as easy.

"What about the dummies?"

"The dummies... I don’t know, the living people were tallied by the staff, and they never reported the dummies. Anyway, the last report I heard was thirty-three."

Zhang Zhongting’s brow furrowed deeply.

With Second Squadron as the main rescue force, missing so many would be difficult to explain.

There is something he had not told those soldiers.

The majority of today’s observers were from the whole corps.

How would the government agency have so many idle people to fill every key corridor and fire point on each floor?

So, while the whole corps gave forty minutes for the rescue operation and internal fire suppression water deployment, he gave only half an hour.

The exercise itself was already difficult, and he tightened it by ten minutes just to instill a greater sense of urgency and push for a better performance. Even if it was not completed, just missing it by a little would mean that the Detachment dared to up the stakes for itself, a noble defeat.

If they completed it, it would be a high standard, stringent requirement, better and faster completion of the tasks set by the whole corps.

Either way, there would be something to say.

Though the water output could be off, the rescue mission could not be too far short.

In any major fire incident, the public and media are vague about property rescue, but the number of people saved is what truly concerns them.

This is a hard metric.

Thinking of this, Zhang Zhongting took out his two-way radio and shouted, "Time’s up, all teams, assemble downstairs!"

Afterward, he leisurely walked towards the lobby on the first floor.

In the hall, firefighters from the whole building were gathering steadily. In less than three minutes, over a hundred firefighters had filled the hall, along with dozens of observers in camouflage uniforms and Detachment service personnel.

When Zhang Zhongting walked in, he first glanced at the number of dummies on the floor.

As expected, 33, still short by 13.

He had deliberately arrived two to three minutes late, but the count was still off by that much.

Turning his head, he scanned the room and caught sight of Cao Yi running over through the water, frowning as he asked, "Where are the bodies? Why are we still missing so many?"

Cao Yi also stopped short, looking at the dummies on the floor, and sheepishly inquired, "Regimental commander... how many in total do we have?"

Zhang Zhongting, dissatisfied with the gradually arriving observers, said bluntly, "We’re still short by a significant number!"

Cao Yi immediately surveyed the whole scene and shouted, "Special Service Squadron 2, all gather up!"

Quickly, two teams hurried over.

Cao Yi glanced around and asked, "Are we still missing five people?"

"Don’t bother shouting! Some guys from your squadron are still upstairs with our Liu Shoulin, they’ll be down in a moment!" Leader Huang from the First Squadron chimed in.

Cao Yi was about to grab his two-way radio to ask when

"We’re here!" came a loud shout from Fang Huai by the stairwell on the right.

"One, two, step!"

"One, two, step!"

The moment Fang Huai and his six-man team appeared, they immediately caught everyone’s attention.

Pairs of three, with each trio dragging a long line of dummies behind them, they trudged through the hall, heads down, plodding through the water with determination.

Just right in the water.

They looked just like the boat trackers on the Yangtze River, forging waterways.

The scene left even Zhang Zhongting momentarily stunned.

The City Government Publicity Staff at the door heard the rhythmical chant and rushed in to investigate. Upon seeing this sight, they immediately grabbed their camera and took several pictures from different angles.

Others around quickly went to help, pushing from behind, and soon dragged all the dummies into the hall.

"Report... twelve casualty bodies brought down!" Fang Huai announced loudly.

"Good, well done! However, we’re still missing two injured and one casualty!"

Zhang Zhongting, suppressing a smile, kept a serious face as he looked towards the observers:

"How’s the water discharge at each fire location? Did it meet the requirements?"

The observer, who was the lieutenant responsible for dropping smoke grenades on the tenth floor, instantly replied upon Zhang Zhongting’s inquiry,

"It should be about right, but, this... comrade, was a bit rash in the rescue process, and the way they dragged the dummies didn’t follow the rules."

Saying this, he pointed at Fang Huai.

Zhang Zhongting glanced at the breathless Fang Huai and coughed, not picking up on the second half of the lieutenant’s comment. Instead, he said solemnly,

"I don’t want ’about right.’ It’s either met the standard or it hasn’t! Two hundred and sixty soldiers toiled in an exercise without a definitive result?!"

The Special Duty personnel were holding back laughter.

Jesus, you’re reporting your nephew to Captain Zhang, got the wrong target, haven’t you?

The man replied somewhat resentfully, "The water discharge on the tenth floor met the standard..."

The other observers also reported one by one:

"Twelfth floor met the standard!"

"Eleventh floor met the standard!"

"Eighth floor met the standard!"

"Seventh floor, far from standard."

As the last statement was made, the squadrons involved in the fire suppression on the seventh floor seemed somewhat disheartened.

Zhang Zhongting, however, clasped his hands behind his back, smiled slightly, and picking up his two-way radio said:

"All Detachment and Big Team cadres, assemble on the first floor of the Cultural Palace for the debriefing!"