Flames of Life
Ernest Bywater
Flames of Life
by
All rights reserved © 2014
This book, Flames of Life, consists of the three stories:
Flames of Desire
Flames of Fear
A New Role
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. All rights are reserved by the author, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.
Product names, brands, and other trademarks referred to within this book are the property of their respective trademark holders. Unless otherwise specified there is no association between the author and any trademark holder, nor are any expressed or implied. Nor does it express any endorsement by them, or of them. Use of a term in this book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark, service mark, or registered trademark.
Cover Art
The background images are Batlow by Leigh Blackall (top) and Looking East over the Murrumbidgee River near Gumly Gumly by Bidgee (bottom). Both are copyrighted by their creators and their use is allowed by the Creative Commons Attribution - Share Alike Licence and terms. The cropping, size adjustment, and text are by Ernest Bywater. All rights to the cover images are reserved by the copyright owners.
27 April 2022 version
Published by Ernest Bywater
E-book ISBN: 978-1-312-91073-7
Note: Due to the main character and the narrator being Australians UK English is used in this story.
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The titles in use are a Story, a Chapter, a Sub-chapter, and a section.
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Foreword
The New South Wales Fire Service and all of its fire-fighters, along with all the other fire services around the world, deserve the greatest of respect for what they do. Every time they go to work they take their lives in their hands and the hands of their co-workers while they go about their duties saving the lives and property of others.
In recent years the New South Wales Fire Service has gone through a number of significant changes in its structure and the way it operates. I'm told some are still going on. I do not know what all of those changes are, nor do I have an understanding of the changes. What I do know is their structure, procedures, and processes I'm familiar with from over forty years ago are no longer relevant and few are in use today.
The structure and procedures used in this story are based on my past knowledge and they're amended to suit the needs of the story. Please do not take them as being representative of how the NSWFS operates now or how they operated in the past. A few terms have been changed by me to make the story easier understand by overseas readers and those not familiar with fire-fighters. This so the readers may understand the roles and duties of the people in the story.
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The story is told as three stories and the first two short stories are presented as two of the books written by the main character in them to justify his work as a writer using the pen name of Major Mount in the main story titled A New Role. Some of the personal information is repeated in the other stories so they can be read as stand-alone stories and to help with the presentation as the written works of the person in the main story. They're in chronological order for easier reading.
Some of the places mentioned in the stories really exist and some are fictional, while others are fictional variations of the real places.
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Flames of Desire
by
First Flame
Ten year old Ernie Wells sits staring into the flames of the camp-fire. He's been bush-walking and camping-out all of his young life because his parents are avid campers and bush-walkers, but this is the first time he's sat at a wood camp-fire or seen burning wood in real life and not on television. His parents and their friends who take him camping and teach him how to survive in the wild always have a gas stove they use to cook on as well as gas or battery operated electric lanterns for light. This time he's with the scout troop of some friends from his school and they've got a wood fire going. Ernie is entranced by the play of the flames and their beautiful dance.
One of the other boys grins as he asks, “What's up, Ernie? Never seen a camp-fire before?” As he thinks it's good fun to stir the new kid.
Ernie knows he's being stirred up to be made fun of, but he shrugs it off and says, “Actually, no. This is the first time I've seen a fire or a flame that wasn't a little gas burner to cook with.” The news surprises them all because they all know how much of a bush-walker and a camper he is.
Another asks, “What about bushfires? Ever seen one?”
“Only on television, and this is different to what you see on TV.”
They talk about this oddity of life for some time. Then they crawl into their sleeping bags to go to sleep for the night.
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Another First
About four weeks after the camping trip Ernie is walking home from school when he sees a big cloud of smoke in the sky nearby. He detours that way and he finds the local fire-fighters are busy trying to put out a fire in the old sawmill a couple of streets over from where he lives.
He stands a bit down the street to watch the fire as he's mesmerised by the rhythm and dance of the flames. He's entranced by the beauty of what he sees. After a few minutes he notices there's a pattern to the flames and the fire. He thought he saw one in each of the camp-fires they had on the weekend camping trip. However, they were small and very contained while this fire is large and unconstrained, which makes the patterns more complex and much easier for him to see them.
After a few minutes he notices something odd but he can't identify it or why he feels the fire is about to get a lot worse at one of the stacks of timber. He moves a few metres to where a fire-fighter is standing and watching the fire while he directs others. Ernie touches the man's arm and points at the stack of timber while saying, “That's about to get much worse. Best pull your people back a bit.”
The man looks at the boy, half smiles, and says, “I think we've got it under control now.”
Shaking his head no Ernie says, “That stack is about to explode.”
The man looks at him for a moment, then he turns his head to look at the stack, but he can't see anything wrong, yet something in his gut tells him to listen to the boy. He activates his radio and orders the fire-fighters near that stack to back up four or five metres. They all turn to stare at him because they're only just getting this part of the fire under control, but he's in charge so they do what they're told to do by him.
They're back four metres when the stack concerned blooms out in a huge fireball that expands to about three metres out from where it had been to more than cover the area where the fire-fighters had just left. They all turn to stare at their boss who'd just pulled them out of the danger zone, and he's looking down at the boy standing beside him.
The fire commander says, “I don't know how you knew that'd go, but thanks for the warning, lad.” He turns back to organising the fight against this fire before it can spread to the adjacent properties.
Ernie stands and watches the fire, after a few more minutes he can see they've got it beaten so he turns to head on his way home again. The fire commander sees him starting to leave and asks, “Aren't you going to wait to see if we beat it?”
Ernie gives a half smile as he says, “You've beaten it. It has no will or energy left. Now all you have to do is to dowse it and clean it up.”
The man looks at Ernie with wide eyes, turns to look at the fire, and back to Ernie. It seems to him the fire is just as big as before, but he accepts the kid is seeing something he isn't, because he had before. He watches while the boy walks off down the street.
Five minutes after the kid leaves the fire-fighters are advancing on all fronts while they put the fire out. No issues, no troubles, just hose down what's left and watch the ashes. Fifteen minutes later they're all busy packing up their gear.
Back at the fire station they sit down to talk about the fire and the way their commander got them to back out just before the explosion. They're all stunned to hear he ordered them back on the advice of the boy, and they all wonder how the boy knew it was going to happen.
After this incident Ernie goes to every fire he hears about and can reach. He loves watching the beauty of the fire and the dancing flames.
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Note: The post fire investigation found the cause of the wood stack explosion to be some drums of petrol stored on the other side of the stack. It took a while for them to heat up and expand enough for the fumes to burst the drums, then they went up in a huge ball of fire.
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Interlude
Soon after the fire in the sawmill Ernie's family moves their residence again. They live in, or around, the Sydney Metropolitan Area, but only on the outskirts of it and never deep inside the urban sprawl. His parents don't like living in an urban environment despite having to work in one. They frequently move work and living locations to see if they can shorten the trip to work. Thus they live in most of the outer suburbs that border on parkland and forest areas. Places like Lucas Heights, Engadine, Heathcote, Sutherland, Asquith, Glenbrook, and Richmond; any place where they can get to work in less than two hours by public transport or ninety minutes by car. Luckily the work they do is in high demand and they always have offers from companies, thus their place of work varies from the Sydney Central Business District (CBD) to Parramatta, North Sydney, Pymble, and Liverpool. However, none of the people they work for operate outside of the state capital cities and they aren't interested in leaving New South Wales. They always choose houses with bush or forest on one side and never three other houses. Sometimes the nearest neighbours are over half a kilometre away.
Thus Ernie grows up wandering around in what amounts to a giant yard because the scrub and forest is part of his daily playing area. His parents teach him to be careful, independent, caring of others, and able to look after himself. They get him enrolled in a first aid course while still below the age the organisers normally accept students, and a friend of theirs gives Ernie bush survival training as well. He's a city boy who's very much at home in the bush, and he loves being in the bush.
Ernie has encounters with the local wildlife, while most of them aren't a danger some could be: such as large kangaroos, poisonous snakes and spiders, feral dogs and cats. Ernie is taught how to deal with such animals and how to prepare for them. So when he's in a confrontation with the dangerous animals he's able to protect himself and those with him from the attacks. By the time he's ten years old Ernie is well trained in remaining calm and to think straight in an emergency of any sort. A side result of this is he doesn't get frightened or scared because he knows how to deal with trouble.
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Fire-storm
An Acorn
Sixteen year old Ernie Wells and his family move to the town of Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney on the advice of a good friend of his mother who's living there. They end up renting a nice house with bushland at the back fence in the street called Maple Grove, just down from their friend.
Early January, a month after they move in, the state is experiencing one of the hottest and driest summers for generations. To make matters worse they had one of the best springs in decades and everything just bloomed in its growth during the spring. However, now it's almost all dead and it's a major fire risk. A few bushfires have been fought in the area with a lot more all over the states of New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria.
There's a bushfire raging in the valley to the south so Ernie is out on Overcliff Track at the top of the cliffs to watch the fire below and to the west. Already the fire has gone up some of the valley walls to the west and moved into the bush on the ridge spurs south of the Fairmont Resort. The fire-fighters from all around the area are busy trying to hold the fire back. The local fire service groups are out at the resort and some are on the spurs across the valley from where Ernie is sitting. He's watching the fire while it moves up the valley and spreads to the side into the gullies. He's not too concerned about his position since there's not much for the fire to burn on the cliff wall below where he is, despite the high temperature of the air rising out of the valley.
About an hour after Ernie takes up his post, along with a large bag of cool drinks which he expects he'll need while there, a policewoman walks up to him. He's surprised she's patrolling the track.
She says, “You should move back into town. The fire could come up the mountain here or just to the north and trap you out here.”
He looks up at her from the folding seat he's on as he says, “I'm OK, here! The fire is going to go north-west. The wind and the heat from it is sending it that way. However, I'm concerned about them,” while he waves at the group of fire-fighters on the narrow ridges opposite them. “I don't know if they can see it, but the fire in the valley has spread to the west and it'll race up the next gully due to the hot air of the fire pulling it up. They'll be cut off if they don't get off that ridge soon. The ones on the next couple of ridges are at risk as well, but they have a bit more time.”
She looks at him, then she turns to look across the valley. Ernie gets out his tablet to check Google Maps before saying, “They should pull all their people back to the edge of the resort golf course and hold it there. There's nothing they can do to save the forest on those ridges now. The amount of brush is way too much for them to handle with safety.”
The policewoman watches the fire in the valley for a moment, then she pulls out a mobile phone. She calls a number and passes on what Ernie told her about the fire. A moment later they watch while the fire-fighters on the ridges all pack up their gear and move out. They soon lose sight of them in the bush. Within a few minutes of them leaving the area there's a giant plume of flame when the fire rushes up the narrow gully to burst onto the ridges on each side of the gully. The policewoman turns to look at the boy who'd told her that'd happen, but he told her a few minutes ago. She takes his name and contact details before moving on to make sure all of the people on the trail know of the risks of being out on the track today.
The local fire-fighters end up containing this fire at the fire-line they set up along the resort golf course and at the head of the valley. But it takes another day and a half of their hard work to put it out.
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During the next week there are many bushfires in the area, but all are to the south of the Great Western Highway and the series of ridges it runs along, or many kilometres well to the north. So far there's been no fires in the mountains just to the north of Wentworth Falls, but that's about to change today.
It's a nice Saturday morning while Ernie walks over to the northern side of Wentworth Falls to earn a little money by looking after a couple of younger kids of his father's friend who lives in Railway Parade while the kids' parents spend the morning out shopping. It's only a few hundred metres by taking the pedestrian short-cut across the railway line at the unapproved crossing. But by car it's several kilometres due to the long distances between the bridges over the railway line.
The nearest safe place to play is the open playground the developer of the new estate made. They're still putting in the streets and services but the play area and its little artificial pond are already finished. No one knows why he built the playground before the estate, but the locals like having it there and often go there to play. Being at 850 metres elevation it has an excellent view out over the forest and bush to the north and east because most of that is at or below 750 metres. The view of the hills and valleys is excellent and pleasant. However, today there is one bad thing in sight. Well off to the north-east is the smoke of a bushfire in a hard to get at valley. The fire service is doing what it can, mostly by water-bombing the area, but they're having some real problems with it.
Fire-fighters on the ground are trying to work their way into the seat of the fire while the water-bombing aircraft are doing the best they can. However, the smoke from the fire is very dense so they have a hard time seeing where to go and what to hit. The lack of good fire-trails and the thick bush make it hard for the ground crews to move in on the fire.
Ernie keeps an eye on the smoke of the fire, but the fire is well north and well east of his position. Today the light wind is from the west so the fire is making its slow way east at the moment.
It's nearing midday and everyone in the park is getting ready to go home for lunch when Ernie feels a change in the wind. He looks up toward the north-east to where the very strong wind is coming from.
Until now the smoke from the fire was all he could see over the hills between them, but now he can see a wall of fire moving down the side of a mountain and it's moving very fast this way. He watches for a moment to judge the speed, and he doesn't like the answer he gets. He looks about him for a place of refuge while he gets his mobile phone out.
He spots a likely place which is where the developer has a stack of a dozen large concrete pipes with one end of the pipes part buried in a pile of earth dug from a big trench nearby. The pipes are about a metre and a half in diameter and five metres long. They're stacked in a row of seven pipes with five more pipes on top of them in a second row. Some smaller pipes are in a stack beside them and some steel fence sheeting is in a pile close to them.
While hitting the speed dial for his mother's phone Ernie calls out for the seven other children there to come to him. His mother answers the phone just as the kids gather around and he says, “Mum, get in your car and get out of there. Go west. You need to get to the middle of a large park or Katoomba as quick as you can. The bushfire to the north has got away from the fire-fighters and it's now a fire-storm heading this way. You've not got time to come get me and I've not got time to run to you and still get out to safety. I'm at the new development and will make a refuge here.” His mother starts to argue, “Don't talk! Drive away as fast as you can!” He hangs up and he looks at the concerned looks of the children around him.
One of the other kids asks, “What's the problem?”
Ernie points to the huge cloud of smoke as he says, “The bushfire up there has got away from the fire-fighters. It's now a fire-storm heading this way at great speed. We haven't got time to get away so we have to build a hidey-hole here. Those pipes look like our best bet,” and he points at them. “We'll pull a sheet in front of one end and hide in them.”
One of the kids is a mid-teen boy who says, “Like hell! I'll sit in the middle of the pond and be safe. The water will keep us safe.”
While shaking his head no Ernie says, “That's a fire-storm, not a normal bushfire, it's far too hot to be safe while exposed to it.”
The boy wants to argue so Ernie ignores him to start getting the other kids organised to prepare a safe place to hide. He has some plastic bags he brought with snacks and drinks in them, so he goes to the water tanker truck the developer left parked on-site and turns on one of the taps. He sets two of the kids to filling the empty drink bottles and the plastic shopping bags with water while he turns on another tap that has a hose on it. He has two of the kids aim the hose at the pipes to spray water all over them and around them. He needs to have a third help them with that because the flow is very strong when a pump starts up. Leaving them to do that he takes the last kid with him over to where the steel sheets are: the sheets are one and a half metres by a metre of Colourbond steel fence panels. They quickly move three panels over to the pipes and stand them on their ends so they cover the end of the middle pipe on the ground level. Then they roll one of the smaller pipes over to lie against the sheets. Followed by rolling a second pipe against it and then placing a third on them like a pyramid. He hopes the pipes will hold the sheets in place. While spending the few minutes doing this he keeps looking over to the fire and not liking the way it's racing toward them because it's very fast as it covers the ground.
When all of the drink bottles and bags are full of water Ernie turns the tap off and he ties a knot in the handles of the bags to make them like big balloons of water. He has the kids take the bags and bottles and move into the pipe while he holds one side out for them to get in. They take the water containers in with them. He sets up some rocks to hold the hose to continue spraying water over the pipes and he has those kids climb into the pipe. He follows them then he has a problem getting in due to having to hold the steel out, but not too far out. However, they're all soon in the pipe with the sheet in place and he has them move down until they reach the other end to get as far away from the steel sheets as they can. Ernie places the bags of water beside him on the open end side and he puts the water bottles on the side the other kids are on. Now they sit and wait.
The boy who argued with Ernie moves out into the pond where he sits down in it, then he lies down with just his face out of the water. He thinks on how stupid the others are to hide in the pipe because he's sure it won't be as safe as being in the water of the pond is.
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Wentworth Falls
Ernie's mother doesn't like having to leave without him. However, she accepts his word on the situation. She's talking to several of her neighbours when he calls, so she immediately passes the word on. They all dart into their homes to grab their families and all are soon driving out of the area as fast as they can. Many are also ringing others to warn them. One calls her husband to tell him as he works at a radio station and is on the air at the moment, so he broadcasts the need for all those in the Wentworth Falls area to evacuate ahead of the bushfire. He also passes the alert on to the other radio stations and the television stations.
Within minutes of leaving home Ernie's mother is speeding west along the Great Western Highway as the lead vehicle in a seven vehicle convoy. A blue flashing light starts up just down the road so she slows down and pulls over behind the police car while waving the other cars by. The policewoman at the car asks for her driver's licence while glaring at her for waving the other speeders through. Ernie's mother says, “My son said the bushfire has turned and is a fire-storm heading this way. We've been told we need to be well west to be safe. You need to alert all you can.” She extracts and hands over her licence while talking.
The policewoman looks at it and asks, “You got a son, Ernie, about so high,” she holds her hand out at a height about equal to Ernie's as she goes on with a good description of him.
“Yes! He's over near the new development and he can see the fire. He told me to get out of here because there isn't enough time to go get him before it hits. He's hoping to make a refuge there.”
The policewoman slowly nods while she remembers her first meeting with the boy a few weeks back. She turns on her radio and passes along the alert while handing the licence back and waving her on. After alerting her command she gets back into her police car to drive around the local streets making an announcement about evacuating now on her public address system. After five minutes she can see flame and smoke close to the north of her so she hits her lights and heads west at high speed. Just one of many cars going west from this area at high speed.
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Fierce Fight
The fire-fighters in the Wentworth Falls area first hear of the fire being a concern for them from a fire-fighter married to a policewoman. On hearing what she has to say they accept they need to set up a strong fire-line with the aim, at this time, to contain the fire. Studying the maps they can see they won't be able to stop it going south, but know it'll find no fuel in the valley to the south as previous fires have cleaned it out. The first line is along Blaxland Road, Station Street, the highway, and down Falls Road. While they set up all of the fire-fighters from the towns west of them start to set up along the edge of the next town to the west, Leura, in case they can't hold the fire in Wentworth Falls.
The fire races up the mountains, across the railway line, and it doesn't even slow down for the residential part of Wentworth Falls the Wells family lives in. The fire is over a kilometre wide and it's moving very fast. There are also slow moving tendrils going east and west from the wind borne fire-front. The fire passes west of the next town to the east, Bullaburra, and the fire-fighters there are able to set up a line to keep it out of the town. They're soon joined by others and extend their line south along the edge of the fire. They even manage to push it west.
The fire-storm crosses the railway line and highway then turns west at Frawley Street due to a shift in the wind direction. The fire is like a living thing that seems to sense there's no fuel for it below the cliff when it reaches it. The fire-fighters in Falls Road are unable to halt the fire when it arrives there, despite it slowing down to consume the houses. The fire-fighters have to back off to the highway and let the fire go west.
Since the official alert was sounded the fire-fighters from down in the valley have been pouring north via fire-trails and roads. They meet the fire at Hordern Road. At first the southern edge is a hard fight, but they hold it then they start to push it north and to the west shortly after the fire-front turns west. About then help from the east arrives.
The eastward movement is soon halted at the jagged line from Kent Street, Bullaburra, and along the Great Western Highway. They push it west and extend the eastern fire-line to Pinaroo Road then to and down Tableland Road to link up with those at Hordern Road to push it west.
The only good news in Wentworth Falls is the side of the fire is stopped along the edges of the housing north of the highway at Taylor Avenue and along the highway itself opposite Taylor Avenue and west.
Fire-fighters and volunteers from the communities to the west set up along Scott Avenue, the Great Western Highway, and the edges of the town of Leura to hold the fire there. For the most part they hold the line well. For three fierce hours they fight the fire along the line, only having to pull back a single row of houses in Leura. It gets past them on the northern end of Scott Avenue and into Margery Anderson Reserve, jumps the railway line and into Digger Cooper Reserve. However, they fall back to the highway and back along Scott Avenue, then they manage to hold it with only the loss of three more houses north of Scott Avenue.
The fire-bombing aircraft and helicopters are in constant use over the whole area of the fire, with special attention to the fire-fronts. By late afternoon the eastern edge of the fire is out. On the east side of the fire the fire-fighters, along with search and rescue teams, move into the area to make sure the fire is out and to see if there's anyone they can help.
For over six hours the fire-fighters battle the blaze before it's little more than ashes, and so is most of the town of Wentworth Falls. Many of the fire-fighters and police officers are injured during the fight and a few die in the fire. Several other people are known to be dead because their bodies have been found, while over a hundred people are missing and unaccounted for. It's hoped many of these are just out of touch, but some are known to have last been seen in the area of the fire.
The few people who know the source of the original alert wonder how high the death toll would've gone if they'd waited until the official alert to evacuate was given. They know over half of the residents had evacuated due to the unofficial alerts on the radio. While the very few who know him wonder about the status of the originator of that alert.
While dusk moves into the area the western fire-fighters, supported by search and rescue teams, move in to make sure all of the little fires and embers are well and truly doused so they won't start up again.
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Singed Survivors
There are very few houses in the eastern side of the fire zone and all of them are destroyed. Fire-fighters find a few bodies in the houses and cars caught by the fire. Most of the area they're checking is burnt-out bush and forest with a lot of smouldering ashes they douse. Nearing the eastern side of Wentworth Falls they find a lot of burnt-out houses and quite a few more burnt-out cars with many empty, but not all of them.
One group of fire-fighters and rescue workers is working its way along Railway Parade between Bullaburra and Wentworth Falls when they reach the development site at the end of what will be Mary Street. They drive around the whole development to check it out fully before stopping near the burnt-out water tanker to douse the smoking ruins of its tyres. While getting down the unit leader, John 'Cap' Carr, points to what's left of the pond and the burnt body partly in what's left of the water while saying, “Best get someone to do something about that.” One of the team goes off to get the gear needed to deal with the body.
Cap is turning away when another crew member calls out, “Cap, you best come to look at this!” Cap goes over to see what he's talking about.
The person who called him is standing on the other side of a bunch of large concrete pipes where the top row are all burnt and cracked by the fire. Cap walks around the end of the row to see a number of burnt and bent fence panels blocking access to one of the pipes and he thinks, Why the hell did someone do that?
He walks up to it and is about to speak when he hears a weak call of, “In here! We need help! The metal's too hot!”
Shocked, he looks up and waves at the crew about to put out the burning tyres and shouts to them, “Leave that! Get over here! We've survivors to help first!” The crew members break out in smiles as they rush over as best as they can while dragging the hoses behind the moving tanker.
In a few minutes they have the metal cooled down and men with heat resistant gloves are pulling the sheets away from the pipe ends.
The last of the metal is being dragged aside when Cap squats down to look inside the pipe. He sees seven children with the oldest being a mid-teen boy. The boy says, “I'll need some help getting them out. All of us are suffering from dehydration, heat exhaustion, and mild burns from the radiated heat.”
“Right! The pipe is still hot so don't move yet.” Cap turns to look at his crew. One is already bringing an insulated blanket over to lay in the pipe while another is directing the rescue vehicle and paramedic to the site. He activates his radio and he gives his location, along with, “We need two ambulances here right now. We've got seven survivors.”
A few minutes wait for some insulated blankets to be put down then smiling fire-fighters are sitting on them to make a human carpet in the pipe while they pass the younger children along the line to others waiting to carry them to the paramedic who's treating their burns and giving them cool drinks to rehydrate and energise them by replacing the important salts lost due to the heat. The last out is the mid-teen boy.
The paramedic is examining the boy and he's also treating him with an analgesic gel to rehydrate the skin when Cap walks up and asks, “Are you up to telling us who you are and what happened?”
The boy nods yes, “I'm Ernie Wells. The others are Mary and Ann Ball, Jack and Diane Harris, Jenny Mason, and Nancy Miller. We were in the playground when I noticed the wind shifted. I looked up and saw the bushfire to the north-east had turned and was racing this way. I saw we had several minutes before it got here, but not enough time to run anywhere and still get away. I gave my mother a call to tell her to get out then I started to build us a cellar out of what's here. I turned the hose on the water tanker on and set it to spray water onto the pipes, filled everything we could with water, blocked the end as best as possible, and we crawled into the pipe, then we sat it out. Soon after the fire arrived it got very hot so we moved closer to the earth at the other end since it was cooler than the metal. When it got too hot I dipped my hanky in the water in the bags and we moistened all exposed skin and wet down our clothes. I kept that up until we ran out of water. At one point it was like a steam bath in there. We got tired and fell asleep. I thought I heard a car then voices and a shout. So I called out, and here you are. Thanks!”
Cap talks to a few of the others and gets much the same story, but in a lot less detail. He does call control with the names, along with the phone numbers of the kids' parents because each of the children knows a contact number. The parents are very relieved when control rings the parents to let them know their child or children are safe and sound. Half an hour after being helped from the pipe the children are in ambulances on their way to Springwood Hospital for a full check up by the doctors there. While the Katoomba Hospital is closer the active fire is in the way.
About the same time as the children arrive at the hospital the media are calling them 'The Singed Seven' and talking about the miracle of their survival. It turns out they're the only ones to survive having the fire pass over them. Many people caught in its path tried the usual safety tricks to survive a bushfire, but the fire-storm was so much hotter the protective measures weren't enough to save them this time.
In the weeks following the fire many of the people who know of Ernie's involvement call on the family, who are resting in the temporary housing the government arranged, and thank him for the warning and saving the other children. Both Ernie's parents and their friends who trained him in survival tactics tell him how proud they are of him for doing what he did, and for making the most of what he had to use. Oddly, he finds a lot of the thanks more of a curse than anything else, but he is very happy about the help he gave the other kids to survive the fire.
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The experience with the fire-storm makes Ernie much more aware of the dangers a fire presents, but he also appreciates the beauty and the patterns of it a lot more when he realises the complexity increases with the heat and size of the fire, so he still goes to watch a fire whenever he can. He recognises the dangers this preoccupation has, but he takes full safety measures when he goes near a fire. Unlike many other people who've had this love of fires Ernie has no desire to start one, just a very strong desire to watch the fires and their internal beauty of the dancing flames.
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Life Moves On
Like the time and tide, life moves on for the Wells family. After the fire the family lodges insurance claims and applies for the government assistance being offered to its victims. Ernie's parents find a house to rent and live in then they spend time buying replacement furniture and clothing. They were left with only what they stood up in on the day of the big fire.
They soon settle into the same pattern of life they had before the fire, but operating from a different home. Life is just the same as after any housing shift. Another new school and students for Ernie to get used to, and a new area to learn about and play in.
Where they move to has a lot of older houses and many of them are built out of wood with the early type of electrical wiring fitted. These have thick copper wires with a cloth coating. Over the decades since the wiring was fitted, in most cases fitted years after the house was built, the cloth coating deteriorates and this results in shorts which start fires. When the houses burn it's common to see Ernie amongst the spectators on the scene to watch the fires and the fire-fighters working on it.
After a few more years of school Ernie sits his final high school exams in October: the Higher School Certificate. To celebrate the end of his exams and high school he goes on a ten day camping trip in central Australia. He finds the bush very different there while some parts are the same as what he's used to. His parents are amused with his accounts of what he saw on the holiday. All in the Wells family are happy with their life while they look into what Ernie will do for his tertiary studies.
Ernie enrols in a paramedic's course because he sees it as a logical extension of his first aid training and he thinks it'll be useful in anything he does in the future. He's considering becoming a fire-fighter but he can't find any courses relevant to the job, other than the paramedic training. The nearest course is at the University of Western Sydney, Campbelltown Campus. The Wells family are now living in Asquith to the north of Sydney while Ernie's parents are working in North Sydney. That's a very long daily drive out to Campbelltown so they search for housing out that way for Ernie to live in. While on campus finalising his enrolment Ernie meets another paramedic student, Dilip Mistri, who owns a house in Mount Druitt bought for him by his parents. It's only a few minutes from an entrance to the M7 Motorway which feeds on to the M31 Motorway. Due to this connection along the high-speed roads the drive between the house and the campus isn't long. Dilip is looking for house-mates and Ernie is looking for housing, with them both doing the same course it makes a lot of sense for them to live and travel together. They soon reach an agreement and arrangements are made for Ernie to move in on the weekend so he can be well settled into the house and area before classes start in a few months' time.
For a few days everyone is very happy. Ernie's parents help him to move in on the Saturday. On the Sunday they bring his aunt and uncle along to see the house and visit him. Late in the day his parents head home as they're taking his aunt and uncle to their home in Galston first. In the late evening Ernie is visited by the local police to inform him he no longer has a family. While they were driving along Galston Road a truck going the other way crossed the road to hit them head on and all of the people in both vehicles died on the scene. Dilip and Ernie start their relationship with Dilip having to help Ernie through his loss.
Other family friends rally around to help Ernie through this trying time, especially with the various legal and financial issues.
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Note: At the inquest the Coroner gives a ruling of Accidental Death because of the medical evidence of the driver of the other vehicle having a stroke just before the impact.
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A New Life
Ernie starts his new life at university as an orphan. He does well in his studies and he finishes in third place. While at university he continues to go out of his way to visit any fires he hears about, and Dilip goes with him. When they graduate both the young men become fire-fighters and they end up working in the same station in western Sydney.
In their first few months as fire-fighters Ernie's ability to read the patterns of a fire and to alert the others to trouble before it happens is soon recognised. This results in him being promoted faster than is usual, and it's a key factor in him being accepted as the youngest member of the elite unit of fire-fighters known as the 'Fire Devils.' This is the group called in to help with the most serious of fires as well as the search and rescue activities in a fire. There are four units of the Fire Devils in the service and all are in the Sydney metropolitan area: Central handles the city centre and close to it, North does the suburbs to the north, South does the southern suburbs, and West does all of western Sydney. They're known by their area but the phonetic alphabet is used on the radio, so they're: Devils Central - Delta Charlie, Devils North - Delta November, Devils South - Delta Sierra, and Devils West - Delta Whisky. Crew members have radio call signs assigned by their duties and positions in the units, most have numbers. Within two years of his joining the fire service Ernie is the Senior Fire-fighter leading the search and rescue sub-unit of the Devils West and he's known as Delta Whisky 3.
Although he's very young for such a position it's the best way they can utilise his odd ability to read fires and help people. However, one problem Ernie has is to learn how to read the fire while not getting entranced by it. To handle this he establishes a mental barrier between his private self and his professional self, so when on the job he thinks of himself as Delta Whisky 3 and not Ernie Wells. After the work is done he can take time to be Ernie Wells so he can appreciate the beauty he saw in the fire, but not while working on the fire.
Being a fire-fighter allows Ernie to help others while catering to his passion and desire to watch the flames of fires. He likes his job and does it very well. Dilip moves up fast too, due to his association with Ernie.
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Flames of Fear
by
The Beginning
A group of people gather in the break-room to prepare for their mid-morning break. Snacks come out of bags and the fridge, hot cups of tea, coffee, chocolate, and various cold drinks are made or taken out of the fridge. People sit down at the tables and they talk in low voices so as to not disturb the others too much. The sound of the radio murmurs away in the background. They eat and drink for several minutes.
All talking stops when a voice on the radio calls for a response by fire-fighters from Penrith to deal with a fire at the Harris Industrial Park and the call is acknowledged. The people in the room glance around, but continue with their break as this call doesn't affect them due to being for another station.
A few minutes later another radio, the local frequency: Tactical 5 - called Tac 5, comes alive with the sounds of the senior officer at the fire issuing orders to his people on where to deploy to fight the fire. All in the room can picture the scene when he orders half of his force to deploy on the street near the southern entrance and the other half to enter via the northern entrance to set up inside the industrial park to fight it.
In the break-room they finish their snack, tidy up, and are walking out of the room when a voice on Tac 5 says, “Shit! Take cover!”
The leader of those in having a break says, “Mount up,” and leaves the room. In the garage he walks to a wall with a button that opens the front doors and he presses it before going to the lead vehicle to get in it. The rest mount up in their vehicles. Then they sit, and wait.
They hear the senior officer at the fire call for team leaders to check their teams. This is followed by the teams counting off. All goes well until they get to Echo 9 and they don't respond. The leader calls for Echo 9, again no reply, and no reply from their partner - Echo 10.
The team leader reaches over to flick on the flashing red light while saying, “Let's go,” to his driver. In seconds all six vehicles have their lights on and the front three are moving out through the doors. The light traffic in the street stops when they see the flashing red lights on the front truck. The six vehicles make their way out onto the street. Without sirens they move out in close order and turn westward. They're about fifteen kilometres from the fire with most of their path to it through the urban traffic of a working weekday. They've got no orders to attend the fire, but the unit leader is playing an experienced hunch.
The small convoy is about two kilometres into the trip when they hear the senior officer at the fire contact control to request additional support plus the special search and rescue unit for his missing people.
Control orders two more Penrith units to the fire and adds, “Delta Whisky, Control. Attend fire at Harris Industrial Park, Penrith.”
“Control, Delta Whisky One. Attend fire at Harris Industrial Park, acknowledged,” is the unit leader's reply on the radio while he leans over to turn on the siren; then the vehicles behind him do the same. The cars in front of them move aside and the driver speeds up, with the rest of his unit's vehicles speeding up when they can. Some minutes later he switches to Tac 5 to say, “Penrith Command, Delta Whisky One. We're about three minutes out. What's the situation?”
“Delta Whisky One, Penrith Command. Damn that's fast. The whole southern wall of workshops is on fire with many of the interior ones as well. A gas bottle explosion caused a fireball that demolished one of the units and set most of the rest of the units on the south side alight. The fire started in the unit on the western side of the southern entrance and we've two people down in that area. We need search and rescue in there and help on that section of the southern side as well as the western side near the corner.”
“Penrith Command, Delta Whisky One. We'll split between the southern entrance and the western side.”
Police stopping traffic a few blocks from the fire wave the convoy of fire-trucks through. At the next intersection the first four vehicles head south while the others continue to the west. All of them are soon stopped and the fire-fighters are disembarking to get their gear out for use. Delta Whisky 1 starts directing the bulk of his force to deploy hoses in support of the fire-fighting effort on the south side while Delta Whisky 3 asks the officer-in-command at the fire for details of where his people went down.
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The Situation
Paul Mickelson, the officer-in-command on site, says, “We had two people in the entrance road with a fifty mil line trying to get at the seat of the fire from the side windows when the propane gas tank next door went up. When they didn't respond to the check two of my people followed the line in, but they weren't at the end of it, nor within about three metres of it. They couldn't check any further due to the heat. Since then the intensity of the fire has forced us back on all sides so we're back a heck of a lot more than when it went up.”
Delta Whisky 3 replies, “Right! I've got it.” He turns to his team who are awaiting orders. He gives orders to the senior member of each pair, “Jackson, Small, get a fifty mil line each and play them along the driveway. See how far you can cover into it. Wills get on the heavy duty gear, we're going to have to go in to look for them.” The last three fire-fighters suit up in their extra heavy duty fire / heat resistant gear.
In a moment two hoses are spraying water as far down the driveway as they can to clear the fire back a little. However, it's turning to steam very quickly. The rest of the Delta Whisky Units are deployed along the two most intense parts of the fire to provide additional support. Everyone in the unit works in pairs, except Delta Whisky 1 and Delta Whisky 3. Delta Whisky 1 moves about commanding the whole unit while Delta Whisky 3 commands the Search and Rescue teams; he always works with one of the pairs in the two teams as he doesn't work alone.
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Searching Shepherd
Delta Whisky 3 leads Wills and Simms along the driveway into the industrial park. Soon after passing the edge of the front building they encounter rubble on the ground so they have to also watch their step. A little further in the area of flames kept back by the hoses ends and they enter the fire itself. The fire blooming out from the burning buildings makes it hard to see, but the real hazard to them here is the rubble on the ground.
Delta Whisky 3 seems to sense where the rubble is bad and he makes his way around it, despite not being able to see it well. At one point he stops and waves the rest back a step just before a surge of flame comes out of the building on his right to flash through where he was about to walk. Once more Delta Whisky 3 has shown his odd affinity for a fire and predicted bad behaviour by it. It's this uncanny skill to know what a fire is about to do that earned him the nickname of the 'Wizard of Fire' and his posting as the youngest member of the 'Fire Devils' the Service has seen. And now he's the youngest team leader in the Service.
The search team reaches the end of the driveway without finding anything except rubble. Delta Whisky 3 looks about, he looks up to his right and he starts moving that way. What he saw is beyond the other two because they can only see more flames. They move three metres to the right then Delta Whisky 3 kneels down beside a fire-fighter on the ground. Wills and Simms join him. The man is unconscious and he has a broken arm, but his suit is intact and he doesn't seem to be burnt. They load him onto the backboard they brought in and are about to lift him when Delta Whisky 3 suddenly looks up to the south. On the radio he says, “Delta Whisky Three, take cover, fireball south-west corner.”
All in the Western Division have learned to accept odd commands from Delta Whisky 3 so they hit the ground just seconds before a tank of propane explodes in a huge fireball near the south-west corner. The people in that area are on the ground when the fireball rages over them instead of being knocked down by the pressure wave and burnt by the flames carried on it. As soon as the fire pulls back they get up and get back to fighting the fire. Many of them just shake their heads in wonder at how the Wizard of Fire knows about such events seconds in advance.
Delta Whisky 3 says, “Right! Wills, get this one out. I'm sure the other is just a few metres either east or north of here, so come back here after you hand this one off to the paramedics.” They're not happy about leaving him there alone, nor is he, but the need to get the injured out is the most important thing at the moment. They lift the board with one on each end and they make their way out of there. They spend more time watching where they're putting their feet than anything else until they get into the clear and can jog to the waiting paramedics on their team.
As soon as the others leave him Delta Whisky 3 turns to look about him. A bit to the north is a ten tonne flat-bed truck with a load part on it and part on the ground to the east of it, obviously knocked off in an earlier explosion. Something draws his attention to the ground a little east of there. Later, when asked about it he can't say what it was he saw due to his entire vision being filled with flames and smoke from the fire.
He moves in that direction and he finds the other missing fire-fighter. The person is alive but unconscious. He activates his radio, “Penrith Command, Delta Whiskey 3, found the last missing person just a few metres east of the previous position. Alive but unconscious. Awaiting stretcher team.” The message is acknowledged, and all are happy to learn the good news.
While kneeling beside the fire-fighter he looks about. Half of the load of the truck beside them is on the ground between them and the truck; it's a load of odd pallets about one and a half metres wide and two and half metres long with very thick plywood as the top of it. He wonders what goods they're used for shipping as they look like they'll take a lot of weight. He also looks around at the fire. Suddenly his head spins about and he looks toward the south-west corner. He gulps, activates his radio, and yells, “Run! Take cover! Now!” He leans as he reaches over to grab one of the pallets and drags it over himself while he lies on top of the injured fire-fighter on the ground.
Seconds later there's an explosion then the sound of things hitting all around them. Things hit the pallet above Delta Whisky 3. Part of the impact force is absorbed in damaging the wood of the pallet, but one bit punches through the pallet to hit his helmet and it knocks him out.
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The urgent instruction of, “Run! Take cover! Now!” comes over the radio. Only the fire-fighters are on this frequency so they all know it's one of the other fire-fighters. Those who know his voice recognise Delta Whisky 3 and know about his uncanny ability so they know they need to obey him right now. All who hear the urgency and command in his transmission drop what they're doing and turn to run away from the fire. Those who see the fire-fighters running away turn to run as well. A few, like Dilip Mistri, can't run because they're treating injured people. So they grab what they can to protect the people in their charge and themselves while staying where they are.
A second passes and then there's a huge explosion followed by a bloom of flame and smaller explosions. When the flame shrinks back bits of building rain down. Large clumps close to the industrial park and small bits further away. Many people suffer minor injuries from small bits, some suffer worse injuries from the medium sized bits, and a few are seriously injured by the large bits. Many of the vehicles are damaged by the hard rain. One of the pumper units close to the corner where the explosion occurred has a section of steel pipe through its roof and into the road under it with the whole cabin area destroyed. Most of the body is damaged and it's also singed by the flame, but the pump still works and the hoses connected to it are undamaged. The rain of material goes on for a few seconds. People wait a moment then they move back to what they were doing before the warning. Hoses are picked up and played on the fire, injured fire-fighters go for treatment, and some go back on the line after being treated by the paramedics.
The radio comes alive, “Delta Whisky Three, Delta Whisky One, status.” All wait for the reply, but nothing. The call is repeated twice before it changes to, “Penrith Command, Delta Whisky has a man down in the fire. We're initiating a search.”
Wills looks over at the entrance drive, it's now covered in burning rubble so he turns to Delta Whisky 1, “Sorry, Boss, but it's too hot in there for us to go back. We need to beat it back and down some more first.”
The rescue effort switches to the job of cooling down that part of the fire so they can go in and make a search. None are happy about this.
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A Will to Survive
Some minutes after being knocked out Delta Whisky 3 wakes up in screaming agony. It takes a few seconds for his mind to overrule his body to stop the screaming, mainly because the sound hurts his ears. His left thigh hurts with a pain greater than any he's ever known before.
Delta Whisky 3 looks about himself as much as he can to assess the situation before using his arms to push what's left of the pallet off him. It's in several pieces and the largest isn't quite a metre square. His whole back aches, but it doesn't feel like any broken bones, just bruises. He moves off the person he's protecting and he turns to look at his left leg. On seeing the leg his thought is, That's not good! His protective gear is pierced in a few places and there are bits of metal and wood sticking out of his left thigh. Also, beside him is a section of the pallet flattened and smashed by a clump of bricks, and the way it sits there makes him think it bounced off his leg, mainly because his leg feels like it did.
He checks himself out: no broken bones he can easily identify, but a few may be cracked. He can wiggle his toes in his left leg, but it hurts and any movement of his left leg is agony. He checks his patient and finds his patient unchanged as they're still unconscious but breathing.
Only then does he become aware there's no sound coming from his radio. A hand check of where the unit sits on his belt tells him why as the radio is a nice compact rectangular package while all the bumps and bits sticking out are not part of its usual make up, so it's broken. Thus no outside help, just him to get them both out of here.
Technically Delta Whisky 3 could use the radio of the other fire-fighter to call for help. However, he knows it's far too dangerous to try and do that. In order to get at and use the other fire-fighter's radio he needs to take the helmets and coats off both of them due to where the radios are located within their coats. The heat and flames of the fire means he can't do that to get at the radio.
No point in rushing things, but he can't wait all day because their breathing gear won't last all day. After a few minutes thought to plan his actions he puts his plan to work.
Lying on his right side Delta Whisky 3 uses his right leg and both arms to squirm around until his head is aimed toward the driveway and he has the injured fire-fighter aimed in the same direction. In the process he learns his patient is a woman. He carefully moves her up to lie on his left side with her legs on each side of his, now to get out.
Using his left hand and arm to hold his patient in place in the way he was taught to use in surf lifesaving he starts a side-swim motion on dry land. His right arm reaches out to grab something and pull them forward while his right leg pushes on the ground or anything else to send them ahead. His first movement gains them only two hundred millimetres, the next is about the same. Not much, but it is movement. His actions are like the old saying: slow and steady wins the race, and this will be a long one for both of them. Like a drip of water on a rock each little movement wears away at the distance they have to go.
Delta Whisky 3 has no idea of the passing time because his entire being is compressed into the repeated actions of reach and grab, pull and kick, then do it again. At a real snail's pace he makes his way across the ground. At times he pulls them over the rubble, sometimes around the rubble, other times he can push some of it out of their way. He slowly worms his way to where he entered the industrial park's inner area to go down the access drive so he can take his patient out of here to better medical help out in the street.
The movement is very wearing on his boots, gloves, and the side of his protective clothing. It's a good thing they're all designed for hard and heavy usage because he's putting them all to a more severe test than the designers ever imagined would be needed.
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Observers
When the fire was first reported the various media organisations sent their reporters and camera crews to the site. Some were closer than others so they got there before the police started blocking access. A few did arrive later but they got by the police lines and into the area of the action by going around the police blockades.
One late arriving television crew is a group of new hires under field training by a very experienced cameraman. He knows this area and he gets them through the police lines by going through the properties of the businesses in the block beside the industrial park. After climbing the fence from one business into the yard of another they walk up beside the building to come out opposite the southern entrance into the park. In the business' car park in front of them is a tow truck for towing semi-trailer tractors so they move up to just behind it. The road on the other side of this truck is full of fire-trucks, fire-fighters, and hoses.
Tom Paine turns to his crew and says, “Right! We're well inside the lines to keep people back and out of the way. If we go any further we'll be hauled away. In fact, if we're spotted this close we'll be hauled away. So stay hidden behind this truck and we'll be out of their way so they probably won't see or bother us. Set up the camera to get a good view over the back of the truck and secure it to the truck so any more gas tanks going off won't knock it over.” The two trainee camera operators get busy with that and the young woman with the sound gear sets it up to start recording their environment plus anything the reporter says.
Turning to the reporter Tom says, “Keep your voice calm and start reporting just what you see. No guessing about what's happening, just a straight forward verbal account of the scene and actions.” She nods yes and starts talking into her microphone by giving the lead-in like she was trained to do it: her name, the network, time, place, and the event.
Less than a minute after they get set up Delta Whisky arrives and gets busy. The preparations and actions to recover the downed people is recorded and sent back via their radio link. The injured fire-fighter is brought out. The race from the scene is recorded. Tom realises there's a major problem and he orders his team to take shelter under the truck.
The truck shakes when the pressure wave of the explosion washes over them. Tom makes them stay there. They hear the truck being hit as they see things hit the ground around the truck. Only when he can see the fire-fighters moving back does he let them get out and stand up.
By some minor miracle their equipment is undamaged. They start reporting on the changes brought about by the explosion and the work by those fighting the fire. The five of them are constantly looking about them and pointing to things of interest. Tom moves the camera's aim to capture the most interesting aspects of the fire while it's reported.
About twenty-five minutes after the big explosion one of the trainee camera operators touches Tom's arm and says, “What's that there?”
Tom turns to her, “What, where?”
“Down on the ground in the entrance. Now and then the fire swirls, then I can see something moving on the ground there.”
Tom moves behind the camera and he focuses it onto the rough area she describes, he sees nothing, but he waits a moment. The fire swirls in the breeze it creates by itself and he can see something darker moving where there should be no movement at all. He can't believe his eyes, but it sure does look like a gloved hand. “Good catch, Mary!”
Tom doesn't even think about what may happen to him as he walks around the truck and up to the senior fire-fighter. Touching him on the arm he waits until the man turns to look at him, when he glares and goes to speak Tom says, “I saw movement in the driveway. It looked like a hand at ground level. About a third of the way in from the right and it's only visible now and then when the fire swirls back a bit.”
Paul Mickelson is angry about having civilians inside his fire-line, but he's experienced enough not to write off what he's told, “Show me!”
Tom leads him back to the camera and has him watch the screen while he focuses in closer. In a moment the fire moves and they can both see a gloved hand reaching forward at ground level.
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Action
Paul glances at the film crew, he should have the police drag them off but he won't, not now. Striding away he activates his radio to order three hoses to aim down the driveway and for the Search and Rescue team to bring a stretcher. They all rush to do as told while wondering about why he's telling them to do it.
Within seconds the hoses are aiming down the driveway and he's directing their aim to where he saw the movement. After a moment for the water to do its job they've a good view of the upper body of a fire-fighter on his side while crawling along the drive. Many rush forward, and in a moment both the missing people are carried to the paramedics.
Dilip helps his friend take his protective head gear and breather off while his partner is doing the same for the other fire-fighter. Delta Whisky 3 turns to Paul, grabs his arm, waits until Paul is looking at him, and says, “The core of the fire is almost in the south-west corner of the complex, but in the inner buildings. Get half a dozen long fifty mil lines down the drive to hit it hard. Do it now and you can kill this.” Paul nods yes and he moves off while organising to do just that as he's been at other fires with the Wizard of Fire so he knows to act on his comments.
Two minutes later a large group of fire-fighters are working their way down the driveway while dragging several fire hoses with them. The paramedics are busy removing the rest of the protective gear from the two injured patients while making their initial assessments.
Five minutes after being dragged out of the edge of the fire the two injured are in an ambulance on their way to hospital while the core of the fire is being beaten down and the fire-fighters are starting to win the battle here today instead of containing it the way they have been.
On the way to the fire he went into his combat mode to became the entity called Delta Whisky 3, now leaving the fire behind he exits that mode of thinking and action to return to being Ernie Wells. This way of changing modes and thinking is a survival process for him. Now he can take the time to appreciate the patterns and beauty of the fire he saw.
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Hospital
On arrival at the hospital the doctors check the two injured and send them for a full body x-ray and MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) each. They soon learn the young woman, Marla Shaw, has a hairline skull fracture with a couple of cracked ribs. Her only other injury is a severe concussion. They tape her ribs up and put her to bed under constant supervision. The young man, Ernie Wells, also has a few cracked ribs, a headache from a mild concussion, a fracture in his left shin, a fracture in his left thigh, many foreign objects in his left thigh, severe soft tissue damage to part of his left thigh, and many bruises.
The damage is bad enough the doctors at Penrith Hospital decide to air lift Ernie to Westmead Hospital so more experienced specialists can work on him. Their major concern is the damage to the back muscles on his left thigh. They tape his ribs, put a splint on the left shin, and ship him out for surgery at Westmead Hospital.
At Westmead Hospital Ernie is sedated and taken to the operating theatre to remove all of the foreign objects in his leg, some are metal and some are masonry. The worst is a short piece of jagged pipe all the way through the thigh which cuts a twenty-seven millimetre hole through his leg. The team of doctors includes a neurosurgeon who examines the soft tissue damage caused by a heavy impact. His concern is the nerves in the impact area. He doesn't need to do surgery to see what he wants to look at because the other damage has the area of concern open to his view. Standing on the other side of the operating table he can see what he wants to see while the foreign material is being removed. He's very unhappy with what he sees.
Four hours after his arrival Ernie is waking up in a recovery ward. The nurse checks his vital signs, gives him some ice chips, and calls the doctors to tell them he's awake. Seven doctors are soon in attendance and the number of them surprises Ernie. After introducing themselves the doctors check his wounds and his mental processes. Two of the doctors are soon happy with how he's doing, so they leave. Four of the others turn him over to check his left leg a lot more.
They've a rolling table with some equipment they attach to parts of his leg and hip before they start a process of pushing and prodding him while asking how it feels. After several minutes of this they ask him to move his leg in different ways, which he does. Well, he thinks he does, as some of the commands to his muscles aren't acted upon. Over the thirty minutes they're checking him out the team of neurologists map the extent of the damage to the neuromuscular system of his left thigh.
Being face down Ernie can't see what they're doing, and sometimes he can't feel anything when they ask him, “What does that feel like?” So when they stop and withdraw across the room to have a quiet talk for a few minutes he wonders what's going on as he's now a bit nervous.
They roll Ernie onto his back and the lead neurologist starts to tell him what's wrong with his leg. Although he's had a lot of paramedic training Ernie is soon lost, so he says, “OK! Cut to the chase. In very simple terms, what does it mean to me in a practical way?”
The lead neurologist starts in again with the medical terms but the seventh doctor, who'd not said much before now, interrupts with, “Joe, I can handle this now! Why don't you write up his chart while I tell him in layman's terms.” The neurologist sighs, nods yes, picks up Ernie's file, and writes on it. “I'm Doctor Alice Walters, your assigned physician. I'll be looking after you from now on. The specialists will be providing me with advice on your rehabilitation but I'm the one you'll be seeing each day. Got that!” Ernie nods yes. “You have some cracked ribs plus a fracture in the left shin and left thigh. You also have many puncture wounds in the back of the thigh with some impact damage to it and the nerves in the thigh. Due to the wounds we can't put a normal cast on your thigh, just an inflatable one with splints taped to the thigh.”
Ernie sighs and says, “Doc, I'm a trained paramedic and I understand all of that. What I didn't understand was the longer words he was using,” while pointing at the lead neurologists, “as my medical training didn't include them.”
“OK! In short simple terms, whatever fell on you smashed the hell out of your left thigh. There's impact damage to the muscles and nerves as well as puncture damage and a piece of pipe cut a hole through the thigh. Some of the damage will heal and some won't heal worth a damn.”
“The overall prognosis on how this will affect me is?”
“When all of the bones and muscles heal you'll have full mobility of your lower left leg and can use the front thigh muscle. However, you'll have no use of the left leg back thigh muscles at all.” He slowly nods, but her next words cause him to lose all colour from his face. “You'll not be able to stand or walk again. Although the skeletal system will be able to take your weight the muscles to hold the upper leg in place to do so won't hold it there. Nor will you be able to do anything else with the left leg because you've lost too much of the muscle itself as well as the nerves that control the muscles. Not being able to walk means you'll be in a wheelchair for the rest of your life.”
“What are the chances of using a prosthetic?”
“Not for bearing any weight or real movement. Amputation isn't needed, and we'd have to take it off at the hip if we did. The best we can do is to put a steel frame around your hips and left leg so you can stand on it, but movement with the stiff encased leg will be impossible, or almost so. I know of one person with such a system, but they have it fitted with a roller skate and wear a raised sole on the other foot. Even so, they've a hard time moving about, and their damage isn't near as bad as yours.”
Ernie lies there with a very pale face. He's been very active all his of life and the idea of being in a wheelchair for a long period is a sentence to hell for him. He once spent some weeks in one due to a broken leg as an early teen; it was the worst period of his life prior to his parents' dying just after he graduated from high school. This fate frightens him a lot.
“I don't know how I'll do it, yet; but one day I'll walk out of here on my own.”
Alice likes his determination, but the head neurologist looks up and says, “Never going to happen. The best you could ever hope for is to hop around on your right leg. If you can ever get it strong enough.”
The conversation goes downhill from there until Alice gives Ernie his medication via the intravenous feed they have him on and she clears the room so he can get some rest. The sedative soon puts him to sleep.
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Introspection
Hearing what Alice had to say about being confined to a wheelchair made Ernie very angry so he blurted out his comment about walking again. However, at the same time he said it he felt a very strange emotion, one he'd never felt before: fear. It, and everything else, are fast to vanish when the sedatives Alice put in the IV in his arm quickly put him to sleep.
Some hours later he wakes up, and what was on his mind when he went to sleep is still there so it all comes straight back at him, including the fear he felt before. He tries to think of ways to overcome his physical damage to walk again, and when each idea is seen to fail the fear grows in intensity. Within a few minutes it's like he's in a small and intense fire with the flames of fear growing around him and seeking to consume him in a way no real fire has ever managed to do. In the past he could see the patterns and the beauty within a fire, but there's no pattern or beauty in this one. It's as if it just consumes everything. His pulse speeds up, his blood pressure rises, he starts sweating. The various machines monitoring Ernie do their job and they sound a warning when readings hit their trigger levels. The alarms bring a nurse running from her desk just down the hall.
The nurse bursts into the room at the same moment as something deep inside Ernie raises its head and responds to what's happening with his body. Almost as if on automatic pilot Ernie's body sits up as much as it can as his mouth opens while he screams and shouts, “Fuck it! No!” Then he collapses back onto the bed.
The frightened and concerned nurse reaches the bed. She looks at his dark red face and she can see his body is covered in sweat. She glances at the machines. They now show acceptable readings and are falling back to a more normal level so she walks to them to check the printouts for the last few minutes, and she can see the fast rise, extremely high peak, then the sudden drop. She can see he's OK for now so she goes and calls Alice.
A bit over a minute later Alice is in the room to check Ernie and the printouts. He's lying in sweat soaked bedding and clothes while breathing slow and deep as he recovers. His eyes are closed and he doesn’t seem to be aware of them being in the room. After checking everything Alice motions the nurse out of the room. In the hallway she says, “I don't know why or what triggered it, but it looks like he had a major panic attack and he's now recovering. Keep an eye on him and warn your replacement when you go off shift. This worries me, but I'll wait to see if he has another one.” The nurse nods yes, then she goes to make a note in her ward shift log.
Ernie is in the middle of an internal struggle and he's totally unaware of the visits by the medical staff. His mind is fighting back and forth on how to deal with his situation, but it's also concerned with fighting down the high intensity flames of fear trying to engulf him. He sees no beauty in this fire as there's no pattern in the flames at all. After what seems like an eternity, but is only a few minutes, he has a stray thought of, Piss on this! With that he has a mental picture of him standing beside the fire of fear and urinating all over it. The image strikes him as funny so he starts to giggle softly at the image. More importantly, the humour strengthens his resolve to deal with the fire of fear at the same time as it causes the fire to go down a little. It's almost as if pissing on the fire of fear is putting it out. That idea strikes him as a good one and the image intensifies.
About fifteen minutes after waking up Ernie has himself back under control and he's once again aware of external matters. Having the clothes and sheets stuck to him annoys him so he hits the button to summon the nurse. She soon arrives, and he asks, “Any chance I can do away with this damn drip and be helped to have a shower?”
The nurse smiles as she replies, “I'll call the doctor and ask her.”
A few minutes later Alice checks him out and approves the request.
However, it takes several more minutes before it can be carried out and Ernie is sitting on a bench in the shower stall with the nurse nearby in case he tries to stand and falls down. Part of the delay is the time taken to wrap his bandages in waterproof coverings, and another part is the wait for a nurse strong enough to move him since he's not allowed to walk or hop anywhere. While he's in the shower they change the bed as well as the bedding because the mattress is heavily soaked too. He's soon back in the bed with all of the monitors attached to him and are now reading normal.
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For six weeks Ernie is bed-bound until all of the puncture wounds are healed enough they can put a more solid cast on his thigh. Then he spends a lot of time in the hospital rehabilitation unit working with the therapist there to strengthen his upper body and arm muscles to help with using a wheelchair and the like. He also talks the therapist into working with him to build up the muscles in his right leg. Due to the casts on the left leg this is an issue, but they've got equipment they use for rehabilitation after knee surgery they use for this. Then another four weeks with the cast on before Ernie can get into heavy rehabilitation. After ten weeks in hospital the puncture wounds are healed and the bones are well enough healed they send him home in a wheelchair.
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While in hospital Ernie has many visitors, mostly his workmates with his house-mate Dilip Mistri being the most common one. Another is Marla Shaw visiting to thank him for saving her. With her is her eldest brother, Bob, he comes to thank Ernie for saving his baby sister.
During their visit Ernie learns Bob makes gear for people into period and costume playing. He's a skilled metal worker who does all sorts of metal gear. Ernie asks him to make him a two metre tall staff to help him stand up. So Bob takes some measurements of Ernie's hands and he promises to make him a long staff then he'll bring it to Ernie when it's done.
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Interlude
Ernie grew up in and around the Sydney Metropolitan Area, but on the outskirts of it and never deep in the urban sprawl. Ernie never knew the reason why his parents didn't like to live in a full urban environment, despite them having to work in the middle of one. They often had long commutes to work and frequently moved work and living locations to see if they could shorten the commutes to work. This resulted in Ernie living in most of the outer suburbs that bordered on park lands, mostly national parks. Places like Lucas Heights, Engadine, Heathcote, Sutherland, Eastern Creek, Penrith, Asquith, Terrey Hills, Springwood, Hornsby, Katoomba, Glenbrook, Wentworth Falls, and Richmond; any place where his parents could get to work in less than two hours by public transport or ninety minutes by car. Luckily the work they did was in high demand and they always had offers from other companies, thus their place of work office often varied from the Sydney Central Business District to Parramatta, North Sydney, Pymble, to Liverpool. However, none of the people they could work for operated outside any of the state capital cities, and his parents weren't interested in moving to another state. The houses he lived in always had bush or forest on one side of it and never three other houses. In some cases the nearest neighbours were over half a kilometre away. The houses always bordered on bush or forest areas.
All this meant Ernie grew up wandering around in what amounted to a giant yard because the scrub and forest was part of his play area. His parents taught him to be careful, independent, caring of others, and able to look after himself. They got him into a first aid course while he was still below the age the organisers normally accepted students, and a friend of theirs gave Ernie some bush survival training as well. He was a city boy who was very much at home in the bush.
He also had a lot of encounters with the local wildlife, while most of them weren't a danger to him some could be. Animal dangers included large kangaroos, poisonous snakes, poisonous spiders, feral dogs and cats, and birds on watch at their nests would also attack people. Ernie learnt how to deal with such animals and to prepare for them. Thus, when he did end up in a confrontation with them he was able to protect himself and those with him from the attacks.
The result was by the time he was nine or ten years old Ernie had been trained to remain calm in an emergency and to think straight. A side result of this was he didn't get frightened or scared. In his first fight with bullies in primary school Ernie stood up to them and he slugged it out. He got very bruised and hurt a lot but he didn't back down, and he also sent them home with a lot of bruises. Because the fight was stopped by a teacher neither side could claim a victory. Ernie's father called on a friend to spend a few weeks teaching Ernie how to fight, nothing formal, just how to handle a rough and tumble fight like a bar-fight. For the time he was in training Ernie made efforts to avoid the bullies because he was told to do so. Once he was given the clearance to deal with the bullies he stopped avoiding them and they soon looked him up, only to be put down by Ernie in a few seconds of intense pummelling.
While growing up Ernie encountered many dangerous and difficult situations, but he was never scared or overpowered by them. He always met them head on as he dealt with them. He wasn't reckless as he always took care to be fully prepared for any risks or dangers, but he was never frightened by anything that happened.
The worst thing to happen to him before he joined the Fire Service was when his parents were killed just a few weeks after he finished high school. He was sad, lonely, bereft, and at a loss for what to do; but he wasn't scared or frightened. His parents raised him to face and deal with life's events, so he did. The father of one of his friends helped him to sue the company who owned the vehicle in the incident causing his parents' deaths when a company truck lost control due to the driver having a stroke and hitting his parents' car on their way home. The same man helped Ernie to find a good man to set up a trust to look after the money he had coming in from the insurances and compensation cases.
In his time as a fire-fighter Ernie was involved in many dangerous situations, but nothing scared him. He acted in the way he was trained to act and he dealt with the dangers when they appeared. Thus he was never prepared for what he experienced while lying in his hospital bed. It was a totally new experience for him. One he'd had no preparation nor training nor experience on how to deal with: the fear of anything.
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Rehabilitation
While in the hospital Ernie's rehabilitation work is mostly lying on a bench and lifting light weights to build up strength in the muscles of his arms and upper chest. After convincing the therapists to help him they add the use of a constant motion machine to work his right leg, also other exercises with him lying down and pushing against things with his right leg. The weights in use on each machine is slowly increased when the work becomes easier for him as the muscles grow stronger.
When he's sent home from the hospital Ernie rings a fire-fighter he knows who's into weight lifting to get the name of someone to help him in building up the relevant muscles. This personal trainer works at a gym in the northern Sydney suburbs. To make getting there easier and to make life easier for all involved, Ernie moves out of the room he rents at the house his friend Dilip owns and Ernie buys an apartment nearer to the gym. He makes sure it's wheelchair friendly and very open.
Ernie takes two weeks to be moved in and organised in his apartment, but then almost all of his time is spent in the gym. Three sessions of two and a half hours every day of the week with an occasional session missed for a medical appointment: 8:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., 1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday to Sunday. The time in between sessions is spent in the nearby shops having a meal as well as people watching. The personal trainer isn't happy with so many long sessions each day but he realises Ernie is going to do all of the working out he can fit in, so the trainer accepts that and he limits Ernie's workouts to those times at his approved rate of progress while closely monitoring all of Ernie's sessions.
Due to the injuries involved a lot of the exercise equipment can't be used. However, after Ernie is there a month the gym owner brings out a modified exercise bike. It's an older unit that was damaged which he's had sort of fixed and merged with a broken rowing machine. Ernie can sit in a semi-upright position to use the rowing arms while also using his right leg to 'ride the bike' as this gives him a much more aerobic exercise than the other machines he can use do for him as an aerobic exercise.
No one at the gym has seen anyone more dedicated to building up their muscles than Ernie, and he listens to his trainer. Unlike many of the people at the gym Ernie stays with exactly what his trainer tells him to do. Slowly his chest, arm, and right leg muscles build strength; it's not as fast as he'd like, but he sticks with the training plan. Which is good, because the trainer is setting Ernie up for a muscle development regimen that won't require a huge amount of gym effort to retain in the future. The aim right now is to get a strong muscle foundation then to hone it in such a way he can maintain it without such a huge effort in the future.
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Financial Changes
Seven months after the fire Ernie has to interrupt his training to sort out his work affairs. The doctors have finally released him from medical care and the Fire Service administration need him in for a few days to sort out paperwork. He's being medically retired as a permanently disabled person. By the time everything is sorted out he has all of his owing recreational leave, sick leave, and long service leave paid out. His superannuation is released since they see him as never being able to work again. The federal government puts him on the Disability Pension, but he gets no payments due to his other income. The listing just helps with access to medical services and some other special services. He's also paid compensation by the Fire Service insurances for the loss of the use of his leg and his income protection insurance pays out as well.
About this time his solicitor calls in to see him about accepting an out of court settlement on his private compensation claim. The big explosion he was hurt in was caused by a company using one of the units to store explosives against its terms of use and the laws on explosives. So he sued them for loss of income and damages. Ernie is advised to accept their latest offer of five million dollars, and he does so.
By the time all of his financial matters are resolved Ernie's trust fund is increased by eight million dollars. A lot of money, but it's nowhere near an adequate replacement for what he lost, not at all adequate.
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Awards
Two months later Ernie has to miss a few sessions to go to Canberra for the Australia Day awards for him to accept the Star of Courage for his actions in dragging Marla to safety on the day. His going in to find her is seen as part of his job, but dragging her out of the fire when so badly hurt himself is seen as being well beyond the call of duty. Thus the award. Many of the people there felt he deserved the top award, not the second top award. Ernie just accepts what he's given because he sees his real reward is watching Marla walk about whole and well.
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Exercise Changes
A year after the fire he's nine months into his exercise development program when Ernie's personal trainer gives him a brace to wear on his left leg and starts him on some new exercises. Until now all his exercise has been while sitting or lying on equipment and using a wheelchair or crutches to move around with. The first new exercise is to do single leg squats with his left leg in the brace and sticking out in front of him. He touches the wall for balance for the first few minutes of it. The second new exercise is to use a machine to build up the remaining muscles in his left leg. He asks about this and is told, “You need some ability in the left leg so you can move it out of the way when you need to.” After another week his routine now includes using only his arms to move along the parallel bars with them set so his feet are off the floor.
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The Final Piece
When twelve months into his rehabilitation Ernie is feeling very good about his ability to get about. His chest, arm, and leg muscles are strong and built up in the way his trainer wants. What few muscles he has in his left leg work with a special prosthetic brace to move his leg out of the way as well as imitate a walking motion. He feels he's now able to get about without the wheelchair, but he can't do it. Something is missing. At the moment he can get about on the floor, move up and down on his right leg, move his whole body along on the bars, and he can hop around the room on just his right leg for several minutes, but he still has a major difficulty getting from the seated to the upright position.
One evening Bob Shaw walks into the gym, spots Ernie, and walks up to him. Ernie recognises the face but he can't place it or give it a name. Bob says, “Ernie, why the hell didn't you tell anyone where you moved to. I've had a devil of a time finding you. I only managed it because one of the men at the station remembered sending you to a personal trainer he knew and he was able to find out where the trainer is now working.”
Ernie replies, “I'm sorry. I know we've met, but I can't place you.”
“Bob Shaw, Marla's brother. Sorry I couldn't make Canberra, and she forgot to get an address off you.”
“Oh! Hi, Bob. How are ya?”
“I'm doing well. And I can see you're a lot better than when we last met. It's taken a while because I had to learn a lot of new techniques, but I've got that staff you asked for and I also made you a cane.”