It started when I arrived to school, I got out of my car and walked to the door. Then, I went inside, now twenty minutes late for my first period class, which was gym. Then, I proceeded to walk to the attendance office to receive a late pass, and as I was walking  there, I saw a notification on my phone that had said that my town’s fire department that I’m a member in had gotten a reported structure fire. I then walked into the office, said good morning to everyone in there because I’m in there every day to get a pass, and a staff member was in there that happens to be in the fire department in another town, and I said that we have a reported structure fire. When I saw that we had a structure fire, I could feel myself getting antsy and  wanting to know more, and angry with the fact that I was “stuck” in school. The staff member then replied and said,” Alan you better not leave to go to the fire”. I was thinking in my head I probably won’t go because it’s probably nothing. Then I turned on the scanner on my phone to hear updates to see if it was anyone, and I heard them toning out other towns to come to Mount Kisco to assist with the fire, as I heard these tones, that was when it really hit me that it was something big, and not just a “routine call” and at this point, I felt the need to leave, I felt that if I have a skill set to do something, then it is more important for me to utilize my skillset rather than stay at school and not be productive with my time, and I then decided that I was going to leave to go to the fire rather than go to gym. On my way out, I called my dad who is also a firefighter, and said,” Hey Dad, I’m not going to gym, I’m driving back down to town and going to the fire”, which he responded to by saying, “ Do what you want, but you’re going to end up getting in trouble with the school”, and I understood what he was saying, he basically said if you feel that it is more important than go for it.

I then proceeded to run down the main hall of school, now getting more excited to leave, and I knew that the security guard at the door wouldn’t let me leave, so I left out one of the side doors, which ended up being closer to my car anyway, then I got in my car, turn my blue lights on, which completely changes the way that I drive, and leave the school, the drive was miserable, It was as if I had hit every single red light from school to town, yes some people pulled over for me to get by knowing well that I was responding to an emergency, but the traffic down 172 into Mt. Kisco was unbearable, I would get stuck behind cars, and would start tapping on my steering wheel, and inching the car forward and a little to the left so that I could see past the car in front of me to asses the amount of traffic, but what I saw didn’t please me, it made me feel more frantic as I drove. and it felt like it was taking forever to just get into town. As I sat stuck in the traffic, I saw another member that was driving the other way and was surprised because I would assume that he would have went to the fire, yet it didn’t surprise me at all because most people work and that is more important to hold a job because firefighting in Mount Kisco is just volunteer, it gave me a sense that it was important for me to go to the fire, because I wasn’t at work, and I’m fully capable of going to fight the fire. He used to go to Fox Lane and he knew that the administration doesn’t allow for students that are firefighters to leave school to go to fire calls, and two nights later, he said to me that he was laughing in his car because he knew that I had left school and that him and the other firefighters would leave school to go to fires when they were still students at the school, which made me feel that it was more acceptable that I did left. Then I finally made it into town and felt a huge wave of relief that I finally made it to town, but I still had to go to the firehouse to pick up my gear, because the  truck that I am assigned to had already left to respond to the fire, and I drove to my firehouse, well knowing that I wouldn’t make the truck, I pulled up on the ramp of the firehouse, my Jeep screeched to a halt, I hastily made my way inside, grabbed my gear, threw it in the trunk, and hooked a sharp U-turn out front of there to make my way up the road to encounter more traffic and people pulling over, to get to the burning building.

As I was speeding down Main St. in town, I again got stuck behind traffic and my anxiety started to rise as I’d be hitting the gas and the brakes to hard as I made my way up the main road. I then got to the stoplight that I would have to turn right at to get to the fire and the light was burning red, and the green blob that was a car that was in front of me at the stoplight had blocked my way to get down the road so I would have to wait for the light to change so that I could get by, but in my anxious state, I decided that I would honk at the person till they pulled up because they obviously weren’t paying attention to the obvious gleaming blue light that was streaming right through their rear windshield into the mirrors. At this point the blob that was a car in front of me decided that they would abruptly move up to make room for me to get through, my Jeep then decided to turn the get go on and leave some rubber on the road as it flew around the turn then down the road to the road that the fire was on. Then as I approached the road, there was a cop blocking the road with his car, but when he saw me about to make the turn, he threw his car in reverse screeching the tires to move out of the way in order for me to make it down the road. At this point it was when I finally knew just how bad the fire was. The house was all the way at the end of this mile long road, yet you could see the smoke and fire from the end of the residential road. The thick black smoke and the orange glow of the flames had made me feel almost euphoric, but that feeling turned into nothingness as my mind stopped, controlled it self and had gotten focused on the task at hand. I felt my driving become more natural and smooth, fast, but under control, as if I was one with the Jeep. The nearest place to park was three houses down, in which I had pulled into their driveway.

At this point, I knew that I’d be going to work, there weren’t too many firefighters there, which meant that I would be going in. When I knew this, my mind stopped thinking about everything, went through all possible emotions in less than a second, then went into overdrive and focused on the task at hand, which was to get my gear on, sprint down to the truck to get the otherwise heavy air packs, that didn’t seem so heavy, and put that on and get to my officer so that he could make the decision to send me inside. As I reached the truck, my heart stopped as we got reports of a person still trapped inside, knowing this, everything seemed to speed up and movement sped up, before I knew it I was at the door of this burning building, tools in hand, not on air yet, breathing in smoke that was rolling out of the door. As it filled my lungs, I could start to feel my breaths getting shorter, my throat felt like it was on fire, and my eyes started to tear up. As me and my officer walked into the building we both felt the need to go on air, because the smoke started to become overwhelming. The fluster of trying to get my mask on while inhaling the thick dark cloud I thought would make me frantic but it surprisingly didn’t, I was able to get my mask on without and trouble, and that was when I went to work. I started working on a search with my officer to try and find if there were any victims other than the one that was found earlier in the basement, which made me tense up a little bit at the fact that there was a dead body inside the building with me, which I ended up seeing later on. I went and finished my search, and began to vent the house by smashing windows, which is one of the best feelings in the world, destroying stuff productively. We then ended up with a hose line and were hydro-venting the smoke out of the building (hydro-venting doesn’t make sense to me but it pretty much is when you make a hose spray a 30 degree fog, which is more of a cone shape of water instead of a straight stream, and you direct it out of an opening from a building and it takes the smoke along with it). I turned around wondering why the smoke condition was worsening, and that’s when I went into the next room and saw that there were flames crawling up the wall in the corner and up along the ceiling. I saw that and thought, this is awesome, and totally not a problem at all and it is amazing and I just stood there watching the fire for a second then I walked out of the room, and told the guys manning the hose that it’s going to be needed in the next room to put that fire out.