‘Max! What’s going on?’ Over Max’s shoulder Phoebe could see his crew working in an efficient but hurried manner. Two were unrolling hoses while the third was taking more oxygen cylinders from the truck.
Max answered her question with one of his own. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘There’s a little boy inside, suffering a serious asthma attack. We’re just about to take him out to the hospital.’
‘Not right now you’re not. You need to get back inside.’ Phoebe felt Max’s hand in the small of her back as he tried to guide her in the direction of the house.
‘I need to get Benji to hospital.’
‘Phoebe, I don’t have time to argue. You need to listen to me.’
A trickle of sweat snaked its way down her spine. ‘What’s happening?’
‘This wind change has whipped the fire back on itself and it’s heading straight for us.’ Max took a few seconds before he answered. ‘The road’s been cut off. You’re not going anywhere.’
CHAPTER THREE
‘PLEASE, tell me you’re kidding.’
‘I wish I was. Go inside.’ He pinned her with a look that said this was non-negotiable. ‘I’ll be there shortly.’
‘What are you going to do?’
‘Our job.’
Phoebe saw Max nod towards his men and suddenly realised he didn’t have time to convince her—she had to do as he asked. She nodded, spun around and headed for the house.
Once she was gone Max turned his attention back to his crew, relieved to find they were well prepared.
‘Cookie, you and Mitch get started on wetting down the house, check the gutters and get any roof sprinklers going. Nifty and I’ll take the BA gear inside and check out the situation there, then we’ll be back to give you a hand.’
Cookie and Mitch nodded and Max left them to it. He grabbed his helmet from the front seat before picking up a couple of cylinders and the breathing apparatus face masks and racing indoors.
Inside was a complication he hadn’t anticipated until he’d seen Phoebe and the ambulance.
Civilians.
His crew had been using the property’s dam water to refill the fire engine’s water tank when they’d been alerted that the fire had swung round. Their only option had been to retreat to the house but Max hadn’t expected to find it occupied. His first responsibility was to his crew and their safety but his second responsibility was to try to ensure there were no fatalities. He wasn’t sure how he was going to manage that but he was determined to do his best. He now had eight other people depending on him.
He left Nifty with Malcolm, knowing he could trust him to sort out the practicalities of things like ladders and sprinklers while he did a quick check of the house, looking for the safest place, knowing there was going to come a time, probably sooner rather than later, when they’d all need to go to ground and hopefully sit out the fire. What he didn’t know was how successfully they’d be able to do that.
He finished his inspection and made his way into the lounge where Malcolm, his family, Phoebe and Steve waited. Waited for direction from him.
Phoebe was the first to speak. ‘What can we do?’
Max thought it was highly unlikely that anything they did inside the house would improve their odds but telling them that would be counter-productive. He needed everyone to stay calm, or as calm as possible, and in all probability that meant keeping them occupied.
His gaze went to the little boy lying on the couch. ‘How’s Benji doing?’
‘His oxygen sats are improving. He’s stabilising.’
That was some good news. If his condition wasn’t deteriorating, that would help to keep everyone else calmer.
‘All right. We’re already starting to see spot fires from embers blown ahead of the fire front. That’s the biggest danger to the house at the moment. Embers can get blown through small cracks so you need to soak towels and block up any gaps under doors and windows. Windows can crack and break with the temperature changes so all the curtains need to come down and furniture needs to be moved away from windows to reduce the chance of flammable materials igniting if embers do come in. You’ll need to keep checking the house, watching out for any gaps or embers. Grab as many dry woollen blankets as you can find and pile them by the cellar stairs. There’s a ladder under the manhole but one of us will check the ceiling cavity for embers.’ He looked around the group, noting their attention was firmly fixed on him. ‘OK, is that clear?’
‘Close doors and windows, take down curtains, wet towels into gaps, blankets. Got it.’ Phoebe repeated his instructions.
No one seemed to be panicking—that, at least, was a good sign. ‘Right. I’ll leave you guys to it but we’ll be back inside before long.’ He tried to convey a confidence he was having trouble feeling. In his opinion the odds weren’t in their favour but luckily no one asked him that. Did they all assume they’d be OK or didn’t they want to ask because they were scared of what they might hear?
Max left them to it and Phoebe’s confidence followed him out the door. She had to force herself to concentrate and remember the tasks he’d allocated. Doors, windows, curtains. What had he said about the ceiling? She looked up. She’d never have considered checking the roof space, and wondered what other direction danger would come from.
‘Steve, why don’t you keep an eye on Benji, seeing as you’ve been monitoring him? I’ll do the patrol,’ Phoebe said. She knew she was asking partly for selfish reasons. She wanted to feel as if she had some control over events and was making some sort of contribution towards keeping everyone safe. ‘Malcolm, can you show me where the towels and blankets are? Then we can sort out the house.’
Malcolm quickly directed Phoebe to the linen closet, bathroom and laundry and they divided the house into two and started wetting towels and shoving them under the external doors and windows. Phoebe then filled up as many buckets and other assorted containers as she could find with water and left them at strategic points in each room, ready to extinguish any embers should it be necessary.
Malcolm was filling the last few buckets so Phoebe started taking down curtains. As she moved around the house, she was able to catch of a glimpse of the fire crew. Despite the fact they were all covered from head to toe, including flash hoods and goggles over their faces, topped by helmets, she knew when it was Max, the sheer size of him giving him away even before she saw his easy gait and powerful stride. He was still extinguishing spot fires with the hand-held water sprayer. Surely he couldn’t continue doing that for much longer as, much as she hated to admit it, even she could see he was fighting a losing battle.
She finally got all the curtains down and did another check of the doors but the waiting was awful. The fire was coming—coming straight for them unless, by some miracle, the wind changed again—and she found herself wishing it would hurry up and arrive. Or at least that something would happen to distract her from this feeling of waiting for the inevitable and being the only one with nothing productive to do about it.
As she stood there, wishing for something to happen, the lights went out. In the sudden darkness she could see the glow of the fire more clearly. The only source of light was coming from the brightly burning bush and in the sudden darkness, and accentuated by the silence, the wind sounded more ferocious and Phoebe started to feel more than slightly nervous.
Embers were flying through the air now, igniting spot fires all around the house as they landed. She watched as a spot fire burnt brightly a few metres from the house. Max appeared, dousing the fire, extinguishing it as quickly as it had started. He saw her in the window and