The Aurigan Republic

Chapter 3

The firefighters were fighting a ferocious blaze. They received a call an hour earlier and arrived to see a blaze already out of control. Fires of these sizes were generally unheard of in the metropolis, given that the buildings generally had sprinklers and other fire fighting measures. Firefighters generally arrived at the scene and filled out reports regarding the incident because the fires would be put out or largely contained. The idea of fighting an actual blaze was not something they had expected, though they were still trained in it. Yet, the blaze stood out in that it engulfed the entire high rise. The smoke had engulfed the entire city block with people in the nearby buildings also evacuating. Since the blaze had a chance to spread to nearby buildings, the firefighters had to contain it before it did so. The initial group of firefighters called for backup and, an hour after the incident was initially reported, all the firefighters in the metropolis were present at the scene.

There was no illusion that the burning high rise could be saved. The only hope for the firefighters was preventing the blaze from reaching the nearby high rises. While these high rises were largely built with non-flammable materials, storage within them could easily contain explosive and flammable items. There was no way of telling what damage a blaze can cause to a high rise unless one had the time to sit down and analyze the contents of the high rises. For the time being, no one had the time for that and the firefighters didn't want to find out the hard way of the consequences that came with second high rise catching flames.

Despite the best efforts of the firefighters, the blaze was showing no sign of stopping or even slowing down. A number of explosions within the buildings forced the firefighters to back away from the structure. The building was known to house chemical labs and chemical storage. The gear the firefighters wore could protect them from the fumes but one could never be sure how well their suits could handle chemical explosion impacts. The explosions aided in the spread of sparks to neighboring high rises where numerous firefighters desperately tried putting up. It was basically a game of high stakes whack-a-mole.

The attention of the firefighters was initially on the neighboring high rises but the burning building soon got their full attention. Following a number of other explosions, the firefighters quickly ran away from the building. Someone noticed signs of the high rise collapsing on itself and no one wished to be trapped under the debris. All those nearby rushed away from the collapsing high rise. The slower people were engulfed in the dust and debris while the faster ones managed to get far enough to avoid the worst of the collapse. The entire collapse lasted for a few minutes but, for those present, it felt like it lasted a lot longer. The firefighters in the neighboring high rises could only watch in horror as the building collapsed on itself.

The survivors of the collapse were treated by the emergency medical staff, who reported on the scene shortly after the firefighters. Meanwhile, members of the rescue group brought their dogs to aid in the search for possible survivors after the dust settled. Witnesses claimed that they saw many people unable to escape the debris. Relying on those claims, the rescue group worked urgently at digging up the debris and rubble wherever their dogs stopped with a bark. The dogs were well trained for rescue operations. Their sense of smell was very reliable, allowing them to track down those below the debris with ease. Finding those beneath the debris was the easy part, as rescuing those people proved to be much more difficult. However, it must be stated that there were risks to these rescue groups given that the building only just collapsed. They were risking their lives too, as both humans and dogs traversed over unstable territory.

Equipment was difficult to get through an urban setting in a timely way, especially with many vehicles being in the way as the curious people stopped to see what was happening. The chaotic scene made it very difficult for even law enforcement to take control of the situation. It was only several hours later before the first of the equipment arrived. The dogs had already done their duty by locating the survivors under the rubbles. Many more were expected to be dead before the dogs even got started. They were given treats for their excellent performance and ferried off from the scene. It was common knowledge that rescue dogs suffered from environments where they could sense the negative emotions of those in the area. To better shield the dogs from the disaster after they performed their part, orders were given for them to return to headquarters with their handlers. There was, after all, no benefit to keeping them around when their job was done.

For one of the handlers, he comforted his partner on the ride home. During the ride, he noticed a small piece of paper stuck in the dog's uniform. He pulled it out, noting a bunch of letters and numbers that made no sense. It was not rare for rescue dogs to bring some debris with them. They had to crawl into some tighter spaces to better locate the survivors. The man didn't know whether the paper had any value. He simply placed it in his pocket and continued scratching the head of his four-legged partner. The two of them had been together for several years, so he could sense the feelings of his partner. Fearing depression taking over, he did his best to comfort the dog and repeated that it was a good dog with lots of hugs.

Once the two returned to headquarters, the handler gave a report to his superior. Meanwhile, his loyal partner obediently sat beside him, paying no attention to the others present. Instead, the rescue dog stared between the handler and the ball in the corner. The observant people in the room smiled at the scene. Yet, no one dared to interrupt the report given the urgency of the matter. The fire was not only unusual, but it also got the attention of many city officials. If they didn't figure out the cause, all of them could be in hot water. They had to promptly find out the cause of the fire so the ball would be in the court of the officials. While the firefighting department should not ever be involved with politics, they were sadly unable to escape it due to their funding from the city. It didn't take much for their funding to be cut completely and all firefighting personnel disbanded.

After the report was done, the handler gave his dog a meal before letting it play with the ball it retrieved from the room. While the dog played by itself, the man returned his gear and uniform. The urgency of the matter saw him wearing everything while he reported his findings. Before he finished returning everything, the man remembered the paper in his pocket. He handed it over stating that it was found on his partner's uniform. The paper was placed in a folder with a note containing the contact info of the company that owned the high rise. It was far safer returning these items to avoid any lawsuits.