Thankfully I Arrived Early, Otherwise the Fire Would Have Been Extinguished

The fire engine raced through the streets with its siren blaring.

In about ten minutes, the fire truck arrived at Lijing Garden Residential Complex.

Before even entering the complex, they could clearly see thick smoke billowing out of an apartment on the seventh floor of one of the buildings.

A person was hanging onto the balcony, seemingly calling for help.

"With that much smoke, the fire must be significant. Leave a few men down here to rescue people with the aerial ladder, and the rest will come with me to put out the fire!"

As soon as they arrived on the scene, the firefighters had formulated a plan and were ready to implement it swiftly.

A few men stayed behind to use the aerial ladder to rescue the person trapped on the seventh floor.

The rest entered the building to fight the fire.

They were tackling both rescue and firefighting simultaneously.

Under the firefighters' operation, the rescue platform supported by the mechanical arm of the aerial ladder slowly rose.

In no time, it reached the balcony on the seventh floor.

"Give me your hand, grab onto me and come over, I'll get you down first!" the firefighter called out to the person trapped on the balcony.

The trapped man didn't hesitate. Without waiting for the firefighter to reach out, he jumped onto the rescue platform of the aerial ladder himself.

He thanked the firefighter at the same time.

"Thank you, you arrived just in time!"

Seeing the trapped man's decisiveness, the firefighter breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, "It's our duty. Is anyone else trapped inside?"

"No, just me."

"That's good then."

When the rescued person cooperates, it certainly saves the firefighters a lot of trouble.

It's worth noting that in the past, using aerial ladders for rescues often came with numerous complications.

Some people were too afraid of heights to get on the rescue platform.

Some didn't want to leave, thinking they hadn't gathered all their valuables, and just wanted the firefighters to put out the fire quickly.

There were also those who were so scared they were paralyzed and could barely stand, requiring firefighters to exert great effort to get them onto the rescue platform.

All sorts of situations would arise, each more troublesome than the last.

Each rescue would waste a lot of time.

But they had never seen someone so accommodating.

The firefighter felt very gratified!

...

On the first floor.

Several firefighters rushed in at a light jog.

The police officers instinctively made way.

They hadn't planned on managing the people going in anyway, only those coming out would be checked.

Moreover, these were firefighters.

Judging by their demeanor, they were likely in a hurry to put out the fire.

The police officers were even less inclined to stop them.

In fact, some kindhearted officers even considered going up to help.

"Captain Han, should we go up and give them a hand?"

"What for? Let's not get in their way. Each to their own profession. If we go up there, we might just cause trouble for them," Han Fei shook his head and said.

It wasn't that he didn't want to help.

It was simply that it wasn't their area of expertise.

If it were catching a criminal or something like that, he'd be quite capable, but firefighting...

Better leave it to the professionals.

Amateurs like them going up there might do more harm than good.

"You're right, we'd better not cause any trouble..." the officer who had suggested helping nodded, then said, "I wonder who was so careless to cause this fire."

"Ah, people say we police officers have it tough, but I think firefighters have it even tougher. They're all heroes running towards danger!" Chen Ke couldn't help but remark, watching the firefighters' retreating figures.

This was his heartfelt opinion.

Firefighters weren't just working hard, their job was dangerous too.

Rescuing people and fighting fires in burning buildings, one wrong move could lead to injury or even death!

And firefighting wasn't their only responsibility, they were always busy.

Many people would call them whenever they encountered a problem they couldn't solve.

Whether it was a head stuck in stair railings, a bottom stuck in a toilet, a kitten fallen into a drain, or rings and bracelets that couldn't be removed... and so on and so forth.

The key point was, they actually handled all these miscellaneous issues.

As soon as they received a call, they would immediately respond.

Walking up the stairs to the seventh floor, the firefighters retrieved the fire hoses from the fire cabinet in the stairwell.

Then they opened the door to apartment 706.

Once inside, they were stunned.

This...

The scene before their eyes was completely different from what they had imagined.

When they saw the thick smoke billowing from the seventh-floor window downstairs, they thought the fire was intense and the situation urgent.

Who would have thought they were mistaken.

The fire wasn't big at all!

The situation wasn't urgent at all!

Moreover, the area affected by the fire was very small. The living room and bedroom were fine, only the balcony was on fire.

The burning objects were the curtains and clothes hanging on the drying rack.

Apart from the curtains and clothes, there were no other flammable objects nearby.

Thankfully they arrived early, otherwise the fire would have gone out on its own!

As for the thick smoke they saw from downstairs, it was because the curtains and clothes were all bunched together, and the incomplete combustion produced a lot of smoke.

It was a false alarm.

The firefighters all breathed a sigh of relief.

They went in with the fire hoses they had taken from the fire cabinet in the corridor.

They sprayed some water on the still-burning curtains and clothes, extinguishing the fire.

The person was rescued, and the fire was put out.

The operation was a complete success!

Afterwards, the firefighters put the fire hoses back in the glass fire cabinet in the corridor and left.

Come to think of it, such small fires could be extinguished by just pouring a few buckets of water on them.

If handled properly, they wouldn't even need to come.

But the firefighters didn't complain about anything.

Because this was their job.

And calling them immediately when a fire breaks out is the right thing to do.

After all, if it's not handled well and the fire spreads, calling them later would be too late.

...

First floor.

Several firefighters came out of the elevator.

From the time they went upstairs until now, it had been no more than ten minutes.

Is it over already? Putting out a fire shouldn't be that quick!

Seeing the firefighters walking out of the elevator, Chen Ke was a bit bewildered.

He instinctively stepped forward and asked.

"Comrade, what's the situation up there? Was there a fire? How did you come down so quickly?"

The firefighter nodded.

"Yes, there was a fire, but it wasn't a big deal. Just some curtains and clothes on the balcony caught fire. It was a small fire, put out with one spray."

After answering Chen Ke's question, the firefighter also looked at the police officers guarding the door with a puzzled expression.

"What's going on here?"

"Oh, we're catching someone. There's a guy hiding in this building. There are too many rooms upstairs to search, so we're waiting here to catch him when he comes out," Chen Ke answered.

Just then, the walkie-talkie on the firefighter's body crackled to life.

"The person has been rescued via the aerial ladder. Fortunately, they're uninjured. We've resolved things on our end. Wait for us, we're coming over to help you now!"

One of the firefighters quickly picked up the walkie-talkie and responded.

"Don't come, it was just a tiny fire. We put it out in no time. As long as the person is safe, that's what matters."

Hearing this, Han Fei instinctively felt something was amiss.

Aerial ladder... if he remembered correctly, the mechanical arm of this thing could extend from the first floor to the twentieth or thirtieth floor, achieving the purpose of directly rescuing people.

He suddenly had a bold guess.

Could it be that Xu Mo was the person rescued by the aerial ladder!?