When you get back out, Tarah has left all the gear except a few shovels sitting on the street, including the other bag of sand, and has taken the cart out of sight to get dirt. Arabella is standing by the gear.
"I didn't think this should be left unattended," she comments as you approach, "particularly in a neighborhood like this--one cannot be certain things won't happen to board a ship, you know.
"My, it looks like you've got a fire. But you know that. If I can help, just say so."
Your errant watchman is not in sight.
--M. J. Young
I'll give her a quick kiss. "Your lovely eyes are already doing plenty, watching out for my people and our equipment."
Then, well, on to more sandbagging.
You haul the other sandbag inside. The fire is now somewhat contained; the floor has charred around it, but the sand has prevented it from spreading that way, and with this new bag you are able to cover the worst parts of the burning and keep the wall from catching.
In a moment, Tarah appears.
"Should we risk opening the door to bring this wagonload of dirt inside, or transport it in buckets, do you think?" The door is certainly close at hand to the heart of the fire, and you don't see any sign of it elsewhere, but you were keeping the air flow controlled to avoid a more serious blaze.
--M. J. Young
I'll take stock of the situation.
I will open the door if:
The fire is separated from the wall,
The fire is contained, at least somewhat, on all sides,
The fire does not seem to be fluctuating too much when we use the other door.
I will tell her to take it in in buckets if:
The fire has a ready supply of new fuel,
The area immediately around it is not either wet or sanded already, or
The fire seems overly sensitive to changes in air flow.
It is evident that the fire is well contained and largely controlled at this point. When the main doors open there is only a slight increase in the blaze, and it is quickly countered by the manpower with the dirt and shovels.
Your fire is extinguished within another ten minutes. You and Tarah are eying it, looking for hot spots that might be trouble, but it seems to be under control.
A man comes over wearing commander bars. "So, your the new firewatch team. I must say, I'm impressed. I thought we were outside your area?"
--M. J. Young
I'll offer him the appropriate greeting - salute, handshake, or what-have-you, seeing as I'm a commander myself - and then, "Thank you, sir. You're a bit far from our current office, it's true, but we're glad to lend the hand. I hope you don't mind my calling my team for a bit of a shake-down?" Wouldn't want to step on any toes if he feels I overstepped my jurisdiction.
"Oh, no, no, we're glad for the help. I was just surprised. Please, you've done a great job, do what you have to to finish up. Do you want some help packing, or anything?"
--M. J. Young
"If you and yours could pitch in with some of the equipment, I'm sure my team would appreciate the extra hands."
...
"Oh, there is one thing I would appreciate, personally..." and I'll give him the description and story of That Guy from before.
Tarah is scraping the remaining dirt from the wagon, but she starts directing people to gather the buckets and shovels and other implements to the point on the street where she emptied the other gear.
I'm afraid the guy you are describing is rather nondescript--dark hair, dark eyes, looks like so many other watchmen. He narrows it down to any one of six who might have been here, and says he'll try to find out who it was. "But," he says, "my people aren't trained to enter burning buildings; we've always taught them to stay outside and safe, and fight the fire from the outside. I'm not sure what the captain will want to do about it."
--M. J. Young
"I'm sure he'll find the right balance. Thank you," I'll shake hands and head off.
First person I need to talk to is Tarah. Give her a pat on the back. "Good work today. I know it's my day off, but do you need any more help?"
If she does, I'll help load shovels or whatever she wants.
If she doesn't, or when there are no more shovels to schlep, then it's time to go back to Arabella and resume our day on the town.
"No, we've got it. Go take care of your wife, before she thinks you've run off with the fire department."
Arabella smiles as you approach. "So, this is what you do all day?" she teases. "We might need to buy more soap to get the smell of smoke out of your hair and clothes. Now, shall we get back to our groceries?"
--M. J. Young
"Yeah, I know, all work and no play..." And let Tara get back to her work.
I'll scoop Arabella up and give her a nice big hug, grinning all the while as I make her smell like smoke right along with me. "Looks like we'll need twice as much now. We'd better get started." And then, back to shopping.
The rest of the shopping trip goes adequately well. A few times shopkeepers sniff the air, and one asks, "do you smell smoke?"
What else is on the agenda for your day off?
--M. J. Young
The shipping office bank.
The grocery market.
The fish market.
The butcher.
And somewhere where we can buy some soap.
Then I was going to take Arabella home and cook lunch, but seeing as how we now both smell like smoke, I'll suggest a hot bath first. So, a hot bath for two, then cooking. Unless there is anything else she had in mind?
People frequently smell of smoke, considering that in order to get a hot bath you'll have to heat water over the fire in the kitchen. It's also rather a luxury to get more than one real bath a year because of the work involved in hauling and heating enough water to fill a tub. Usually people do something more on the order of what we today call a sponge bath, washing with a bucket of hot water and a wash rag. But you're the master of the house, and if you want to heat the water for a bath, your wife is not going to argue (unless of course you expect her to do all that work).
The tub is a bit cramped for two, but not impossibly so. It's a wooden half-cask that's kept in a closet when not in use; it's usually used in the kitchen, which has a stone floor and drains around the edges making it easier to clean the floor.
--M. J. Young
I'll do the work to heat the water - after all, working with fire is sort of what I do. And if it's not impossibly cramped... it seems like a delightfully intimate thing to do, so, yes, I'll suggest that.
I think I'm also going to consider the idea of a genuine copper tub.
"Bathing together? Why, Mister Sevenwind, you come up with the most outrageously wonderful ideas." She does blush a bit when she says that, but she also hops in the tub with you, and you are impressed with just how beautiful she is with or without clothing--but I am going to fast-forward past the bath to the moment when you are both robed and she, somewhat disheveled, is headed to the kitchen to put something together from the groceries for a light supper.
--M. J. Young
Once I'm properly robed, I'll follow her out there.
"I did promise to cook tonight. You can still hold me to that if you like..."
Either way, dinner. Her cooking or mine. And... back to work tomorrow? Or do I have two in a row off? I'll have to check...
"You did, didn't you? Well, then, if you're going to do that, I'm going to go--fix my hair and such."
She leaves you in the kitchen.
My recollection is that the way your schedule works your down time is always 40 hours. In a sense you have two days off, except that you start again one shift earlier. Backtracking, you returned to work on rotation day 3 on day shift, worked days 4 and 5, left work 4:00 on day 5 and had all of Day 6 to yourself, on which you wound up helping a nearby watch area fight a fire, and you go back at Midnight tonight to start your Day 7 shift. You've probably shorted yourself a bit on sleep, but since the fire was on day shift any cleanup that was unfinished would have been picked up on evening shift by Captain Peter and his crew, whom you will be relieving.
--M. J. Young
I'll make dinner out of some of the provisions we picked up today. Probably some form of stovetop fare, as I don't have a day to stew anything, nor the time to bake. Maybe some fresh fish. I make a mean salmon, especially with access to a cast-iron skillet. Just have to find me a fish that seems rather like salmon. I'd imagine I would be familiar with this world's fish after two years at sea, but who knows? Maybe what looks like a salmon cooks like an octopus, in which case I would be in a fix. But provided I can find a similar tasty fish, dinner is on.
If I seem short on sleep, I'll go into work an hour early and use the holy ground in my office to drop a Remove Fatigue.
I would expect that after two years at sea you would at least be able to match the look of a saltwater fish to its flavor, even not having worked in medical at all.
You arrive at work early; Captain Peter asks if you know you're early and whether you're here to relieve him.
--M. J. Young
I tell him I know I'm here early, and I will relieve him, but in an hour, as there's something I need to see to first. Nothing terribly major, but better now than later.
And then I go re-up my Remove Fatigue.
I note that you have two remove fatigue spells, one personal and one group. However, the personal one specifies that you are lying supine in bed within the holy ground, and I do not recall there being a bed in your office; the group one is probably what you intended, and interestingly it requires one emerald for each person covered apart from the caster, so it doesn't require one when you're the only person covered. I presume you're using that one.
You restore yourself to a fully rested state, and relieve the captain of command so he can go get some sleep.
The gear from the fire has been cleaned but is not all repacked, so your team will have to finish that task. You also used the sand, so you'll have to refill the sacks to replace the wagon supply.
Otherwise, it looks like it will be a quiet night.
--M. J. Young
Actually I do have a cot in my office, mostly for this exact purpose, and I meant the other one, but the result is the same either way.
I'll get the team going. I don't terribly mind shoveling sand myself, but I'm going to do some paperwork first. Mostly just writing down things I want to discuss with Captain Peter next time he and I actually get to sit down and discuss things.
1: Funding. How are we doing on money? Have we been able to secure any money from the city on our own or do I still have to go beg the General to keep our doors open every now and then?
2: Pumps. I like Brandy's idea for equipping one of our horse-drawn wagons with a pump to draw water directly out of the harbor and pressurize it into a hose. Since we work near the docks often enough anyway, it seems a worthy investment. I want to talk with someone down on the harbor about it - the guys who build bilge pumps for ships ought to be able to build this, too.
3: I want to see what his impression of our operation so far is, and if he has any input or updates or anything he wants to see done differently.
A glance at the schedule reminds that you see the captain frequently--you relieved him at midnight when you started your shift, and will do so again tonight (day 8) and the next two nights (9 and 10). Then on day 11 he relieves you at eight in the morning, and you're off from then until four o'clock on the afternoon of day 13, when you relieve him, first of three days in a row that you relieve him at that time, and then he's off again on day 16 but relieves you at midnight on day 17--it appears that every shift you work, either you relieve him or he relieves you, except for day 4, which he does not work at all and you work day shift between Matt and Tarah.
So any day you want to talk to him while he's working, you either come in a bit early or go home a bit late.
--M. J. Young
I think my best option would be to come in an hour early again tomorrow night, and meet with him then. Probably least disruptive to Arabella. (The least disruptive to her overall would be to stay an hour late on Day 17, seeing as she'll be asleep by the time I get home and won't care if that's midnight or 1 AM, but I'd rather not let things like performance evaluations and water pumps wait another nine days if I don't have to.) So I'll leave him a note for when he comes in tomorrow, and see him before he leaves.
There's still a bit of facilities and equipment money left, but not a lot; all firemen are on the payroll as watchmen, so the salaries are covered. Fortunately, sand and water are free.
The problem with pumps seems to be that they all use pipes--whether hollowed wood like the bilge pumps or clay or metal like those in the wells, long sealed pipes are an essential requirement.
With two fires successfully extinguished, and one of those outside the test area, he thinks the concept is proving itself. In any case, the captain of the local watch of the second fire is very impressed and suggesting that more fire companies be created.
--M. J. Young
I think more fire companies are a good idea, but a bit premature considering facilities and equipment are expensive and the concept is still proving itself, rather than proven itself. I think it might be a better idea, for now, to have a trained fire squad as a function of each department instead.
SO, that said, I will suggest to the Captain that we invite each department to send a handful of people at a time to us for specialized training. They can benefit from our experiences, and we can go to the off site to set up a controlled burn for them to put out as practice. I can give them some lecture on the proper management of accelerants, how to prevent blowback and flashover, how to handle smoke, and so forth. Offer them a crash course, as it were, so that each department that wants one can at least have a handful of people who know what they're doing, until we can secure enough funding to really establish widespread operations. I'd like to give the whole program at least a year to work the kinks out before I go back to the General with talk of expansion in my jaws.
Pumps don't necessarily have to use pipes, though. After all, the fire hoses back home are made of layers of fabric. I'm sure my father-in-law could duplicate something like that - a dense, pressure-resistant, relatively waterproof inner layer (tar-saturated wool or sailcloth, perhaps?), punctured with pinholes every so often, to release water a little at a time into a water-absorbent outer layer (I'm thinking some more wool or linen) in order to protect the hose itself from burning. This would be woven in tubular form so as not to present any seams for pressure to break through.
With the good Captain's approval, I'll write up a proposal for just such a thing and send it on to Jacob. Something to pique his curiosity a bit.
The captain is intrigued by the notion of waterproof/fireproof hoses, and approves the exploration of such a product. He agrees that additional fire companies are premature, but is uncertain whether the notion of training members of local watches is practical. For one thing, that's a step back toward having the local watch handle fires instead of having the special unit do so.
--M. J. Young
Then when our meeting is done, I'll write up a proposal for such a material and send it by courier to Jacob, along with a formal request for an estimate.
I agree - upon further examination that does seem to be a backward step. What would he suggest, seeing as we need more coverage but can't afford to expand just yet?
The Captain thinks it good that the service is in demand and proving itself. He can tell the General that expansion has to be slow and measured if it's to work well, but that the two fires already managed are proof of the concept. The next logical step is to open a few more stations, promoting some of our people to head them, replacing them here with new recruits, and getting those new people trained; but we want to make sure the people we're sending are fully trained before we have them training others, and that will take a few months, in all probability.
The other question is whether it would be better to build outward from the center point, or scatter coverage all around the city. The latter has the advantage that fire companies could respond to fires beyond their official coverage area, as we did yesterday (which is now for you the day before), but that's also a disadvantage, as the more effectively the city is covered the less urgency there is to expand the coverage, and we might wind up with coverage areas for each unit larger than they can manage and little hope of getting more units on line.
--M. J. Young
I fully agree with his assessment that expansion has to be slow. I'll put forth the idea of training our current shift heads to function as station heads. I would ask each of them to pick someone they trust to succeed them as a shift supervisor, and occasionally - perhaps one shift a week - let them shadow us, and their successors shadow them, instead of their normal duties, to give them a feel for what the next higher level looks like. That would give us, what, two more station heads (Matt and Tarah) ready to go in a relatively short time? I think going from one to three is a good first expansion. Maybe set Matt up near somewhere residential, like in a poorer district where fire is more immediately a matter of lives, and Tarah somewhere more industrial where her adaptable thinking will come in handy. I also want to put an official commendation in Tarah's file - the hoses and pumps were her idea.
As for how to do it, I think it's a matter of building them as needed and then studying their effects. Areas that are harder to cover - farther away, inaccessibly complex streets, and so forth - would get the next round of expansions, followed by wealthier areas where property damage is an immediate concern once the areas of human life interest are covered. So, in theory I lean more toward the 'scatter them around' approach rather than the 'march from the center' approach. There might be areas relatively nearby who don't actually need us but would wind up getting expansions long before areas that need us much more that way.
"John, you're not thinking that clearly. You're the obvious candidate for captain of a new unit--you came from being a junior officer already to being Commander here. Matt and Tarah are definitely in the wings for these positions, but I think we're going to have to focus on an accelerated advancement in the ranks as it is.
"Probably what we're looking at is opening a second unit probably nearer one of the extreme ends of town--I agree, getting help to the largest area works best if we scatter our units. One of us, probably I, will stay here and the other, you, will take the new unit, along with a promotion to captain. Matt and Tarah will have to be promoted to Commander, one of them under you, the other under me, and each of us will take half the current squad and fill in the rest with new recruits, some drawn as these were from the existing watch units in the area, some from elsewhere. We'll each pick a couple new shift supervisors from the people we have, and build up the new people until we're ready to split again. Matt and Tarah become captains of the two new units, the shift supers become commanders, and we move more people into shift supervisor positions.
"I think perhaps six months is a good guess for when we make the next step--long enough that your promotion, although meteoric, will not be unacceptable under the circumstances. We should think about whether you take Matt or Tarah--you've worked with both, but more closely with Matt since Tarah is always shift leader when she's working. We'll have to talk about who goes with whom, whether it should be mostly based on those with whom we've more often worked or better to mix them more. But we've got some time to consider that."
--M. J. Young
Damn it. I don't want to be shifted off to some off-site! With my luck I'll wind up being the one working the slums. But I can't exactly tell him I want to hold out for this command. It would be easy to say that to the General, but how do you tell a man you won't take a promotion until you can take his job? Damn it.
Well, better to be all gung-ho now and bicker over things like that later. Too damn much work to do to devolve into in-fighting.
Wait a second... he did just say he was going to make me Captain. "Thank you, sir. I hope to continue to serve well."
"Alright... Six months isn't quite as much time as I'd like for developing all of these people - myself included - that far. Beyond the fact that we need to set some very specific goals for ourselves, my initial thought is, this:
"I've worked with Matt more often, but he's... he's a follower, not a progressive. If I'm going to be starting a new office, reinventing this place from the ground up again, I'll need Tarah and her way of thinking. Like you said, she's been a shift supervisor pretty much constantly, which means that a promotion to first officer of a new unit is more appropriate for her, as it puts her within striking distance of a command of her own as soon as she's ready.
"You're continuing this place and building on what we've already established, and I think Matt would be good for you that way - he follows orders and has enough of a way with people to make a good first officer. Plus, after the split, he can get in some more shift supervisor experience and you can build him up here for as long as you feel he needs to be ready for command.
"If we're looking to open two new offices in six months, we should look at a map now and decide where we want to put them. Six months isn't a lot of time to raise two offices worth of building and equipment funding, and we have to make sure the General will approve additional payroll. Either way, we need to do some serious fundraising, and we need to start now if we want to be able to buy and repurpose two buildings in six months."
If I have a city map handy, I roll it out and give it a good long look-over. This would be a good time for him to interrupt my rambling if he has a new train of thought.
Otherwise I'll go right back into it.
"I would say the best places for our new units are here," indicating a corner about a block away from a small plaza in poorer quarter, "Average streets for that area means we won't over-build our equipment, and our people can get used to working in close quarters with the population. We'll need people with extensive riot- and looter-control for that outpost. And... here," indicating a building on a main street in the factory district, about two blocks from the river, "where we can use the old-fashioned bilge pipes to provide the building itself with water and silt for the wagons, and get our people out to the factories as quickly as possible. This is also a very major street to put an office on, so the team that goes there can get some good public exposure now that this program is starting to warrant it. We'll need officers with public relations skills for that office."
The one in the factory district is also relatively nearby to Jacob's manufacturing holdings, so Arabella can have her entire family within practically a stone's throw if I'm assigned there, but I'm not making a point of mentioning that.
One new office in six months. The concept is that you will be promoted to captain, and you and Captain Peter will be heads of the two fire stations; Matt and Tarah will each be promoted to commander to work as seconds in command of the two offices. Then maybe eight or nine months later (I'm figuring you've been in the fire business two or three months already at this point) you split again, making Matt and Tarah captains so there are four offices, and appointing new commanders from the shift supervisors and new shift supervisors from the experienced watchmen.
Given that, which location would you pick for one new office?
--M. J. Young
Given only one new office, I would say the one in the poor district. We can do our public relations bit once the place that needs us to save lives is accounted for.
You had this conversation at midnight on day 8 as you were arriving for work (actually, an hour before, as you were relieving the captain). At midnight on Day 11 you relieve Matt, according to the schedule.
Just before eight in the morning, Captain Peter arrives to relieve you. You're chatting; you aren't due back until the evening shift of day 13, at four o'clock, and you expect that Arabella has already made plans that will begin with breakfast and fill the day and a good part of the night.
But as you are chatting, someone rushes into the station. You are aware that there was the sound a moment ago of a horse galloping, and it stopped right outside.
"There's," the breathless man starts, then tries again, "There's a fire. Center City. Near headquarters."
Center city is almost five miles away from here.
--M. J. Young
"Center city... Great gods..."
If we've done whatever our transfer-of-duty dance is, I'll stay on and let Captain Peter run things. If I'm still in charge, I'll take charge and start giving orders. Send out the whistles for the rest of the Fire Watch. Get everyone on this. Meanwhile, everyone here is not going off-shift, they're getting their asses in gear. I want every wagon mobilized now, dammit, five miles is going to take too sodding long as it is. Meanwhile, I ask that messenger to take time to catch his breath, then please take word to the families of each of the people I just kept for overtime, my own wife included, to let them know that we're all working late tonight. He can tell his Captain I kept him for the fire effort, and meanwhile not work himself to death when I can clearly tell the poor sap must have sprinted the better part of five miles to get here.
It is just before formal shift change.
The captain seemed to be uncertain about whether to respond to a fire so far out of the area, but he immediately rallies when you take the initiative. He addresses his incoming shift, telling them you're in charge and there is a fire in center city, and the team will be responding.
Whistles start blowing immediately. The wagons are packed and ready, and someone is hitching up the horses to get them moving.
"Where?" someone shouts.
"Near headquarters," Peter replies. "That's what we know at this point; I suspect when we get closer we'll know more.
"What kind of fire?"
"We don't know that yet, either. Take everything."
Then to you, "Do we leave someone here to direct stragglers to the fire, or have you a better plan for that?"
--M. J. Young
Ideally I would leave him behind. He's getting off-shift anyway which means he'll be tired. He's also ranking officer, so he would be the ideal rally point here but might cause confusion there.
"We're sending up the whistles. That should get everyone here. Ideally... ... I'd like you to stay. You're the best one for people to rally to here. They know your rank and they know you're incoming shift leader, so they'll be looking for you. And if a ranking officer shows up on-scene at a department that's not used to how we do things, it might cause confusion with them looking at you and our people looking at me. Would you be willing to wait here and join us with the stragglers?"