August 19th, 1997
Lusty was home where she made her bed but used the coffee pot which is a large pot that gently slopes inwards. It’s chrome colored. She made herself a pot of coffee. She remembered her mom making coffee with the pot and it was her dad’s who got it from his dad who was in the Little Bird Army from 1942-1944.
Lusty just reheated a plate of leftover pot roast with sauerkraut. Not an ordinary breakfast, but this had been in the slow cooker I have and I would rather finish it than let it go to waste. Mama always told me never to be wasteful and how someone would’ve loved to have this if I was just going to throw it out.
Lusty finished her leftover pot roast and put it in the sink so it could be cleaned out. And she did the dishes and put them in the drainer. Before she left she put on a pink sunrose dress with a red ribbon.
If Zofia was here then she would just say something about me dressing all girly, Lusty thought, My fashion choice ain’t hers and nobody else’s decision. I love to wear dresses when I’m not working and if someone wants to argue with me, they can meet my foot to their balls or stomach.
Lusty then got into her car after locking the back and front door and she drove to the fire academy.
***
Fire Department City of Empire Fire Academy.
Lusty looked around and she remembered the training she had to do in The numerous training facilities include state-of-the-art audio-visual technology, a Distance Learning Center, buildings that simulate similar dwellings found in the city (tenements, brownstones, commercial buildings), field house, burn building, and propane-fueled automobile fire simulator. The Fire Academy provides optimum training to all firefighters in fire suppression, investigation, prevention and education. Not adding she was also taught Vehicle Extrication, Collapse, Confined Space Rescue, CPR, and Hazardous Materials training with the other trainee firefighters.
When Lusty entered the administrative building of the fire academy there was a row of badges for the fallen Firefighters, EMT’s, and Paramedics of the Fire Department City of Empire and the Volunteer Fire Department City of Empire. Unlike other city or town Fire Departments on Little Bird who are just professional firefighters whose members were career firefighters, the Fire Department City of Empire is a combination department that has both professional firefighters and volunteers. But the Professional firefighters and Volunteers have their own separate firehouses and different turnout gear. Not adding that the volunteers have normal jobs but they carry a pager that lets them know to leave work to head to the firehouse.
Lusty walked through the hallways and went up several stairs to the third floor.
***
Fire Department City of Empire Fire Academy Library.
Lusty picked up a few books from the historical section.
BEGINNING CENTURY: 1710-1810
A NEW THREAT: 1810-1914
A NEW ERA: 1914-1978
One of the books Claire read was about the city's founding in 1710. The book said that the city was founded by a group of settlers who were looking for a new place to live. The settlers were attracted to the city's location near a river and its abundance of natural resources.
Lusty read book one. “The City of Empire was founded on July 4th, 1710 by a group of Irish, Italian, Spanish, and French settlers who came from Europe looking for a new place to call home and to get away from the old world in Europe.
“On July 8th, 1710 at 2:14 AM a fire broke out in Downtown Empire. It destroyed the market, the bank, Military academy, barracks, armory, cathedral, forge, granary, library, paper mill, and the aqueduct. It badly damaged the mint that made currency coins.”
Lusty learned that the city back then had both Watchmen who were later dissolved and became the Empire Police Department. The city had City Guards, which later dissolved to form the Fire Department City of Empire and Empire Police Department.
***
July 8th, 1710.
The City of Empire.
The City of Empire. The city only has 15520 residents.
The three main areas of the city are Downtown, Uptown, and The Ports where people work at the markets, blacksmithy, Mint, Paper mill, Library, Forge, Cathedral, Bank, Market, Bank, Military Academy, Barracks, and Armory.
Downtown next to a stall at the market, a lantern fell and shattered but nobody noticed because it’s at night near sunrise. The city has both Watchmen and City Guards but a majority of them are asleep with a few awake during the night the City Guards are armed with Muskets and Buckets with the former to shoot at criminals and the latter to fight fires.
When the few who were up at night saw an orange glow in the distance so they ran and met fire. They also had a problem which was that the river was a mile away and fire hydrants weren't invented yet they have rubber fire hoses but they were not long enough. The fire had to be within four hundred feet of the river, not a mile almost a mile and a quarter away.
The few nighttime City guards split up with four going to go and get the daytime City guards and the other four went to the river to draw water and run back which made them more tired. When the daytime City guards got there in their red and blue uniforms but they only had their leather buckets they just ran to the river and back. The fire moved faster than they could run back and forth and after four minutes the fire reached Uptown and The Ports.
The fire destroyed a majority of the city with a select few brick homes and few brick commercial buildings surviving due to either the embers not being hot anymore or by having strong enough roofs that it didn’t catch fire.
When the fire put itself out due to there being nothing else to burn the city of Empire officials held an emergency meeting later that day. They needed an active firefighting force so on July 9th, 1710 the Empire Volunteer Fire Department was organized and its number was fourteen because it only had fourteen members, 8 males, 6 females and they had three wagons with one carrying buckets, one having some kind of cannon on it to shoot water but it required two people to move a metal pump on both sides up and down to pump the water, the third one is to carry ax and pike poles but they had to run while the wagons were pulled by Percheron bred horses.
After a few years in 1714 Volunteer fire company 15 was established and they protected The Ports while 14 protected Uptown and Downtown. When a fire broke out both companies would race to the fire and if both got to the scene first then they would fight on who got to fight the fire and who got to rescue people with the losing company would have to sit on the sidelines.
During the industrial revolution with some emergencies, the city realized they needed a professional firefighting force, not volunteer companies because the volunteers took too long to respond, and that if two companies arrived they would fight. So on July 9, 1810, the Fire Department city of Empire was established with the Empire Volunteer Fire Department still being around but being a child agency of the main fire department.
One problem was that the Fire Department City of Empire only had two hundred and eighty professional firefighters with the volunteers having two thousand three hundred and four. But the first two volunteer fire companies in the city had become professional firehouses with the volunteer companies being reorganized to 330, 331, 332, 333, 334, 335, and 336. The professional company numbers were only 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 23.
On March 14th, 1723 was when the city of Empire hired its first firefighter of African descent, and in the following year and a half did the same with Hispanic, Latino, and Asian people.
***
Modern day/ August 1997.
Lusty looked at the black and white small portraits but the book also said that the Captains and Lieutenants that the city had were usually men who were just coming out of the military and used their leadership skills from the platoon level to a company or a battalion or regiment level and used their leadership skills.
Lusty closed the book and slid it to the side. She picked up book two.
Lusty read how the city grew but didn’t have enough companies. The city had enough money for road maintenance, building construction, and to pay the professional firefighters and police officers but not enough money to organize more fire protection. Just a decade before the official government of Little Bird organized the Fire Department of Little Bird which is a Government Agency.
Without having much choice the city folded its fire department into the Fire Department of Little Bird so instead of getting paid directly by the city it was now the Federal government of Little Bird that helped build more firehouses which became 33, 53, 59, 68, 69, 71, 72, 82, 94, and 95. They were placed in areas of the city where the higher-ups thought they would be needed.
Book two also said factories sometimes emitted hot embers and the embers would ignite homes and other places on fire from time to time. July 4th, 1845 was one of the worst days in the Fire Department City of Empire’s history of a factory fire. The chemicals inside of the factory got hot and blew up which killed one hundred and thirty-seven firemen and fifty-nine women firefighters and permanently deafen the other men and women firefighters who were outside.
On the same page of the history book, it said that back then they really didn’t have ladder/truck companies back then but they had two fire wagons meant to fight fires and one to carry all the tools, and back then they were called hose wagons and a tool carrier. But the day after the emergency they changed their fire attack strategy by not sending in a majority of a single company into fires and implemented a two in two out style type of strategy. But because times were different back then the ones who became deaf no longer could do their jobs because back then they had people walk around with rattlers which within earshot would’ve alerted someone else of a fire who would then would alert the firehouse.
With industrialization, it brought new challenges but at the same time, it brought new technology. At this time industrialization was slow and a lot of people were living in a pre-industrial society, to be precise it was an Agricultural/Agrarian society because settlers chose the spot for the city of how fertile the soil was for farming and the Admiral Culver River it made irrigation easy.
The book said that around the turn of the century, the Fire Department City of Empire replaced their wool jackets for rubber jackets and rubber hip boots, and Aluminum helmets and got rid of very tough leather sewn at each of the combs of the helmet called Gratacap.
In 1914 the city faced a shortage of firefighters when World War One broke out and drafted firemen were usually put in Heavy Weapons Companies carrying around water-cooled machine guns, mortars. In 1915 firefighters were drafted to use flamethrowers because they were used to being around fire.
The book said that from 1915-1918 firemen were chosen for flamethrower duty because they were used to being around fires and not afraid of enormous blazes that flamethrowers shot out. But Lusty found it funny that police officers who were drafted in both World Wars were usually put in Military Police companies or were in combat units that were usually the first wave of soldiers or marines but it wasn’t until the 1950s when both firefighters and police officers were exempted from getting drafted. What was true in the book was that when firefighters got drafted into the Little Bird Navy in both World Wars then they were in damage control of fighting fires.
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Also on April 7th, 1908 a magnitude eight earthquake hit the city of Empire which destroyed most of the city, destroyed a majority of the hydrant system, and the fire department had to rely on the city’s twelve cisterns that were built in the 1890s and each hold fifty thousand gallons of water but the fire rushed faster and destroyed a majority of the city.
Lusty closed and slid book two under book one. She then picked up book three.
Book three said that from 1920 was when horse-drawn fire wagons were replaced with gasoline-powered vehicles and it wasn’t until 1922 when Ladder company fourteen was officially organized as the city’s first ladder company. Even though the first high rises in the City of Empire were built between 1900-1912 but the ladders they had only could go up to twenty-four feet and they had pompier ladders. On October 26th, 1922 was when they received a seventy-five-foot gasoline-powered ladder truck.
Lusty kept reading that it also said that on June 6th, 1927 was when Heavy Rescue Squad Seventeen was established, and only thirty-six firefighters who have experience with welding, bricklaying, Carpentry, civil, chemical, mechanical, and electrical engineering, as well as architectural engineering and used their skills to help others that are outside of the scope of normal engine and ladder companies of the city. Of course back then only the rescue squad had access to breathing apparatus while the other firefighters in the city were called ‘Smoke eaters’ and ‘Black lung’ due to they would’ve gone inside of burning buildings by holding their breaths where it wasn’t until 1972 when breathing apparatus became standard and required to be worn even though a lot of seasoned and older firefighters were hesitant because the new technology was usually frowned upon. Mostly because they’re doing a job and if the new technology didn't work then someone would either die or get badly hurt.
On October 28th, 1928, Rescue Squad 18 was put into service serving the upper half of the city of Empire while Rescue 17 serviced the lower half of the city of Empire.
From 1940 to 1945 during World War Two, Automotive manufacturers, refrigerator manufacturers, canned goods manufacturers, Toy workshops, Steel mills, Textile mills, Furniture factories, Tanneries, Typewriter manufacturers, Lumber mills, logging camps, and Radio manufacturers were converted into making armored cars, tanks, rifles, shotguns, submachine guns, machine guns, bazooka’s, bombers, fighter planes, dive bombers, torpedo bombers. Grenades, artillery shells, mortar shells, tank shells, military backpack-mounted unit portable radio transceivers, hand-held radio transceivers “Handie Talkie” (a walkie-talkie today), Half tracks, trucks, jeeps, artillery guns, mortars, telescopic gun sights, bayonets, plastic explosives, satchel charges, combat knives, fighting knives, machetes, rifle grenades (processor to grenade launchers), flamethrowers, and anti-tank guns.
There was an exception though and that’s with the Conflagration Fire Apparatus because they were and still are part of homeland defense and it and its employees were exempted from the war effort so they were focused on providing homeland defense.
The book also said that in the 1950s the Fire Department City of Empire had the same amount of numbers as the volunteers but due to staffing shortages a lot who got drafted in World War 2 were killed and which led to delays and understaffed companies. It faced new challenges such as high rises becoming skyscrapers and the car culture that once cars were a luxury now nine out of ten people in the city owned a car. Not adding now with chemicals proved challenging.
Another danger was naval munitions that were stored in warehouses across the city that were built during World War 2 but had to wait until they had to be used again during the Korean War and Vietnam War. In 1949 a fire broke out in a warehouse that stored fifty caliber high explosive shells for the Aurora class battleships caught fire. Due to the fact that it was storing high explosive shells, it was a third alarm but the warehouse exploded which killed seven warehouse workers, the warehouse owner who ran in to save some workers, and twenty-two firefighters were killed and the explosion destroyed five cars, three military transportation trucks, two fire engines, and three fire trucks. Not adding fifty-one bystanders were injured with an additional fourteen bystanders killed and nearby buildings had to be evacuated as a precaution.
In 1952 and 1953 both Squad 525 and 141 were both established and were called “Miniature Rescue Squads” because they carry the same tools as found on the Rescue Squads but were also called to any fire acting as an Engine or Ladder company.
It wasn’t until 1957 and 1959 when Foam Engines 32 and 33 were established but only responded to any emergency that required foam and most firefighters who served on the two foam engines were firefighters in the navy who fought plane and later jet fires on board using foam and water mostly foam.
In 1947 a lot of homes were replaced from wood with prefabricated steel houses and that were the same as wooden houses but now harder to fight in because they often had reinforced windows and the steel was a lot harder to cut through. The last factory-built prefabricated house was built in 1959. High rises were and still are hard because the fires are usually outside of the reach of their 100-foot ladders and the fires are usually on the floors with windows made to withstand pressure and suction forces from the strong winds.
In 1950 the Empire International Airport began construction and got done building in 1955 and while the airport has its own specially trained firefighters the Empire International Airport falls under the jurisdiction of the Empire Police Department and the Fire Department City of Empire.
In 1961 was when HAZMAT Company 32 and in 1964 when HAZMAT Company 33 were organized but back then until 1988 they were originally called “RADIOLOGICAL COMPANY” and were once organized by soldiers who trained in using radiological equipment but weren’t reformed into HAZMAT in October 17th, 1988 and they just got rid of Radiological and put “Hazardous Material Company” and put “Specialists” under Hazardous Material Company.
1984 was another bad day for the Fire Department City of Empire when a fire at a factory explosion killed four brothers who were a part of the same company which was Engine Eighteen. Since then the Fire Department City of Empire will allow siblings to work in the same firehouse part of the same shift but a lot of siblings will be scattered across the city’s firehouses even part of different shifts to prevent something like that from happening again.
Lusty spent three hours reading those books and she decided to go home. While she was walking down a hallway a guy in a suit approached her and she asked what he wanted.
The guy wasn’t subtle and was straight to the point and asked Lusty if she likes to cook and clean and if she had hips to bear a lot of children only for Lusty to say “I don’t know. Do you think all of your teeth are suited when my fist enters your mouth? Or when my foot hits you in the balls you won't be walking for a long time?"
Lusty left because she wasn’t interested in talking with someone who believes that and she thinks she should’ve hit him instead of leaving.
When Lusty got home she found an eviction notice on her door which she believed it’s legitimate so she packed up her things and dismantled her greenhouse. She went back to the Eastside and stayed with some old neighbors until she moved into an apartment in Downtown, Empire.
Lusty’s new apartment is a retro-ultramodern apartment with parquet flooring, granite countertops, a walk-in closet, towel warmers, a king size bed with a leather headboard, two bathrooms with one just a shower, and one a mix of a bathtub and shower. Not adding it has three bedrooms, a closet, and a big room which Lusty turned into both a map room and a soundproof room so she can jam out.
She got help from Dave, Lieutenant Autumn, Firefighters Eddie, James Smith, David Nguyen, Michael Sullivan, and Engineer John Rodriguez, also Battalion Chief Marcus and Captain Nova Jones helped her move.
“I could’ve gone to my son’s baseball game,” said James Smith, “Even though my ex-wife has custody of him for this week and next week I still would’ve gone even if I went to jail for going. But I’m not in the mood of dealing with my bitchy ex-wife. Don’t know what I saw in her.”
Lusty replied, “You can still go. We’re not going to judge you for leaving early or if you want to be with your son. We’re not going to judge.”
“Nah I’m not in the mood of dealing with my ex-wife,” said James Smith, “She’s not even a good mother as she claims. I could take her back to family court to get full custody of our son and I got evidence of her being a bad mom. But the only reason I don’t is for him because we’ve already traumatized him enough going through the divorce. My ex during the divorce hearing said that she’s a ‘great mother’ Yeah right.
"I got video graphics, photographic, and auto recordings of her having an affair on me or buying weed or crack and she’s willing to give a strange man a blowjob in the front seat of a car with our son in the backseat or have two men over and give one a blowjob and have another fuck her in the ass or woman area with our son in the house. At least I give our son presents, cake, and ice cream and take him out for his birthday or I make up for missing his birthday. My ex? She rather goes to get laid or get high or take our son's birthday money to get her drugs.”
Lusty replied, “What a terrible woman. Women like her should get their tubes tied. Men who do the same as your ex does should get a vasectomy. But that’s my opinion not a fact. But I have a feeling she’ll overdose and traumatize you and her son.”
“That’s why I have my radio tuned to the Highwood district for Firehouse Fifty-Nine,” said James Smith. “So if they get a call to my old house before having to leave and or where the baseball game is so I can leave. Yeah if my ex has an overdose and I go to my son then I’ll be violating my joint custody where she has him for two weeks and I have him for two weeks. But she says she wants to leave the city.”
Lusty replied, “What’s a violation for it? That can make you lose joint custody?”
“If I go within one hundred feet of them at any time as long I’m not on the job,” said James Smith, “So If I go to that game I’ll be within one hundred feet of them. I can go to jail and lose my joint custody but let’s say for example if the house next to theirs is on fire and Squad 141 goes to the house fire then I won’t because it would interfere with my job if I had to sit out every call within the school, baseball field, and old house.
"My ex would say that I violated what the family court said but the judge would say ‘If he’s working as a firefighter then it’s null and voided because if he had to sit out every call then it’ll interfere with his job.’ So I’m not going to violate the court order on my days off and when I don’t have visitation. Court order allows me to see my son but when my ex has our son then I can’t go within one hundred feet of them without losing visitation. Don’t know how she got the court to agree to that. But whatever.”
Lieutenant Autumn replied, “Probably said some shit to the judge and got a restraining order out against you when she has your son for fourteen days. That’s the only reason I can think of. Sounds like she wants you to screw up somewhere so she can get sole custody and fuck every male and drug dealer without you using that against her in family court one day. But that’s my guess.”
“Probably,” said James Smith, “Did you have a girlfriend or wife who did that?”
Lieutenant Autumn replied, “Ex-Fiance. She works as a banker and when I was on shift she would fuck every male banker in her place of work or be smashing some higher up. I had a feeling so I contacted a friend and I went over and he showed me a security camera footage of her giving a Department Head guy over at the Bank of Empire well the footage that I was shown was of her giving the guy a blowjob in the breakroom. I went home, packed her stuff up and kicked her out and I told her what’s what and told her that I wasn’t going to marry a woman who’s just going to be unfaithful.”
“I did somewhat the same with Zofia,” said Lusty, “I more or less told her that I wasn’t going to be with someone who’s going to argue with me just for doing the job I want to do. So we broke up.”
Lieutenant Autumn replied, “Didn’t help that she pulled the ‘You can’t do this I’m pregnant with your baby’ card so when she gave birth and got a DNA test it turns out she was pregnant with another man’s baby. She doesn’t even know who the guy is because she slept with so many men at her work or at corporate HQ.”
“Well not all women are like that,” said Dave, “There are a lot of women out there who are loyal.”
They told him that they know.
“I know I got a girlfriend who works at a restaurant,” said Lieutenant Autumn, “She’s an executive chef. She doesn’t care that it’s an interracial relationship because of me being Caucasian and her being Hispanic. But we’re happy together and she doesn’t mind that I do a dangerous job.”
Lusty replied, “If Zofia was here she’ll say that ‘Cooking is a traditional female role’ and I swear to if there is a God then I want to punch her because cooking is unisex, not one-sided gender. I know some guys who can cook better than my own mother! If my mom was still alive she would probably kill me for that statement. Zofia always said that everything I do is ‘too girly’ but I have no problem getting dirty and sweaty. Zofia wants to be cleaned. She'd probably starve to death if it wasn’t for her mom cooking or when we were together it was me who cooked. I swear if she says something to me like that again she’s getting a no-hold bars beatdown.”
After several hours Lusty was now done moving into her new apartment and there was a place on the balcony for Lusty to overlook the western half of the city. Lusty likes her new apartment even though she was once paying $100 per month now she pays $245 per month even though she has no problem with money because she makes $120 per week. Not adding of her being an armored car guard and a musician.
When she went to ride around she went and rode by the house she got evicted from and who she saw coming out was Zofia. Lusty stopped and asked Zofia why she was there and Zofia scoffed at Lusty.
“Well when you’re parents have money,” said Zofia in a snobby attitude, “You can do whatever the fuck you want! So I got my parents to hire a lawyer and got someone on the bench to file eviction papers. So now you’re homeless and I got a place of my own and my parents will be paying my rent because I don’t earn enough to pay the rent. Also, my gut is telling me that when you get pregnant one day you’re just going to breastfeed your children! Because you’re a poor ghetto bitch!”
Lusty replied, “If I do have a child or children then how I feed it either by breastfeeding her or him or with formula is my decision, not yours because we’re not together. And you’re a bitch! I don’t know what I saw in you, you bitch! Also if you have children I bet when they get part time jobs or full time jobs you’ll take half of their paychecks and say ‘Oh I’m taking half of your paycheck to cover when I raised you, fed you, clothed you, and sent you to school. Oh I’m taking another percentage of it when you were in my womb and when I drove you somewhere even when you went to the store with me’ You’re going to nickel and dime your kids while I’ll raise my kids if I have any with kindness, love and respect and I won’t take their money!”
Lusty punched Zofia hard enough to knock her down and Lusty kicked Zofia in the stomach for good measure. Lusty got back in her car and drove home in anger.