A is for Adventure

M is for Mistake

November 12, 2008 by Kelli Hedding

From Misc pictures for a is for adventure

It was a fatal mistake; we were trapped. At the time I thought I was doing the right thing. It actually would cost us our lives.

I had been chosen as the leader. I didn’t want to be but I didn’t have a choice. As I connected my air tank to my mask I shuddered. I was afraid of fire. Now I was leading two of my friends straight into a fire in the bow of my ship.

We reported our air pressures before we went on air and then made our way into the smoky area.

I could not see a thing. With one hand against the wall I waved the other hand over my head to feel for dangerous objects. I walked slowly with one foot in front testing the floor to make sure it was safe to walk on.

It was very hot. The cool air from my air tank felt refreshing. I reminded myself to stay calm and control my breathing to make my air last longer. The weight of my teammates hand on my shoulder keeping us from being separated was comforting.

My hand struck something. It was a large, steel object.

“There is something overhead,” I relayed to my teammate, taking care to enunciate clearly with the B.A. mask mufling my speech. “I’m going to get down and crawl,” I said.

I heard my teammate directly behind me relay the message to the third member of our team.

It was slow and tedious work moving through this cramped portion of the ship. We made progress slowly, feeling our way through the blackness.

“I am going through a doorway,” I called to my teammates. “There is a board in the way. I am moving it out of the way.”

I did so. We slowly moved through the doorway and the door slammed shut behind us. I felt my way around and found myself and my teammates in a tiny, closet sized room. We carefully passed through the opposite doorway into the next room. There before us was the fire. It was out of control.

Our team got set up to open the hose. When we were in position I told my team I was going to start spraying. We all braced ourselves for the kick when the valve on the huge fire hose was opened.

From Misc pictures for a is for adventure

“B.A. 1, this is roving party,” came a voice over the radio a few minutes later, “you need to get out of there now,” came the urgent call.

The fire was directly in front of the opposite exit. We would have to go back the way we had come.

Turning around I put my hand on the air tank of my partner who had been behind me. Now I would be bringing up the rear. I felt relieved that the pressure of leadership was lifted off my shoulders. å

We passed through the doorway into the small, closet like room. We waited while our new leader looked for the other door that had closed behind us. And we waited…

“I can’t find the door knob,” called our leader.

It was then that I realized that the plank of wood I had moved earlier had served a very important purpose - it had been a prop for a door with no knob. Little had we known that when the door slammed shut behind us it had barred our only way of escape.

We were trapped; with a locked steel door on one side and a raging fire on the other there was no chance of escape.

We tried our radio but there was no reception in this section of the ship. There was no way for us to communicate with the bridge. Soon our air would run out. All we could do was curl up in a corner and wait while our air ran out and we roasted slowly.

Suddenly a cheerful voice popped into the room.

“Ok, you guys can take off the blindfolds,” the voice said. “Let’s gather in the other room for debrief”.

Thank goodness it was only a drill.