Captain, There is smoke rising due south of us.

Michael...Here is a litte story I dashed off just the other day


Shadyside Retirement Home
Shadyside, FL
March 11, 2073

Dear Grandsons, Albemarle and Manfred,

I was overjoyed to hear of your appointments to the ranks of the Tampa Fire and Rescue Service. Your employment with this organization will continue a long-standing tradition of service to the people of the city of Tampa by our family. That tradition began many years ago with the appointment over a hundred years ago of my grandfather, your great-great grandfather, Scott, to the then, Tampa Fire Department in1967. The tradition of service to the community skipped a generation and then at age 32 in the year 2035 I joined the Tampa Fire and Rescue Service.

That summer of ’36 was my rookie year and I spent it with Captain Amos Brigand tooling around the Seminole Heights area with our red pushcart. Captain Brigand was one of the last of the firefighters that had commanded the big pumpers. Oh, there was a pumper at the firefighter museum downtown, but hardly anyone cared any more. It was covered with dust and debris. The tires had gone flat so heavy wooden blocks were placed under the axels to hold it up.

Captain Brigand and I had our window washing equipment piled in our pushcart. We had an assortment of ladders, squeegees, a bundle of rags and soap powder. The pushcart was outfitted with a small water pump that enabled us to wash second story windows. We also had an assortment of home safety equipment such as smoke detectors and fire extinguishers. It was my job to walk up to each residence to solicit window-washing jobs and to try to peddle our smoke detectors and home safety equipment.

You may wonder what in the world I am talking about, but you will soon enough hear the stories of that time. During President Bush’s (Jeb) last term in office another great depression similar to the one back in the 1930’s began. As a result of the hard times many cities across the land could no longer afford to buy fire engines. Instead fire inspectors were hired from the ranks of the unemployed. These inspectors were given a lot of power. They could even come into your home and look for violations of the fire code.

Our city declared that the fire department must be self-supporting so those firefighters not participating in the inspections and the new hires had to go out and drum up money by washing windows and peddling fire safety equipment.

Captain Brigand and I worked out of the fire station in Seminole Heights. This area was hard hit by the depression and the inhabitants were not inclined to purchase our products. On this particular Thursday we were having a particularly bad day. When 5:00 pm rolled around we had only one window washing job and two smoke detectors sold for the whole day. Captain Brigand said that was it for the day and we turned our pushcart around and headed for station.

Chief Inspector Checko was waiting for us when we got back to the station.

“What have you brought in today, Brigand. I hope it is more than what you brought in yesterday,” Inspector Checko sneered.

Captain Brigand handed him our log and the money that went with it. Inspector Checko looked at the money and the log for a moment and then launched into a tirade. “You think you can coast because you will be eligible to draw your pension in three weeks. If you do you have another think coming. Tomorrow is your last day unless you produce. This city is not going to give a pension to a slacker like you.” He then stomped off to his office.

I turned to Captain Brigand and asked, “What are you going to do, Captain?”

He put his big hand on my shoulder and said with a big smile, “When the time comes I will deal with Inspector Checko. Let’s head for home.”

The next day things were going better for us as we had two window washing jobs completed, sold three smoke detectors, and were just setting up the ladder for another window washing. I climbed the ladder and began to squeegee the window in front of me when I noticed smoke rising from the downtown area. I called out to Captain Brigand who was sitting on the curb smoking a cigarette. “Captain, there is smoke due south of us.”

He got up from the curb and threw his cigarette away and said, “Come down here and let me take a look.”

I quickly came down and we repositioned the ladder so he could get a better look at the column of smoke. He ascended the ladder and then yelled down to me while still at the top of the ladder, “Get all our stuff together. We have to go back to the station.”

I got behind the pushcart, but Captain Brigand shouted, “Leave it. We only need the ladder. We hoisted the ladder onto our shoulders and as fast as we could, headed for the station. When we got there Captain Brigand spied Inspector Checko’s city owned sedan and without a moments hesitation took the ladder from me and rammed it through the back window of Inspector Checko’s city owned sedan.

Inspector Checko upon hearing the sound of breaking glass bolted out of his office and nearly fainted when he saw what Captain Brigand had done. Captain Brigand slipped past him, grabbed the sedan keys off the desk in Inspector Checko’s office and ran past the now turning-purple-with-rage Inspector Checko to where I was standing.

Captain Brigand motioned me to get in the passenger seat and we drove off leaving the now completely purple Inspector Checko yelling at the top of his lungs, “You are fired, Brigand. You are fired, Brigand.”

The fire was raging in a warehouse close to the docks. Right next to the fire was a cruise ship loaded with tourists. The fire was closing in on the main entrance to the ship making it impossible to get off the ship. Most of the passengers were able to get off the ship before the fire got too bad, but now several hundred of the passengers and crew were trapped. Preparations were being made to get the ship under way, but it was feared that would take too long and the smoke and heat would take its toll on the remaining passengers and crew.

Captain Brigand quickly saw what was happening and we drove around to the bow of the ship. We quickly pulled our ladder out the back window of the sedan and hoisted it to where the tip of the ladder rested on the railing of the bow. Almost at once the passengers and crew huddled on the deck began to scamper down to safety. By this time engine companies and ladder trucks began arriving from the county and began to set up to combat this fire.

Inspector Checko arrived a bit later and began to complain to the fire chief about what Captain Brigand and I had done. I heard the chief tell him that he couldn’t very well fire us because over two hundred lives had been saved because of what we had done.

When the fire was out and the Inspectors were able to get into the burned out warehouse it was discovered that there were numerous violations of the fire code. The owner of the warehouse was arrested on the spot and he immediately began to sing like a little canary. It seems like Inspector Checko and some of his cohorts were soliciting payoffs to look the other way when there was a violation of the fire code. Inspector Checko was arrested later that same day.

As a result of this fire the city managed to find the funds to buy new fire engines, Captain Amos Brigand got his pension and I didn’t get fired.

I hope you enjoy this look back at the “old days” of your fire department.

Your Grandfather,

Eric “Batka” Major