Mike sensed that she’d support him all the way here. She was acting like a true professional, and Mike felt an overwhelming surge of gratitude that she’d come.
And then the ambulance screamed around the last corner, and every other consideration but immediate need was washed away.
The hotel was well alight. The old, two-storied building hadn’t been painted for years. This year’s summer had been long and hot. The cooler weather of approaching winter was here now, but there’d been little rain. The building was therefore tinder-dry. Whatever had happened here-whether it had been a small spark or a larger explosive force setting things off-the flames had caught and held, and one look was enough to tell Mike that there was no way the local firefighters could save this.
And who was inside? Could anyone help them?
May there be nobody, please, God…
The whole top floor was alight and, as the ambulance screamed around the corner of the main street and the occupants of the ambulance stared in horror, the top left-hand side of the hotel roof started caving in on itself.
Dear God.
Then the ambulance was pulling in behind the fire units, careful to leave space for men and hoses between, and Mike was striding down into the noise and heat to see what he could do in all this.
He got two feet from the ambulance doors before he was caught by Rachel Briny, head of the fire team. Rachel was tiny and tough and as capable as ten men. Wherever there was trouble in the town, there was Rachel-and thank God for it.
‘I’ve got Les Crannond over here for you, Doc. He needs seeing first.’
Mike nodded. Les was the local publican, and if Rachel said he needed to be seen first then Mike believed her.
‘Burns?’
‘Yeah. He’s down behind the firetruck. I’ve got boys dousing him with water. Don’t think he’ll conk out on us, but his legs… Pants caught alight just as we got him out.’
‘What else, Rach?’
‘Nothing yet,’ she said abruptly. ‘Worse luck. Can’t get upstairs, and upstairs is starting to come downstairs all by itself. Let you know if we find anything but don’t hold your breath. Les says there’re two left up there, but God help them if he’s right.’
And she turned and started barking orders as she ran again to face the fire.
Mike turned to find Tess beside him, her arms full of sodden blankets and clutching Mike’s bag under her load.
‘Tell me where to go.’
He didn’t answer, but swerved behind the truck where Rachel had said he’d find Les, leaving Tess to follow.
Les was in a mess.
The publican lay flat on the bitumen, his face grey with shock and pain. He looked as if he was about to pass out. One of the firemen was running water over his legs, and Mike saw that the cloth of his pants had burned almost away.
‘Keep going, Robby,’ he told the young firefighter. ‘Keep that water going. The cooler you can get those legs, the less chance we’ll have of having full-degree burns.’
Few people realised that even after the source of the burn was removed, flesh could keep burning. Twenty minutes continuous cooling was the rule in emergency medicine, and Mike wasn’t about to break it now.
He knelt down before Les, and Tess knelt beside him. As Mike lifted Les’s wrist to find his pulse-the man looked deeply shocked and cardiac arrest was a real possibility here-Tess hauled open Mike’s bag.
‘He has a heart condition,’ Mike said brusquely. ‘He had a heart attack two years ago and bypass surgery.’ The burns were bad, but a heart attack was what he was most afraid of here.
‘You want morphine?’ Tess asked, nodding as her eyes rested on Les’s face. If he had a heart condition on top of shock and these burns… Tessa’s expression said she knew what they were dealing with.
‘Saline, then morphine.’
‘You got it.’
They worked silently and at speed, and Mike was once more overwhelmingly grateful for Tessa’s presence. The two ambulance men had disappeared, no doubt leaving the major casualty to Mike and doing their own reconnaissance of what else needed doing.
That was the way they usually worked in emergencies. With only one doctor in Bellanor, it was impossible for Mike to perform triage-the careful sorting out of priorities-in an emergency. The ambulance boys did it for him.
There was no doubt when Mike stepped back from Les they’d have more work for him, and if they thought someone needed him urgently then they’d find him soon enough. Mike was accustomed to working alone-but to have Tess beside him was a godsend.
The heat here was indescribable. No firefighter would get off unscathed, and yet they had to try. There was no way they could simply allow the hotel to burn to ash. With the hotel so close to other buildings they had to try and contain it, and contain it fast.
And there was still the possibility of more people inside.
Mike couldn’t think of that. Tess was handing him a syringe. He took it, and she set up a makeshift stand for the saline while he found a vein. By the time he had the saline running, the bag was self-supporting.
He didn’t have to ask Tess for what he needed next. The minute the saline was in, she had morphine ready.
Les muttered and his eyes rolled back in his head. Mike was inserting the syringe of morphine so it was Tess who lifted Les’s wrist and found the pulse. She bent her face close to his so he could hear her over the roar of the flames and the shouts around them.
‘It’s OK, Les,’ she said softly-urgently. ‘It’s OK. You’re out of danger. The fire’s being contained. Just relax. Don’t fight it. We’re in charge now. Not you. The painkiller will take effect in just a moment, but I don’t want you to fight it. Just relax.’
Mike glanced up at her in swift surprise. She sounded so much in control…
What had he expected? He didn’t know, but he now knew what he had here. Tessa sounded competent and sure and totally reassuring. She almost had Mike believing there was nothing to worry about.
‘Sam…’ Les moaned. ‘It was Sam…’
‘Is Sam Fisher inside?’ Mike demanded, and Les managed a weak nod.
‘Stupid bastard. I told him no radiators. I told him. But he keeps sneaking them in. Then he drinks in bed-gets himself blind drunk-gets hot and throws the covers off.’
‘It’s happened before.’
‘Last week. He burned a bloody great hole in the floor before he woke up. I nearly chucked him out then, but he swore he wouldn’t do it again.’
‘Sam Fisher’s an alcoholic,’ Mike explained grimly to Tess. ‘He often stays in the hotel. It’s almost his permanent home.’
He finished administering the morphine and took Les’s hand. Still the young firefighter was playing water gently over Les’s legs, and Mike’s eyes silently ordered Robby to continue. ‘You’re OK now, Les,’ he told the publican. ‘We have you safe. It looks like Sam might have burned himself to death, but you know as well as me that by the time Sam goes to sleep he’s so far drunk he’s almost paralytic. The smoke will have taken hold before he felt a thing.’
‘But Hugh,’ Les moaned.
‘Hugh…?’
‘Hugh Wade’s in there. You know him, Doc. Young fella. My nephew. Getting married next Saturday to Doreen Hirrup. Lives on a farm ten miles out. Come down for the wedding rehearsal and I gave him a room free.’
Oh, no…
There was no time to take this in. There was a sudden warning shout from closer to the fire, and then a crash so loud it hurt Mike’s ears. The flames reached a roaring crescendo, and there were sparks flying two hundred feet into the air. Mike looked up as the whole top storey of the place crumpled.
‘Oh, God…’ Les groaned beneath their hands, and his face turned even more grey.
