Aug. 7, 2099: LOS ANGELES - Floodwaters were finally able to contain the wild fires caused by the seventh earthquake in as many days. Exhausted firefighters were comforted by Governor Jerry Brown VI, who gave each rescuer a personal power crystal suspended inside a pyramid.
Aug. 11, 2099: UNITED STATES MOON BASE - Members of FEMA Moon Task Force 1 responded to a reported crack in the plastic dome covering the central city. Rescuers worked for 12 hours making temporary repairs to the crack with ballistic space duct tape.
Aug. 13, 2099: NEW YORK CITY - The first structural fire in the entire city in the past 18 years was reported just after 1 P.M. Arriving firefighters found a smoke condition in a complex of Disney Stores that encompassed what used to be Times Square. Twenty paramedic engines, 11 squads and six hazmat ladders battled the one-room blaze for two hours.
Aug. 17, 2099: PISA, ITALY - The famed leaning tower finally fell over after becoming almost parallel with the ground. A stray brick bounced across the square, striking a tourist bus that ran off the road into a propane tank farm on the grounds of an orphanage. A major explosion and fire ensued. No injuries were reported.
Aug. 20, 2099: NEW JERSEY TURNPIKE - Firefighters responded to a multiple-vehicle chain-reaction collision apparently caused by a dense fog condition. Thirty hover cars and several eight-trailer-long hover trucks were involved. The main mirror of the Hubbell Space Telescope was redirected to burn off the fog at the request of the incident commander.
Aug. 22, 2099: CLEVELAND - A fire swept the huge Excelsior Fire Protection complex just after lunch. The structure, two interconnected one-story buildings, covered more than one square mile. The fire was apparently caused by a defective smoke detector. The building was not protected by a sprinkler system.
Aug. 26, 2099: WASHINGTON, D.C. - In hearings before Congress, members of the OSHA advisory committee testified that several fire departments were still entering burning buildings despite NFPA 1044.5467323 and OSHA 26.1075, which forbid actual entry of structural firefighters into buildings that are on fire. The idea was advanced of completely doing away with fire engines, operating with governors that limit apparatus forward speed to 20 mph, and recommending that "fire-related emergency personnel" utilize mass transit for response.
Millennium Time Capsule
AUG. 7, 2099
Tokyo firefighters were confronted with a serious emergency condition in the early-morning hours. Responding rescue workers made their way through streets filled with rubble, ruptured and ignited gas mains and burning vehicles. High-rise office buildings were in pieces shattered like children's toys. Entire neighborhoods were in flames, and the fire front extended in a wide path that ran across the island. Numerous buildings collapsed, were virtually crushed, as a huge mutant lizard stomped through the downtown area. The best attempts of the army could do little to stop the rampage, mutual aid was requested, but the first-arriving departments were eaten by the large animal.
Paul Hashagen, a Firehouse® contributing editor, is an FDNY firefighter assigned to Rescue Company 1 in Manhattan. He is also an assistant chief of the Freeport, NY, Fire Department. Hashagen is a fire service historian and compiles the monthly Rekindles column.
