Hero Worship

Paul was a Firefighter in nineteen eighty nine. He joined the local Volunteer Fire Department in his home town of Horton after graduating high school. He was the youngest man on the Department at just eighteen. The average age of his fellow firefighters was around thirty with some in their fifties. As the youngest and the newest, he was often tasked with the grunt work. While not glamorous, it was essential and he did his job without fail. He admired his brothers and gained a vast store house of knowledge by watching their actions. and listening to their stories. One of the men, Tom, took Paul under his wing and helped him along. Tom was just twenty six and he had a beautiful wife and a wonderful five year old daughter. Paul was still single with one girl vying for his attention. They wed a year later.

Late one bitterly cold December night the small Department received the call of a fully engulfed structure fire. The Captain immediately called dispatch for mutual aid the minute he arrived at the station. When they arrived on the scene the building, a three story apartment complex, was raging. They quickly set up and donned their rescue equipment and, with charged lines Tom's four man team entered the building first while Paul waited outside with his own four man team.

Paul was on the second attack line and as soon as the firefighters from Hocum, a neighboring town, arrived and set up. He and his team entered the building as well. That night they rescued twenty five trapped residents. Tom was a fellow brother and at twenty seven, he rescued no less than ten people that night. Paul had just pulled a woman from the building and handed her off to medical when Tom grabbed him and said let's go Paul.

"The medics got her now Paul. We got more people to get," Tom stated.

"Right behind you Tom," Paul said and followed his friend and mentor inside.

They retrieved two more souls and a dog and a cat. Tom went back for another before Paul could catch up. Paul lost sight of Tom and yelled out to him.

"Tom! Where the hell are you?" he shouted.

There was no response. Paul found two teenagers hiding under a bed and jerked them out, covered them with a blanket and escorted them outside. Paul turned to go back inside and then Tom appeared in the doorway. He was carrying a pregnant woman and also a two year old child. Paul grabbed his friend and helped with his load. This went on for several hours.

The local press had arrived and the inscecent flash of the cameras was annoying. Tom and Paul made one last attempt at saving three trapped individuals on the farthest corner of the complex. A third Department from Preston showed up with their high story ladder rig and set it up under a window where the three trapped people were. Tom broke open the window and assisted one of the men onto the ladder. The crew was waiting and they shuttled the victim down the ladder while Paul helped a second man. The outside firefighters helped him down the ladder. Now there was only one life left to save, so they thought.

Paul heard a cry and went out to investigate while Tom helped the third person out the window and into the waiting arms of the Preston fire team. Paul followed the sound and found a five year old girl so he gathered her up and wrapped her in a blanket and made his way back to the room and to the open window. By this time his air packs warning alarm was screaming, indicating that he was out of air. He collapsed at Tom's feet who quickly handed the child to another firefighter and then went for Paul. The room flashed over just as Tom tossed Paul out the window and onto the ladder. He slid down wildly, taking two brothers down the ladder with him. Tom was still up there. Paul threw off his air pack and grabbed another and headed for the ladder. The Chief, Bill, grabbed him.

"That's enough Paul. The building's collapsed," Bill stated.

"Tom!..." he yelled.

"Sorry Paul. He didn't make it out," Bill explained.

Tom saved ten people that night including Paul. Paul only six along with two family pets. The reporter mixed up his facts and the credit went to Paul while Tom got a funeral. Firefighters from Horton and the two mutual aid companies, one from Hocum and the other Preston, were in attendance at Tom's funeral. Tom would have been embarrassed by the turnout. He wasn't in it for fame or glory and whenever some reporter would try and make him out to be some sort of hero. Tom would shut em down. Paul knew the facts and he wanted no part of Tom's achievements and he tried, ineffectively, on more than a dozen occasions to set the record right. Everybody just figured that Paul was trying to make Tom out to be the hero. And for some reason, the town folk admired him even more. For many years Paul was lauded as the hometown hero of Horton.

By now Paul had a beautiful six year old daughter to spoil and she could sometimes be heard telling her little friends about her hero daddy. He would tell her time and time again that he wasn't the hero that night. But like the residents, she believed the stories. Paul quietly worked his way up the ladder in the Department. He became chief after only ten years on the department. Every year Paul would place fresh flowers on Tom's grave and pray. The time came for Paul to retire from the Department and they held a grand banquet in his honor. Paul, somewhat like Tom, didn't like the spotlight. His fellow firefighters knew this and didn't press him for any speeches because they knew that they would get a tongue lashing. Paul eventually retired from his home town for good. He passed away at the age of ninety. He told the minister that was there that night, one last time about who the real hero was that cold and bitter night in December. I guess he felt that wasn't necessary because he never mentioned it to anybody ever.

His grave marker still read "HERO"

The End.