Reader’s Digest
88 february 2020
SHIRLEY AND
ROYD SHIVERED
VIOLENTLY:
80 LITRES OF
FREEZING WATER
WERE CASCADING
OVER THEM
EACH SECOND.them each second. Soon they were in
the first stages of hypothermia.
“I’ll get someone to relieve you,”
Warby yelled. “No,” Royd retorted. “I
must stay with her. I made a promise.”
Glass brought his rescue
vehicle in as close as he dared while
a crewman sprinted to the car and
hooked a winch cable to the wind-
screen pillar. The
winch was not powerful
enough to drag the car
out so they rigged it to
the rescue truck’s crane
and, using it like a giant
fishing rod, hauled the
burning wreck away.
Assistant commander
Cliff Mears from the fire
brigade headquarters,
had set up a mobile
command post and
called in a fourth, then
fifth, alarm. Any vehicle in the city
that could be useful was on its way to
the scene. However, the firefighters
were facing yet another potential ca-
tastrophe. Fed by tons of fuel, a torrent
of fire was pouring into storm-wa-
ter drains in the car park and on
Wiri Station Road. But what route did
the drains take?
The answer came with a deafe-
ning explosion. A manhole cover
blasted out of the ground at the
main entrance of the mall, nar-
rowly missing a woman and f ling-
ing her shopping trolley into the air.
Rumbling underground explosionshis arms tightly around her and waited
for the final surge of f lame that would
surely immolate them both.
Instead of fire, they were hit by an
ice-cold waterfall. “My mates are
here!” yelled Royd. Divisional officer
Warby appeared through the curtain
of water. “Don’t worry, we’ll get things
moving,” he told Royd, then he took
quick stock. The two
were shielded from the
full force of the main
fire above and beside
them, but the burning
wreckage of the car was
in the way, hampering
the firefighters’ efforts
to protect and rescue
the pair.
Warby crawled out
and ran to Peter Glass,
the officer in charge of
a rescue truck. “Get that
girl out. I don’t care how you do it as
long as you do it fast!”
As four firefighters sprayed the
life-giving water that kept the fire
away from Royd and Shirley, they
were exposed to the full radiated heat
of the main tanker blaze. It gnawed
through their multilayered bunker
coats as if they were tissue paper,
blistering their skin. But they didn’t
dare back off. If the spray wavered,
fire would instantly sweep back over.
Even changing crews was too risky.
Ironically, now Shirley and Royd
began to shiver violently: 80 litres of
freezing water were cascading over