Burke

I hear a person come behind me and see an SCSD tactical uniform. 'any contact yet?' "He's speaking with me through the door, looking for Secret Service." I turn my attention back to the door. "Alright man, come on, let us in so we don't have to force ourselves in, you know what the secret service gets like."

Wondering where my backup went, I head up to the front door and knock on it. "Sheriff Department" I say, stepping slightly off to the side of the door. Because you never know. "Sheriff? BUT THE PRESIDENT USES THE SECRET SERVICE?!" "Well, the secret service is busy... Evacuating the president. I was sent in their place. If it helps, I'm wearing black."

I pull up on the scene and park two houses back, just to be safe. "ERT 204, I'm on scene now, I'm going to head in and make contact with the individual." I undo my belt and get out of the car, leaning in to grab my hat before walking towards the front door.

"Negative 211, no records on this address or individual. Be advised, caller repeatedly stating he has a bazooka."

"Copy 204. Matthew Hennebury, 03-12-2001. No priors, DMV has him at 6'0" 210lbs white male, blond hair." I let go of the mic and clack away at my keyboard, reviewing another call when the speaker comes to life again. “Dispatch, this is unit 206. Show me responding to the call. Is there anything else I should keep in mind?” "Negative 206. News reports do have the president in Washington at this time, Secret Service has not been contacted."

Presidential Assassination? Hooo boy. "ERT, show 204 responding, I'm going to proceed non emergency traffic to this. Do we have a subject description or name?"

"Sheriff Units respond to EDP, making assassination threats against the president. Suspect stating he has a bazooka. 21 Cross Street Unit A, Oxnard." NON EMERG >> MALE CALLER REPORTING WILL ASSASSINATE PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES WITH BAZOOKA OBV DISTRESS ON LINE, SUB CONCERNED FOR SAFETY OF PRES. DOES NOT WANT TO MURDER PERSON REPEATED USE OF WORD BAZOOKA LIKELY EDP, PROCEED WITH CAUTION NO OTHER WEAPONS.

Coming in a little late but better than never I take a seat "here" I say, pulling in my chair

With the cones out, I head back over to the side compartment to grab a rake. "Engine 1 pump, send the good stuff" I hear called out over the tactical channel. I walk towards the smoke with the rake and wait for Campbell to clear enough space for me to pull up some dirt. At this rate, we'll have the entire park fully turned over. What's this #2 for this shift this year? As Campbell wipes out some of the fire, I tap his shoulder and walk forward with the rake. Hopefully he'll get the hint to go elsewhere with his stream, and I start pulling over the dirt for hotspots.

Pulling up on Fourth, I can see some flames licking at the grass. Not much, but, yep, that's a fire. "ERT, Engine 1, we're coming up on scene now, we've got a small grass fire burning, no brush on fire now, we're going to lay a line, no further units will be needed." Hanging the mic up, I press on scene on the MDT, and turn back to Campbell. "We're down a man, so when we pull up, Cook will run the pump, I'll get you to grab the trash line off the back, I'll grab a rake out of the side and we'll make quick work of this." As Cook parks the Engine blocking the outside lane on Bay, I open my door, and walk around back. I pull a couple cones out and give us some working room, because I don't trust drivers to not kill us, and start laying them out.

As Campbell climbs in, I answer Cook. "Aliens, obviously." Cook pulls out of the bay, and I step down on the Q siren. It won't be a long drive, but nothing beats a Q in the morning. "ERT, Engine 1, we're en route. We do have a little smoke visible on the horizon already." I say into the mic, as I press the en route button on the MDT tablet.

As the toner sounds in the station, I stand from my chair in the shift commander's office. A brush fire in November? Good lord. At least the frost might keep it slow. I guess they aren't sending the brush truck on this one since they don't expect anything to it. I walk out of the station office onto the apparatus floor and see the door starting to open. Yep, this is a full gear and a hat day. I step into my boots and pull on my jacket and a beanie from the locker before making my way over to the Engine.

ENGINE 1 , REPORTED BRUSH FIRE IN HARBOR PARK, ENGINE 1, BRUSH FIRE, HARBOR PARK, AREA OF BAY STREET NORTH AT NORTH FOURTH STREET. RESPOND ENGINE 1. "911 What is the location of your emergency?" "HARBOR PARK!" "Okay ma'am, where are you in harbor park?" "By fourth street." "Okay, in North river, right?" "uhuh, there's a fire!" "What's on fire?" "I don't know, it looks like some grass again!" Jesus, it's November and we're still burning grass? How in the hell? "Okay ma'am, I've got the fire department responding. Are there any structures nearby?" "No, no, it's only a small little bit of grass right now, it isn't really moving fast. I guess the frost is slowing it down." "Okay, I understand. I've got the fire department on the way to you now, if anything changes call us back right away." I process the call and dispatch a modified response of just one engine, instead of taking the rescue off the run to staff the brush truck.

Coming down the road, I see the reds and blues of 206 in place already. I turn off my siren and approach more or less silently, while the swordsman discusses with one of our people. "ERT, 204, I'm pulling up, show me out" I park the Durango, undo my belt and look over in my bag. I see a little length of paracord, and grab that and shove it in my pocket. Just in case. I pull on my yellow hi vis jacket, without doing it up. I walk up slowly without announcing myself. I blocked two lanes with my car, just in case. I keep a hand rested on my taser just in case, but I can't help but wonder what the saying about bring a taser to a sword fight is 'I've had ENOUGH of these women coming out here and ruining the world. Ever since they've got all this independence, they don't look after nice guys like us anymore. Look. Not a single one of these cars has a man. Just women!" Well, I think to myself, it's a good thing that we sent two guys.

Driving down the road with STILL no one else taking the nutjob waving at cars, I key my mic. "Yeah ERT, show me on it too, 204" I activate my siren and lights and head towards the scene.