Firestorm - 1. FS Chapter 1

I had left my hometown at the age of 16, after having been outed to the whole community during the spring community fair. The day after the fair, I returned to the city with most of my belongings, after my mother made arrangements with her sister, for me to stay for the remainder of the school holidays, and till I return to boarding school in late September. My aunt Jean was a kind spinster, who always had time for me no matter what, and she happily accepted me into her home, which was only a few kilometres away from the boarding school.

We had a very dry winter this year, and the oats crop barely made enough to cut hay for summer feed, which I was worried about. Since the age of twelve, I had helped my dad on the farm during the school holidays, and checking the water troughs, fixing fences, distributing summer feed out to the paddocks, and whatever else needs doing.

I grew more worried when I had been forced to leave home permanently, no longer able to return to help. When I completed my final term at boarding school, I returned to my Aunt’s place, uncertain on what I will do during the next six weeks of holidays, so I decided to go and look for some part time work, so I could pay for my upkeep at my Aunt’s place.

Just a few days after starting my job search, I managed to get a part time job as an assistant to a Fire Safety Training Officer, which was just a fancy name for ensuring that the training van is loaded up with the full selection of Fire extinguishers, fire blankets, plus the fire pit and fuel. It only took me a short time to learn my duties, and I was working four hours a day, four days a week, which I was pleased about.

Aunty Jean was very proud of me, and we agreed on just $100 per week for rent and board, which is a bit under half of his weekly wages, I decided to bank all but $40 of the remainder of my income, which meant I will have saved $600 by the time the school holidays come to an end. Taking a week off work during the Christmas & New Year break, the first two weeks of work was hard but rewarding, as I watched my boss teaching different aspects of the courses offered by the company.

A day after Christmas, after learning from my parents that they could not afford to let me return to boarding school for my last year, Aunt Jean asked me what I would like to do, suggesting maybe enrolling in a local government high school, or maybe TAFE college, I asked her to give me some time to think about it.

In the new year, I assisted with the First Attack Firefighting Equipment, Fire Extinguisher Use, Fire Warden, Bush Fire Awareness and Fire Tender Training, which were the courses that my boss taught, so I was not sure what course we would be attending, until I arrived at work each morning, and if there was no training course to attend, I was shown how to recharge Fire extinguishers, and helped with keeping the workshop clean and tidy.

After another three weeks of work, and with just two weeks left of the school holidays, I arrived at work keen for another busy day, and I was surprised when I was summoned to the office and told to sit down, and I recognised the five written tests that sat on the desk in front of me.

“You have two hours to complete the tests, then I will run you through the practical side of things with you” my boss said to me a little shocked at what he was saying to me. “Don’t you think you can do it? I have been watching you carefully, you are attentive, hard-working, and you double check everything is correct, you can do this I know you can, so just relax take it one step at a time” my boss said to me with a smile.

By the time my lunch break had arrived, I had completed all of the theory and practical training, and as I finished my lunch, my boss walked into the lunch room. “Congratulations, you passed with flying colours, 98% for your theory and 95% for your practical in all five subjects, now what do you plan to do with the school holidays ending in two weeks” my boss said with a smile, as he handed me my graduation certificates.

“Well sir, I am considering applying to the FESA academy, to become a professional firefighter, but I need to get my first aid certificate and my heavy haulage licence, so that is still over two years away, so in the meantime, I want to get my driver’s licence, and I thought about attending TAFE College to do a Diploma in Work Health and Safety, and a Certificate 4 in Emergency Health Care, and maybe work part time here once I know my college timetable, if that is permissible” I replied.

“That is what I was hoping you would say, you are a good worker, and I don’t want to lose you, now that I have you trained” my boss said to me with a smile, and he indicated me to follow him, and we made our way back to the office, “We have a training job this afternoon, so stow away your certificates, and let’s get prepared for this course” the boss announced to me.

When I arrived home at the end of the day with a big smile on my face, Aunt Jean looked at me to try and work out the reason for my happiness, and I gave her the certificates that I had received earlier that afternoon. “Well this is wonderful nephew, I am very proud of you” my aunt said to me, giving me a kiss on the cheek and a hug. “We need to take a few photocopies of each one, then get a folder, so we can store these safely” my aunt said to me.

“I know what I want to do now, I was asked the same question that you asked by my boss, and I said to him that I want to go to TAFE College and do a couple of course, until I can be eligible to apply for the FESA academy” I informed my aunt, “That is wonderful Mitchell, what course do you want to do?” my aunt replied, “Well I can do a Diploma in Work Health and Safety, and a Certificate 4 in Emergency Health Care, in just one year, and in my spare time, I want to keep my current job, but with less hours” I replied.

The next day, as I had arranged with my boss, I took the morning off work to go to the nearest TAFE College, and after discussions with a careers counsellor, I filled in the application forms for both courses, and paid the application fees, I was warned that because I was late with applying for the courses, that I may not get a position, depending on what the final numbers are for each course.

Returning home, I quickly changed into my work gear, and headed off to work, arriving an hour before lunch, the boss smiled when I entered the building, “How did it all go at the college” he asked me, “All good, I have applied for both courses, but because it is after usual applications are accepted, there is no guarantee that I will get in” I replied, “Well I will just have to send a work reference to the college, and tell them that if they don’t accept your application, they will lose a hard-working and dedicated student” the boss said.

I prepared for another training course, to be held at an industrial site, and after a short lunch break we headed off towards the training site. When the boss was doing his usual introduction to the course, I scanned the faces of the twelve-people attending, and I noticed two of them were clowning around when my boss wasn’t watching. Once there was a short break, to allow us to prepare for the first demonstration, I took the chance to mention to my boss of my concerns regarding two members that were attending the course.

“Thanks for letting me know, do me a favour and turn the dashcam around, so it is facing towards the back of the van, and make sure that the motion sensor is turned on. Keep the fuel locked in the van until the moment we need it, and re-secure it afterwards, just to be sure” the boss said to me, and I headed outside to pull out the fire pit out of the van, and placed a few pieces of dry wood into the pit.

As I was finishing the students were coming outside for the first demonstration, and I quickly closed and locked the back door, and handed the keys to the boss, who called silence and began the next state of the training. Without lighting the pit, he demonstrated on how to pick up the different types of extinguishes, how to unlock them and how to use each extinguisher.

Back in the lunch room, the boss continued on with more theory, and I stood in the front corner watching the lesson, and helping when required at the right times. When it came for the last short break, I was talking to the boss about the two larakins’ that I had been observing most of the afternoon, and expressed my concerns for the safety of the remainder of the training session.

“I fully agree with you on your concerns, I had left the van keys on the desk near the paperwork at the start of the last theory session” the boss said and my eyes shot towards the desk, where the keys were missing. “Don’t do anything, we will let this play out, and see what exactly they have done, before the last practical session, when you get a chance do a check on the dashcam for me” the boss informed me, and he indicated for me to follow him out of the lunch room.

“Let’s take a little walk away from the van, and just see what happens” my boss whispered, and we walked out to the front carpark for a few minutes, before returning to the lunch room, as the students returned. As predicted, the keys had been returned, and the boss and I stood at the table looking at the training information, and as we were doing this, the boss handed me the keys, as the students were returning to the room,

I excused myself to use the bathroom, making sure that I said it loud enough for students to hear me, and once out of the room, I quickly made my way to the van, in the back outside work area, and I unlocked the van and picked up the 30-litre fuel container, which felt a lot lighter than it should be. Checking the fire pit, I could see that the wood that I had placed in there was drenched in fuel. Putting on some work gloves, I removed the wet wood, and using once of the extinguishers, I coated the fire pit with foam, before placing some fresh wood into the pit, and retrieving a large plastic bag, I placed the wet wood into it and sealed it tight, before storing it away in the van.

Taking my gloves off, I retrieved the webcam, and did a quick review of the video footage, which clearly showed the two troublesome workers opening the back of the van, retrieving the fuel container, and emptying half of it into the fire pit, before returning the container and locking the van.

I retrieved my phone and sent a text message to the boss, “Wood in firepit drenched with fuel, video footage very clear on who is responsible, pit extinguished and dry wood added” and I pressed send. Moments later, I received a text message in reply, “Call the police, ask them to attend this site, with clear evidence of theft and breaches of work health and safety, and sabotage, then wait at the front for their arrival, I will continue on as if nothing has happened”, I smiled when I read this, then I dialled 000, and asked for the police department.

After explaining who I work for and that my boss and I are at a training seminar at an industrial site, I added that I had video footage of two workers from the site breaking into the training van, retrieving a fuel container, and drenching the fire pit with approximately 10 litres of flammable fuel, during a short break in the training. I was informed that a police car would be there as soon as possible and that officers from Work Health and Safety would also be attending.

“Call made to police, waiting for them and WH &S to arrive” I text to my boss, “Ok we are about to return outside” came a quick reply, and I stepped inside the building but remained out of sight of the workers, as I heard them filing out of the lunch room. “Ok, my assistant is detained with stomach problems so, it will be just me for this final practical session” I heard my boss say clearly, as they exited the rear of the building towards the van.

Less than five minutes later, two plain vehicles arrived, one with a blue flashing light on but no siren, which was turned off once they had parked. Hello officers, I am Mitchell Benning, I made the call to 000, here is the video evidence” I said to the four men as they approached me, and I played back the video recording. “What is going on here Mr Benning, and who are these men” a man I knew to be the senior manager of the industrial company demanded as he approached,

“Sir we are police and WH & S, we have just seen video evidence of two of your workers, illegally obtained a set of vehicle keys, enter the vehicle, steal fuel from the vehicle and empty a lot of its contents into the firepit, which Mr Benning informs me is about to be used for a fire fighting demonstration” the officer announced as he showed his Police ID.

“It’s ok, I have removed the fuel drenched wood from the pit, extinguished the fire pit, and placed dry wood in the pit. The fuel soaked wood is in a plastic bag for evidence, as shown at the end of this video recording” I stated, with a smile. “Very well done young man, you have done exactly the right thing” the WH & S officer said to me, and I lead the way down the corridor towards the back door, to where the practical lesson was underway, and the workers had their backs to us as we came out, so we were not seen, but my boss saw us exit the building as he held up a match box.

“Now as I am about to demonstrate this firepit has wood to burn but no fuel, can anyone tell me two main items that are needed for this fire pit to go up in flames?” my boss asked. “Flammable fuel” one of the troublesome workers called out, “Yes and the other is?” my boss asked, and there was total silence, “Would it be oxygen sir?” a younger worker asked, “Yes that is correct, no the fire pit has oxygen but no fuel, so let’s see what happens when I strike a match” my boss said as he did just that and threw the match into the pit, right away the two troublesome workers jumped back and said “Wow”, expecting the fire pit to explode, but there was nothing at all.

“Those are the two workers you need to speak to officers” I said clearly from behind the group of workers, and still stunned that nothing happened, that they had no chance of reacting to what I had said, before the two police officers had the two men in handcuffs. I handed the officer the memory card of the dashcam, before stepping forward and receiving the van keys from my boss, and unlocking the back doors, before putting the gloves on and retrieving the plastic bag.

“That is enough evidence for me to shut this business down, until an investigation is completed, I suggest everyone return to the lunch room for interviews, then you can all go home once they are done” the WH & S officer stated clearly. “Wait you can’t shut me down, I have a contract to complete” the senior manager demanded. “I can and I have, and if you want to join your two fellow employees in the back of the police van, I suggest you abide by my ruling” the WH& S officer stated.

“By the way, you will still be billed for our training today, but no one will receive a certificate of completing the course” my boss announced to the annoyed senior manager. Once we were back at the office, I emptied out the van, and stored the extinguishers away in the secure storage cage, before putting the gloves on and carrying out the fire pit outside, where I washed it down with heavy pressure water.