Chiaroscuro

As I walked, the air of this haunted, dreadful and sorrowful land had sucked the life out of everything and roared as humanity began to disappear. As I carried on walking, I noticed that the small fraction of light was getting smaller and smaller, until it had been engulfed into a think black ash like smoke. Aggressively, the wind walked past the building with its cruddy feeling, blowing away all signs of life. Deeper and deeper into the land was a burning car door. The fire roared and crackled. The roaring and crackling of the burning car door merged with the aggressive air and created the loudest sounds ever heard on land. Growing darker, the skies made me feel nauseous. The fear of not waking up if a human fell asleep towered

-At seven-twenty a single flash of hard white light shot out of Geiger’s house like a wave of summer lightning. As the darkness folded back on it and ate it up a thin tinkling scream echoed out and lost itself among the rain drenched trees. I was out of the car and on my way before the echoes died.

Smoke and flames were spewing out of gaping holes bored by American Airlines’ Boeing 767 that crashed between the 93 and 99 floors on the North face of the 110- story building. Each of the North Tower floors were roughly an acre. The top 20 floors engulfed in flames, he was staring at a 20- acre fire raging 90 stories above. He thought in his head that, This is the most unbelievable sight I’ve ever seen. Meldrum parked the fire truck on the West Street in front of the

At 03:17 am, Engine 2 arrives on location and reports that he has heavy fire showing from the first and second floors, and requests a full first alarm assignment. One minute later he reported that he had fire all the way to the roof in a 6-story building, 60’ x one city block. He then requested a full second alarm assignment and notified the dispatch center to prepare for the third alarm. Around 3:30 am, before most 2nd alarm companies arrived on the fireground. the first of many collapses occurred. A large section of wall collapsed from the upper story on the York Street side and crashed on to the street. By 4:01 am, this fire would grow to a five-alarm response. With the arrival of Engine 2 and other arriving companies, command was established, and the fire scene was divided into four geographic divisions (A, B, C, D) to manage this defensive fire. Command was passed from Engine 2 to the Battalion Commander, then to the Division commander and lastly to the Deputy Commissioner. As the fire intensified, the command structure grew to include an operations section, logistics, safety and an exposure group lead by a Battalion Chief. For over two hours the approximately 45 apparatus and over 150 firefighters and paramedics fought to contain the fire to the original complex and protect the surrounding neighborhood. The weather that night brought 17 mph winds, with gusts over 30 mph. These winds, combined with the heavy fire load

That evening, nearly 600 workers were working in the 10 floors of the Asch Building. Near closing time on March 25th, 1911, the fire broke out on the top floors. Oil that was spread all over the floors and tables of the sweatshop helped to increase the volume of the fire rapidly. The chaos that ensued created a crowded, dangerous pandemonium. One of the main disregarded safety features that lead to nearly 50 deaths was the locked stairwell doors. The doors had been locked by Blanck and Harris as a “safety procedure” to keep employees from stealing. During the fire, workers fled to the stairs, only to find they were trapped inside. In addition, out of the four elevators located in the building, only one was operational, and that elevator broke down after just four trips. In a desperate attempt to flee, girls waiting for the elevator plunged down the shaft to their deaths. The old and rusted fire escape on the eastern side of the building collapsed after it was overcrowded. Other girls who did not make it to the stairwells or elevators began jumping to the sidewalk. As firefighters arrived to fight the fire, bodies landed on their firehoses, making it difficult to extinguish the flames. Firefighters also brought ladders that only reached up to the 7th floor. The water pressure of the firehoses was not powerful enough to reach the burning levels of the building, and the nets brought to catch jumping women ended up ripped and torn after only a few uses, leaving girls with nothing to catch them apart from the concrete sidewalk. Those in the floors above the fire, including both Blanck and Harris, escaped the inferno to adjoining buildings from the rooftops. Remarkably, after just 18 minutes, the crisis was over. 49 workers had burned to death or were suffocated by the smoke, 36 were dead in the elevator shaft, 59 died from jumping to the concrete sidewalks. 2 later

Ladder 1 and 5, Rescue 1, and Car 3 by 6:18pm. At this time Incident Commander number one request dispatch to strike a second alarm due to the size of the building and with the second alarm Engines 2, 16, aerial scope 2, and car 2 are all dispatched to the scene. At 6:20pm Incident Commander number one request building information from dispatch but no building plans were ever found creating confusion on how the interior of the building was designed. At 6:26pm Incident Commander one enters the building through a door from the first floor and goes up the stairway into the second floor where the fire originated as well as Engine 13 and Ladder 1 who report that elevator shafts were engulfed into fire. Incident commander number one reports there was possibly two homeless people still in the building and at 6:31pm Incident commander number two comes on scene in Car 2. Three crews from Engine 1, Ladder 1, and Rescue 1 were inside the building reporting the spread of fire and all work their way up the stairway to the roof to cleared a skylight and had it completely vented and started to descend down the stairs while each crew performed search-and-rescue sweeps of each floor for the homeless victims and fire extension checks. They also have 2 ½ inch hose line and 1 ¾ inch hose line on the second and third floor coming up the stairway for an offensive

For years if not decades, firefighters have responded to a reported structure fire that turned out to be a fully involved single room. This fire scenario requires a core set of fire tactics and skills to control and extinguished the fire, but is it this simple? Perhaps twenty years it may have been, but new dangers are lurking in every scenario and may have detrimental outcomes for unsuspecting and unaware firefighters and victims. The National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) agency along with the Underwriters Laboratory (UL) have been conducting research to understand fire behavior and fire dynamics. This research is providing firefighters with new information about how and why

When a fire broke out on the ninth floor in the cutting room, a manager attempted to extinguish it using a fire hose. Unfortunately, the valve had rusted and no water came out. With thousands of pounds of fabric as fuel, the fire spread rapidly. There was no sprinkler system to stop the fire and no fire drills had been practiced. Frightened workers ran to stairs, fire escapes, and the elevator to evacuate. The rear fire escape collapsed, killing many and trapping even more. The locked doors on the ninth floor lead to the deaths of almost everyone on that level. Four elevators were on the factory levels, yet only one worked. Workers who were left behind waiting for the elevators tried to slide down the elevator cables but unfortunately lost their grip on the way down. Blood showered down on the people who did manage to make it into the elevator. Girls who ran down stairwells faced locked doors at the bottom, and were burned alive. The few unlocked doors were useless because they opened inward and there was a mass of employees pushing up against them. Realizing they would soon be engulfed in flames, many girls jumped 100 feet to their deaths. Fire trucks arrived to the scene, but could do little to help. The bodies scattered on the street and sidewalks hindered their aid. Their hoses and ladders could only reach the seventh floor. Some girls tried to jump to reach the ladders; none of them made

However, as the narrator prepares to visit the bazaar, a shift takes place. His light begins to turn to darkness as reality sinks in. While waiting for his uncle to come home so he can leave himself, the narrator looks over at the “dark house” where the girl lives. He then stands there merely visualizing the “lamplight at the curved neck”. There is darkness at

On arrival they witnessed smoke and flames on the mid level of the building. Two battalion chiefs arrived on scene and one proceeded to set up incident command at the lobby, while the other led fire fighters up the building for fire attack (Routley 8). One of the security guards then informed the chiefs that the fire was on the 22nd floor, and at 2033 battalion chief 5 ordered a second alarm (Routley 8). Due to insufficient fire protection around the utility lines all power was lost to the building (Routley 8). At the loss of primary power the emergency generator didn’t kick in due to improper maintenance it was unable to start (Routley 8). This profoundly impacted the fire operations for the remainder of the incident because the entire building was left without electricity (Routley 8). As stated in the tactical report, “This total power failure had a major impact on the firefighting operations. The lack of lighting made it necessary for firefighters to carry out suppression operations in complete darkness using only battery powered lights. Since there was no power to operate elevators, firefighters were forced to hand carry all suppression equipment including SCBA replacement cylinders up the stairs to the staging area that was established on the 20th floor. In addition, personnel had to climb at least 20 floors

The novella, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, is a piece that pushed the envelope of its time due to an oppositional stance on the forced imperialism of primitive and/or impoverished countries. The protagonist of this story is the self-proclaimed explorer, Marlow, who decides to leave the heart of light and purity (Europe) and take a job as a steamboat captain in the dark jungles of the Congo Free State in Africa. Upon his arrival, Marlow begins to see the impact of Belgium’s intrusion on the Congo by means of implementing slavery, commandeering ivory (a valuable resource), and presenting a negative attitude toward the primitive population. Marlow eventually becomes obsessed with an ivory

It looked like the sun had given up on trying to break through the iron curtain of clouds that it decided to lounge behind them. As we nervously walked towards the battle of our lives, the castle silhouetted behind us like someone faintly saying goodbye. The narrow barren streets were scattered with muculent mud and broken decomposed parts of the castle lay beside it reminding us that danger was slowly approaching. The street was a skeleton, stripped of its flesh. All that remains was the broken parts of the concrete structure. Quiet and derelict. The street was a river of the rusted burnt charcoal like concrete parts of the castle. Perhaps years back this street was immersed in pools of yellow light from the assaulted street lamps. Walking past the street lamps made the scent of burnt smoke go inside me like a barren soul. The street lamps were concealing us and we were inferior to the street lamps. The street lamps were covering us with darkness reminding us of the danger ahead of

He idealizes Mangan’s sister, and portrays her as his only source of light in his bleak world. The boy describes his street as having “dark muddy lanes behind the houses…dark dripping gardens where odours arose from the ashpits” and the rooms of his house “musty from having been enclosed too long”. These depictions demonstrate how repressed he feels regarding his lifeless surroundings. Meanwhile, illustrations of Mangan’s sister are associated with light and ease, “her figure defined by the light from the half-opened door” or “the light from the lamp…lit up her hair”. The boy clings on to the image of the girl and intoxicates himself with emotions of delight and exhilaration. This drives him to embark on the journey to the bazaar, along with high expectations of exotic surroundings. However, he is met with heavy disappointment - a train that drops him at an “improvised wooden platform” and a “silence like that which pervades a church after a service”. He comes to an epiphany – Mangan’s sister was only an arrogant wish for change and she would only fail his expectations as well, his infatuation was as misleading as his fantasies about the

A chilled breeze caused my hair to stand up on end, so I peek over my shoulder to see the window in my bedroom door open. The blue, polka-dotted whipped around violently but I couldn 't hear the sounds of a strong wind. Huh, could have sworn I 'd closed that. . . I spring to my feet and shiver as I step across the cold floor toward my room. On my tip-toes, I pull the screen down to shut it and take a minute to stare out the window. The moon cast a dim light over the small town, illuminating only the fronts of houses and the tip of trees, abandoning all else to darkness. A light fog danced in the distance and I smiled thinking how perfect it looked on Halloween 's night. I looked down from the top floor one last time then tugged the curtains shut.