50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 779 The Fire at the Six Nations Hotel

Normally, as an older comrade, Sun Zhiwei should be considerate of the female comrade's feelings. However, the situation is urgent and lives are at stake, so he no longer has the patience to comfort this older single woman.

He said solemnly for the last time, "I'm saying this one last time, I smell something burning. Please report this to your superiors immediately and conduct a hazard investigation."

The woman behind the counter didn't seem to care at all. She gave a light sneer and replied, "None of your business." Then she sat back down and started knitting again.

It was lunchtime, and many employees were still eating in the cafeteria on the first floor. Sun Zhiwei's conversation with the duty officer was overheard by many people.

Seeing this, Sun Zhiwei stopped talking and turned around to walk behind the stairs, where there was a narrow staircase leading down to the basement.

He immediately went down to the basement level and saw a dimly lit corridor in front of him. He tried to turn on the light switch on the wall, but the corridor lights did not turn on.

Fortunately, his eyesight was good, and with the help of the light on the first floor, he was able to vaguely see what was happening in the passageway.

At the end of the passage, there was a tightly closed iron door, which was the basement door he had seen in the space.

He ignored the streetlights and walked a few steps to the iron gate.

There was a problem with the seal at the bottom of the iron gate, and wisps of smoke were seeping out from the gaps in the door, which was the source of the burning smell he had just smelled.

With the aid of spatial scanning, he could clearly see the situation inside the iron gate; the flames inside were burning brighter and brighter, and had already spread to half of the basement.

If they didn't rescue them soon, the unconscious workers inside would all be doomed. He took a deep breath, stepped back half a step, and kicked the lock on the iron gate.

With a loud bang, the iron door was kicked open with a huge gap, and thick smoke billowed out of the basement.

Sun Zhiwei had always been very confident in his strength, but the iron door to the basement was so well-made that he couldn't kick it open even once, despite his strength.

This forced him to kick it again before he could finally open the iron gate.

When a fire breaks out, many people do not die from the flames themselves, but rather from the thick smoke.

Sun Zhiwei had already held his breath when the thick smoke billowed out.

The door opened, and without delay, he immediately closed his eyes and rushed into the dark basement, relying solely on his spatial vision.

There were four workers lying on the ground in the basement. He grabbed the worker closest to the flames and ran out.

Upon reaching the basement entrance, he placed the worker he was carrying on the ground. There was no fire outside yet, so he could buy some time.

Then, he turned back to rescue the other three, making two trips to drag all four workers from the basement to the corridor outside the iron gate.

Thick smoke filled the corridor, and the fire was spreading outwards. He dared not linger any longer. Instead, he grabbed two people by the collars with each hand and rushed downstairs.

At this moment, the entire guesthouse was in an uproar. Many people in the lobby on the first floor had just heard a loud bang, which shook the building.

Then, a large amount of thick smoke rushed out from under the stairs and quickly spread up the stairs to the upper floors.

The fire is currently concentrated in the basement, but it will only take a short while for it to spread upwards.

Because the entire building was covered in flammable wallpaper and carpets that were also easily ignited, if a flame from the ground were to spread upwards, the entire building would be destroyed in less than half an hour. At this point, the female security guard at the entrance frantically started making phone calls.

Some comrades with high awareness had already started looking for water to put out the fire. Just then, Sun Zhiwei rushed up the stairs from the basement, carrying two unconscious workers in each hand.

Once he reached the first floor, Sun Zhiwei finally exhaled his first breath. He had been holding his breath the whole time while rushing into the fire to rescue people, and he almost suffocated himself.

Seeing that he had rescued the person, his colleagues rushed over to help. Sun Zhiwei then rushed to the duty room, grabbed the receiver from the female duty officer, and started calling for an ambulance and the fire department.

At this point, the older single woman dared not utter another word and let Sun Zhiwei finish his call before she continued calling his superior.

At this moment, the flames from the open fire in the basement had begun to spread upwards along the wallpaper and carpet of the basement corridor.

Sun Zhiwei organized a team to control the fire. Although they were unable to extinguish the fire, they managed to prevent it from spreading upwards and confine the fire between the basement and the first floor.

But Sun Zhiwei knew that this was not enough, because the earliest point of ignition was the insulation material in the ventilation duct.

These ventilation ducts connect to every room in the entire building. Without blocking the smoldering fire in the ductwork, it's useless to just put out the fire on the surface.

Just then, an ambulance from the nearest hospital arrived, and everyone lifted the four unconscious workers into the ambulance and sent them to the hospital for treatment.

Immediately afterwards, the fire department arrived at the scene, and professional firefighters began to take over from the department's employees, slowly pushing the open flames back to the basement.

However, in Sun Zhiwei's field of vision, the smoldering fire in the ventilation duct had already spread to the rooms on the first floor.

He quickly found the fire brigade's squad leader and informed him of his discovery.

When the squad leader heard Sun Zhiwei's assessment, his head was about to explode. He called for reinforcements while asking Sun Zhiwei to point out the direction of the ventilation duct.

Because the entire hotel was decorated with a layer of soft covering, all the pipes were hidden inside the building's interior materials, and in many places the pipes were even hidden inside the walls.

Without construction drawings, finding the hidden pipes would be a pipe dream. At this point, only Sun Zhiwei knew where these pipes were.

He immediately led the fire department to point out several key intersections of the pipes.

Then, with the help of others, the fire brigade broke through the wall and found many hidden ventilation ducts before they were ignited, which finally stopped the fire.

Because it was discovered in time, the damage caused by the fire was very limited, and the fire was finally extinguished completely at 2 p.m.

At this time, the small restaurant on the second floor was still open for business.

Although it was already afternoon and he was busy putting out the fire and rescuing people, he was now starving.

However, Sun Zhiwei had nothing to do in the afternoon and wasn't in a hurry to go to work. So, he quickly went up to the small restaurant on the second floor, ordered two stir-fried dishes, and began to eat the lunch he had missed.

When the food was served and he began to eat, he remembered the cause of this great fire in history.

(End of this chapter)