The Fireman Simon

• Oneli Ranasinghe, Grade 2
• Short Story
• 2022

It was early morning on a warm sunny day. Simon the brave firefighter was sipping some coffee in his fire station as usual. He was ready for another working day by wearing his red bunker gear, the yellow helmet and matching black boots.

Simon just finished his coffee when he got a call from 000 dispatcher. Simon knew something was up. His colleague looked at him nervously and asked, “ So, where are we going?” Simon got the water nozzles and rushed to the destination with his team. A vast area of a green grassland was devastated with the heat and flame. The booming wild fire and smoke were bouncing rapidly. Crunch! Crunch! It sounded like a freight train.

Simon realised that bushfire was spreading like a sea-wave around his team. The smoky area was as dark as midnight. They were trapped in the fire as the fire was all around. Simon and the fire team decided to leave the area. They looked for survivors.

Suddenly, they heard the siren of an ambulance. Simon was in crying tears of joy. The nurse in the ambulance was as bold as brass. She treated their cuts and burns as much as possible on the way back to the hospital. Simon was glad because majority of them were minor burns. Luckily, in the end, nobody in his team was hurt severely and everybody was back in the fire station for the next mission.