“Call 911!” he shouted.
Katie Lynn quickly grabbed the room phone and dialed the police. Stammering over her words, she gave the dispatcher the name of the hotel and their suite number. The smoke alarm screeched, drowning out her words.
“I’m sorry ma’am, can you repeat that?” the dispatcher said.
Katie Lynn repeated the hotel name and room number.
“Oh my God, it’s spreading up the walls!” she shouted.
“Ma’am you need to get out of the room now!” the dispatcher instructed.
Katie Lynn lowered the phone, only to see the fire had engulfed the door. The door’s handle would be scalding hot.
“Robbie, we’re trapped!” she shouted.
Robbie continued to beat at the flames with the bath towels, only to have them catch fire in his attempt.
“Are there any more bath towels?” he asked frantically.
Katie Lynn ran to the bathroom and grabbed the only towel she could find.
“Last one!” she said, handing it to him.
Robbie looked at the towel and wrapped it tightly around his hand. Quickly, he grabbed the door handle with his cloth-bound hand and twisted it. With a strong effort, the door opened, and Robbie stumbled out, dropping the towel in the fire in the process. He screamed and scrambled out of the hotel suite.
“Robbie! Robbie, don’t leave me!” she yelled.
Robbie ignored her and ran. She saw him sprint down the hallway with his suit jacket ablaze. The fire spread into the hallway, and reached the ceiling of the hotel suite.
“Oh my God!” Katie Lynn yelled. She considered following him, but the fire had completely encircled the door frame. The sight of Robbie running off with his suit jacket on fire did not bode well for her bare skin. There was nothing, not even a towel in the room, that Katie Lynn could use as clothing. Even the bedspread had begun to catch fire.
She ran to the window and pounded both fists against the glass. “Help! Help! I’m trapped in here, there’s a fire!”
She couldn’t tell if anyone could see or hear her. She could see people on the sidewalk five stories below looking up at the building. Off in the distance, she heard a siren. Katie Lynn frantically waved her arms to get anyone’s attention. A person on the ground pointed to her. Katie Lynn breathed a sigh of relief, though her relief faded quickly when she felt the heat against her back grow stronger. Flames leaped up from the bedspread and scorched the ceiling.
“Help! Somebody please help me!” she screamed again, and pounded on the window even harder. Seconds ticked by while she waited in terror.
After what seemed like an eternity, a fire engine roared down the street and came to a halt in front of the hotel. Katie Lynn could see several firefighters hopping off of the red vehicle and scurrying into the building. She prayed that they would be able to find her up here.
“Ouch!” she screeched, as she stepped on a burning ember. The bottom of her foot was scorched. The available space in the room for her to stay away from the flames was growing limited, as was the air to breathe. Katie Lynn retreated into the bathroom and shut the door.
“Please, please, find me up here,” she whispered to herself. She cowered in the shower and prayed that the firefighters would get through the door before the fire did.
Seconds passed like minutes, and minutes passed like hours as she waited. She wondered how much time she had left before she succumbed to the smoke or burned in the inferno. Smoke spilled through the crack underneath the bathroom door and reached her nostrils, filling her with even more fear.
She jumped at the abrupt impact on the other side of the door. If it was the sound of collapsing wood, she was surely done for. But another loud bang followed, and Katie Lynn realized that the loud noise was not the harbinger of doom she’d feared. It was the sound of an ax striking the door.
Blow after blow, it struck the door until she could see the head of an ax blade smashing through the wood. A firefighter clad head-to-toe in yellow with a gas mask concealing his face kicked the remains of the splintered door aside. He held his hand out for Katie Lynn to take.
Trembling, she rose from the shower tub. She covered her naked body with her arms and stepped towards her rescuer, but the burn on her foot made it difficult to walk. Sensing her difficulty, the firefighter picked up the shaking girl and threw her over his shoulder. He held her legs tightly as he hurried through the burning hotel room, leaping over the flames until they were in the relatively flame-free hallway.
Seeing the burn on her sole, the rescuer kept the trembling coed over his shoulder as he hurried down five flights of stairs. He was met with applause when he carried the naked blonde out the front entrance of Griffith Hall.
Katie Lynn’s many friends and classmates had gathered on the front steps, and were overjoyed to see her alive and well. The firefighter plopped her down upon the rear of a waiting ambulance, where he then removed his gas mask.
“You okay there?” Johnny O’Dell asked.
“Johnny!” she screamed, and threw her arms around her rescuer. He returned the embrace, being careful not to let too much soot and ash rub off on the naked girl’s body.
“Let me get you a blanket,” he said. He retrieved a wool blanket from the rear of ambulance and draped it around Katie Lynn’s shoulders. She thanked him and wrapped it tightly around her torso.
“Katie Lynn! Katie Lynn! Are you okay?” Tammy Sue shouted, hurrying to the ambulance’s side. She looked at the firefighter comforting her friend. “Johnny! You saved Katie Lynn?”
The blushing boy shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, that’s what I do. When the laundromat isn’t busy.”
Tammy Sue laughed and hugged the exhausted fireman.
“Well, my dad’s still in there. I got to put this fire out.” Johnny put his gas mask on and hurried back into the building. Tammy Sue sat by her friend’s side while a medic examined the soot-laden survivor.
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