Tufted couches and chairs send thick smoke toward the ceiling, while flames begin sprouting like a zigzag halo around the wooden furniture. You move from room to room, rapidly but carefully, as you search for signs of life in the two story structure that has become food for the ravenous blaze. Smoke is billowing from under the carpet that leads upstairs to the bedrooms on the second floor. Your large, heavy boots put an extra strain on the already weakened sections of wood, so you test each one before committing your weight. Fiery tentacles wrap around the banister like a dozen angry snakes, jabbing their murderous fangs at an interloper.
Sparks begin to rain from the bubbled plaster on the ceiling.
When you reach the upper landing, you hear a sobbing sound coming from behind an open door to your right. A rush of adrenaline fuses with your blood, doubling your physical and emotional strength. The insatiable red monster gobbles the frame of the door and challenges its human opponent to risk an incendiary fate. There, in a corner of the smoky enclosure, crying and coughing intermittently, a tiny, shivering form huddles under a blanket. Preceded by a few soothing words, you reach down and wrap an arm around the child's waist as the roar of the flames intensify.