Firefighters should be quick thinkers. In an emergency, they should figure out the speediest and safest way to act, sometimes including improvising (临时拼凑) with the things ____1____. Fire chief Fennessy knows this well. He is now making headlines for ____2____ two homes with milk and beer during a fire in Altadena, California.
Although Altadena was not in his charge, Fennessy grew up there and still had family and friends there. Hearing the news of the fire, he tried to contact his brother. When he couldn’t ____3____ his brother, Fennessy decided to drive over to Altadena. On his way, he learned his brother’s family had been taken to safety, but since he had already made the ____4____, Fennessy figured he might as well take a look.
When reaching the spot, Fennessy couldn’t believe his eyes at the sight of the ruins. “I haven’t seen anything like this where you drive for miles, and there’s massive ____5____,” Fennessy said. When he reached his brother’s street, his home and a neighbor’s house were still standing, but he ____6____ the flames were getting too close, as other nearby homes were already burning down.
Even more worrisome, a gas meter on the neighbor’s house was melting (熔化), surrounded by fire. Thinking he had to ____7____ the gas meter, he looked for a hose (水龙带), but there was no water.
Exploring his options, Fennessy ____8____ his entry through the front door of one of the homes and went into the kitchen looking for whatever he could use. “I ended up finding some milk and beer,” he explained. “To do nothing means the home’s going to be ____9____, and in this case, a little milk and beer really saved the day.”
The two homes he saved are now the only two houses standing on the block. But Fennessy said he only did what he could as a trained firefighter and was getting a lot of ____10____ for what was luck in terms of timing and resources. “We’re fixers. We’re going to put our lives on the line,” Fennessy said.