Anna Sussman

Amika was sitting in the captain's office.

She'd only been at the prison firehouse for a few months, and she'd already gotten reprimanded once.

She was on very thin ice.

If she got caught doing anything out of pocket again, she'd be sent back inside prison.

The two fire captains looked at her and told her they'd been carefully watching her.

And they said she was getting promoted to the top position at the firehouse, engineer position.

As engineer, Amika now held the lives of the crew in her hands.

She had to know every dial, every hose attachment, every protocol perfectly.

From Wondry and Snap Studios at KQED, I'm Anna Sussman, and this is Fire Escape.

The story of a woman whose world burned down, and then she learned to fight fire from behind bars.

This is Episode 4, Reckoning.

As engineer, Amiko was training all day.

When she wasn't training, she was working out.

And she'd be sent out on multiple calls most days.

The call came in at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and that timing would be important.

The speaker mounted on the walls of the prison firehouse went off, and Amika and the other firefighters dropped what they were doing, jumped into their boots, and hopped on the truck.

They rolled out of the prison, and as engineer, Amika navigated them to the scene.

And right away they can see that the driver, the only person in the car, has died.

She's leaned over the airbag.

Amika tells the other firefighters that they have to wait for the coroner to arrive before they can do much.