Excerpt Chapter 1  Life's Rich Mix

The Open Hearth indeed tended to be an extremely dangerous place in which to work; I had been working the day shift from six in the morning until two in the afternoon.It was my customary habit of heading towards the changing rooms then shower before going home. This particular day, I slowly made my way along the hearth platform. I could not believe my eyes, for there in front of me lay a sea of molten steel which appeared to be heading slowly in my direction.The molten metal flowed inexorably along the floor of the platform like some malevolent reptile.The living being of steel had somehow managed to escape from number 2 furnace where it had been incarcerated. But now it slowly moved outwards in various directions. Steelworkers scurried and rushed about while at the same time shouting incoherent instructions. Incoherent to me, but each man understood the other.

   In an instant, I decided there was absolutely nothing I could do to alleviate the situation, coupled with the fact heroism is one of the many virtues I do not possess; being a practising and devout coward. I therefore walked fairly briskly in the other direction, the one I had just come from. But on the way informing my fellow students in the mess room of the impending disaster looming upon them. All to no avail, for, to a man, they all thought it was a wind up on my part, despite all my protestations. I walked back onto the landing to view one of the most incredible spectacles of my life. Fred Rhimes, the shift Charge Hand and our immediate boss went hurtling past me, heading in the direction of the slow moving fluid mass, running on a section of the metal and which had partially solidified.This particular area of the malevolent reptile had formed a thin crust of sufficient thickness to prevent Fred  from sinking into the molten steel which lay beneath. The special clogs impregnated with metal studs, which Fred wore, prevented them from melting from the intense heat. Fred was not a young man, but at that instant, he appeared to exhibit the speed and agility of an Olympic athlete, for his feet appeared to barely touch the hot solid mass beneath him as he propelled himself along. The whole incident presented itself in slow motion, the adrenaline coursing through my veins inducing my brain to slow everything down.

    Fred achieved his desired goal, that of reaching the back of the offending furnace, mercifully without any mishaps.For undoubtedly, had he fallen over or tripped he would have burnt to death where he fell and in the most excruciating pain imaginable.