Saving Grace

My story takes place in 1996, two years after I got sober. I was a member of a fire company at that time and was on duty at the fire house. We had just had a large snow storm that accumulated about 30 inches of snow. I was called out to check a flooded basement. When I arrived, I noticed that a metal access door to the basement was wide open. I proceeded to enter when saw about 12” to 18” of water in the basement and realized that two women, one elderly, were trying to empty the water with plastic buckets. They were also wearing plastic trash bags around their legs. As I got further into the room, I saw that part of the foundation had collapsed and water was pouring into the basement. It would take more than buckets to empty the basement.