Church fire rescue
The Church fire rescue is the pivotal action in which Ponyboy Curtis and Johnny Cade, while hiding in the abandoned Jay Mountain church, risk their lives to save a group of young children trapped inside a fire they themselves may have accidentally started, an act of heroism that transforms their public identities from wanted fugitives to celebrated heroes and sets in motion the final, tragic events of the novel.
Causes and Background
By the fifth day of their concealment in the old Jay Mountain church, Ponyboy and Johnny had settled into a monotonous routine of reading Gone with the Wind, playing poker, and eating baloney sandwiches. The church, a small, old, and spiderwebby building, sat atop a steep hill that dropped off suddenly about twenty feet from the back door, offering a panoramic view of the valley below. The two boys were careful with their cigarettes, aware that if the old church ever caught fire there would be no stopping it. On the morning of the rescue, Dallas Winston arrived in Buck Merril's T-bird to check on them, and after a trip to a Dairy Queen where they gorged on barbecue sandwiches and banana splits, Johnny announced his decision to turn themselves in. As they drove back up Jay Mountain, Dally suddenly slammed on the brakes and stared; the church was on fire. A crowd had gathered at the front, mostly little kids from a school picnic. A woman ran up, frantic, reporting that some of the children were missing, and faintly, from inside the church, came the sound of someone yelling. Ponyboy, seized by the conviction that he and Johnny had started the fire by dropping a lighted cigarette, broke into a dead run for the church, ignoring a man who tried to stop him.
What Happens
Ponyboy slammed a big rock through a window and pulled himself inside, surprised to find that Johnny had been right behind him all the way. The smoke filled their eyes and started them coughing, and the roar and crackling grew louder. They stumbled through the church, cinders and embers falling on them, stinging like ants. Ponyboy, in a detached state, remembered wondering what it was like inside a burning ember and thought: "Now I know, it's a red hell." They pushed open the door to the back room and found four or five little kids, about eight years old or younger, huddled in a corner. One was screaming, but Johnny yelled at him to shut up, and the kid looked surprised and quit hollering. Johnny, whose face was red-marked from falling embers and sweat-streaked, grinned at Ponyboy; it was the only time Ponyboy could recall seeing him without that defeated, suspicious look in his eyes. He looked like he was having the time of his life. They tossed the children out the window one by one, Ponyboy getting bitten by one kid but dropping him as gently as he could. Outside, Dally screamed at them to get out, that the roof was going to cave in, but they ignored him. As the front of the church started to crumble, Johnny shoved Ponyboy toward the window. Ponyboy leaped out and heard timber crashing and flames roaring behind him. He staggered, coughing and sobbing for breath, then heard Johnny scream. As he turned to go back for him, Dally swore at him and clubbed him across the back as hard as he could, and Ponyboy went down into a peaceful darkness.
Consequences and Aftermath
Ponyboy woke in an ambulance, his back in flames, but Dally's jacket had saved him from a bad burning. Johnny was in critical condition: a piece of timber had caught him across the back, possibly breaking it, and he was burned severely. Dally had burned one arm badly trying to drag Johnny out the window. The three were taken to the hospital, where Jerry Wood, the schoolteacher who had been too heavy to get through the window, stayed with Ponyboy and kept thanking him for getting the kids out. The rescue transformed the boys' public standing: the newspaper ran a front-page story headlined "JUVENILE DELINQUENTS TURN HEROES," detailing how Johnny and Ponyboy had risked their lives saving the children. One parent commented that they would all have burned to death if it hadn't been for them. The article also mentioned that Johnny was charged with manslaughter, but the heroic act helped their case. In the hospital, Johnny, knowing he was dying, left Ponyboy a note in his copy of Gone with the Wind, writing that he didn't mind dying now because it was worth it to save those kids. The rescue, born from a moment of reckless courage, ultimately led to Johnny's death, Dally's emotional breakdown and subsequent suicide-by-cop, and Ponyboy's profound psychological trauma, but it also gave Johnny a sense of purpose and gallantry that he had never known in his short, brutal life.
