Goodness Gracious, Great Balls of...

I covered the area fire conference hosted by the Abilene Fire Department was last week. It's a good event that allows us to cover some of the area volunteer fire departments getting some training time. It's an event I've covered a couple of times before, but not for the last couple of years. So, it's nice to have an idea what I want to shoot and what is going to make the best photos going into the event.

When I got there I noticed there was an extra fire added. In the past they had done the house fires in the burn house and the propane fire, but last couple times I've been there, there wasn't a car fire. So, I ended up spending a little more time on it than I had planned. Mostly because it took longer for the fire to "cook" than it did for the firefighters to put it out (which was almost immediately after the hoses went on).

So, by the time I was heading over to shoot the propane fires the sun was setting fast. In the end I guess that was a good thing. As I was walking up a big wall of flames shot up framing the sun. I sat back and made a few frames of that. Then hung around a little after the sun went down. It helped knowing where to shoot from and having an idea of what I'd get going in, especially when shooting on a tight deadline.

Look, In the Sky... It's Smoke...

Last Sunday morning I was leaving the grocery store with a few bags of ice and other frozen items for a party we were having that night. As I walked out of the grocery store there was a huge plume of black smoke in the sky. Damn, I'm thinking, I've got all this frozen stuff and this, what looks like a big fire. As I'm pulling out I see a police car turn the corner and fly down the street. Well, damn, I figure I better go check it out. One of the local schools is in the area the smoke was coming up and there was a lot of it! It turns out the fire was at a building so I pull into the parking lot quick as fire engines are pulling in. The flames were pretty big. The firemen got it out pretty quick, it turns out the fire was caused by a roofer's tar pot and there wasn't much damage. I grabbed my shots and was on my way home in less than 10 minutes and got home before everything melted.

Fighting Fire With Fire...

It's getting to be that time of year again. Grass fire season. This year has been abnormally quiet as far as brush fires go because of all the rain we've had. It's was kind of ironic, I was talking to a friend of mine on Sunday who works at the fire department and he said "With the dry windy weather we're supposed to have next week we are primed for a grass fire." He was right.

On Tuesday, one of our other photogs went out and shot a brush fire in the morning... it didn't seem all that big at the time. About an hour after I came in to work there was a call that the wind picked up and the fire was starting to get out of control again. So a reporter and I went out to the fire. When I got there was of the volunteer firefighters was setting a back fire, a smaller fire that burned up an area in the direction the fire was heading. Basically, the back fire was meant to give the fire no where to go when the fire gets to the already burned area and not be able to jump over the road. While I was shooting pictures I had no idea who was setting the fire until he came up to me and thanked me for some photos I took a couple of weeks earlier. The person setting the fires was the Merkel assistant chief (top photo) who also works for the Abilene fire department. I had shot some photos of a high school kid doing a ride along for the day. It was going to be a really cool story and I was supposed to get to ride on a fire truck... something I've wanted to do since I was a kid. The problem was, in the four hours I spent there there wasn't one damn call for that station!!

Oh well. It turned out well, since have hung out with these guys a couple weeks ago it got me an in at this fire. Most of the time volunteer fire departments are pretty helpful but there are the occasional ones that just want to feel important. These guys were pretty good, but knowing someone really helped. It just goes back to knowing that in this business it's always good to be nice to everyone because you never know who you will run into somewhere down the road. This time it really helpd and I was able to make a few nice frames from it.

House Fire...

It has been really cold around here and that means people are building fires in fireplaces and using space heaters more. That also means the number of house fire around here skyrockets. Usually this time of year has meant grass fires since it doesn't rain a lot during the winter, however, we've had enough to keep the grass fires down, now it's just bitterly cold. Over the past week, I've been to at least three fires. Most have them have been small, or the fire department got there quick enough to keep it from getting big. This fire, however, got out big quick. It started in a fireplace chimney and got into the house. By the time I got there the family had gotten out, but their animals had not. I saw some flames around the back of the house and decided to try to make some shots of firefighters putting them out, when I got to the back I saw a fireman coming out with a dog in his arms, I shot the photo wide to show the smoke coming out of the house. I hung around for a little while longer. The second photo was kind of humorous. The crew inside the house kept trying to put out the flames outside the windows, while being directed from a crew outside. They would keep missing a little left or a little right, finally the firefighter sticks the hose out the window and sprayed it completely. After he finally got it he let out this huge victory yell. After that, I knew I had the shots I needed. And, by the way, the dogs were all removed safely.