August 08, 2005
First in
As promised, here are a couple photos from Saturday's fire. Tomorrow is our deadline day at the paper, but as it stands, this will go on our front page as the main art with a short story about the storm that caused the fire and the fire itself.
Since I was on the road, prepared for covering some storm-related emergency, I was close to the scene and was the first to arrive. That's a wierd feeling, especially at this since it was remote and no bystanders were around.
We were actually on the road to meet my parents and grandmother for dinner when we had this detour. It was pouring rain, and I was in a short rain jacket, which didn't do the job.
When all was said and done, I was soaked to the skin on the bottom half and dry, but smoky-smelling on top. My shoes were a mess since the dirty yard, while looking solid, actually wasn't. I sank ankle deep in mud in one spot.
FWIW, many times when I post fire photos, I'm using some of my lesser images, because of copyright issues. (Because the best go in the paper.) That's the case here. The first photo is similar to but inferior to the one that will likely be on the front page.
A few interesting notes:
- In a strange twist, it turns out that I parked on the shoulder of the driveway to the house my editor rented earlier in his tenure at the paper.
- This was not the first time I'd been first on the scene of a house fire. Years ago, in Taylors, Dad and I followed a column of black smoke to a burning house while the fire department tried to sort out an incorrect address. That was on a Sunday on a dead end. We got parked in and were late for evening church.
- This was Darla's first time at a "working fire." Back in our teen years, I responded in the middle of the night to a house fire one house behind and over from Darla's. Her older brother and parents were out and we talked, but Darla slept through it all on the far side of the house. (Darla's mom was the one who noticed the fire.)
- For some reason, likely because of the moisture from the pouring rain, I couldn't review my digital photos after the first few shots. I shoot with all-manual settings (except focus, usually), so this was a challenge not unlike shooting with film. It was made even tougher since my viewfinder got so cloudy that I couldn't always tell my focus. Thankfully my lens hood and my careful camera usage kept the lens completely dry.
