How it Was

On the advice of fellow blogger Mad Jack, here are some photos and commentary on last weeks vegetation fire. The original post can be found here. In it, I lamented about how the conditions were not the best for taking photos, with the smoke inhibiting the the quality of the photos.

As I walked up the road from the clear air into the smoke, I knew that getting quality images would be a challenge. I stopped to snap this while I still was in the clear, in a few moments later I was in the smoke.

 
When I neared the engine, I looked over to my right and saw these guys stretching a line getting ready to go to to work. Though the smoke wasn't bad from a firefighter's perspective, from a photographer's  point of view it was bad enough.

Even closer shots are affected.

The crew finished making the needed connections and began to disappear into the smoke, I began walking back down the road. A short time later, the wind shifted slightly and I was more or less in the clear again.

 Homeowners tend to get a little excited when the dragon shows up at their back fence. I had chatted with this gentleman earlier and had told him what was going to happen and what to look for.  He and his property came through it just fine. I must also add that he had done a pretty good job keeping the weeds down on his property.  That, as much as anything else, was the main factor in keeping his property safe.

Of course if there are aircraft involved, I will be working to get pictures of that.

 If you look closely, you can see the firefighters in the background mopping up the fire. It was a very short time after this photo was shot that I walked back to my vehicle and went home. These guys were still here, getting it done. It was down to the mid 90's at that point, so I was glad to grab a cold frosty and kick it with the wife. These guys were out there for several more hours, then back to the station for a lengthy clean-up.

I should feel guilty, but I don't!