R.V. Fire - Stills

I was actually on my way home from shooting the photos in my last post. I was listening to Tim Conway Jr. on the AM radio, (yes he is the son of THAT Tim Conway and he's pretty damn funny) who was talking about the river bottom fire.

Apparently, KFI has televisions in the studio, so Tim was able watch the news chopper coverage and provide play by play commentary of my brother firefighter's efforts in controlling that beast. Tim then began talking about a second fire, one about a quarter mile south of the river bottom. My attention became more focused on the radio, as I was about a quarter mile south of the river bottom fire. I looked around and saw nothing, so I turned west on a side street. After a few blocks, I spotted a header and the glow and worked my way in.

A huge shout out to Tim for the heads up, even if it wasn't meant for my benefit.

A County BC was on scene, as was our disaster prep manager. No other units were there and there were probably six news helicopters hovering nearby. A green line was in play.

As you can see, it was burning pretty good. I could hear units working their way in, but I still felt pretty silly standing there with my camera in one hand and air in the other. Finally, an engine pulls up, one who had been covering one of our stations.

It was then I switched to video. (this video is a re-run from the earlier post)



I was able to get in position to capture the crew getting to work. The initial objective was to extinguish the exposure, the siding on the house.

Then it was time to make/improve access and work toward control.

To be honest, I was a little disappointed with the photo opportunities from the river bottom fire, but this fire kind of made up for it. The shot below was my favorite of the day.

I am not sure exactly when it occurred, but at some point another crew appeared on the delta side, accessing through a back yard. Between the combined efforts, the fire was quickly knocked down.

I didn't made it over to the delta side until after the fire was knocked down. There, I found  a truck company and a reserve engine working the debris.

Later, another mutual aid/cover engine showed up and the mess was overhauled. Between three fire agencies and a couple of air drops from the police dept, the fire was kept from causing severe damage to the exposures.

As usual, I was just glad to be able to capture it with my camera.

I have been off the job for almost a year and a half. I have been able to take some decent picture of my brothers and sisters from the RFD and some of other departments in the area. While the adrenaline of photography has not come close to that of actually slaying the dragon, photographing the dragon has been almost as fun. With a lot less BS.

Thanks for reading.

Schmoe