Well the Arcadia Fire is turning into a BIG project for me

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

I've had an album up for a while on Pbase about the fire
http://www.pbase.com/demdeepellummus...fire_in_dallas
and I went out last monday to record the last sunset on the project and then early last tuesday to cover the start of the demolition. Well since then I have been going back and covering the progression of the demolition for a few hours or more every day, really getting into a detailed story here. They have really progressed with the demolition and clearing of the stie and will have it finished by the end of the week. So I am going to follow up with the Neighborhood Association meetings and then some other shots and maybe a few interviews to fill in the story.

Man that place was built like a fort! Basement floor was at least 20 inches thick concrete-3 basements at least (maybe even a 4th!), the concrete cap on the basement was 12-15 inches thick which the whole seating area was over. There was an iron beam that ran the length of the back wall that basically was used to support the balcony section-it was in the back wall between the first and second floor- the I beam was about 36 inches high and about 8 inches wide on the I and about 40 ft long -that sucker has to weight at least 15 tons!

The walls were up to 3 bricks thick!! All of the inner walls of the theatre building were lined with fire brick, whole the outside face varied from 1 to 2 more outer layers of brick with some dated Jan 8, 1924.

So after the Neighborhood meetings and any city planning commission meetings and City Council Meetings I will keep shooting the site to include the development and construction on the site. (this could take a year to finish).

[firebuffgal]

Ha! I see Blonboy at the Box 4 fire rehab site in one of your photos! I was in Baltimore when this fire broke out. Otherwise I would have been there rehabing the firefighters and sneaking in some shots... It's a shame that it was a total loss...

I like your shots from the building across the way (I'm assuming you went onto the roof of a building). How did you get up there?

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Wings and Pogo stick!!!

No they have a roof deck above the night club and they were open, I have a few from the demolition up there that will be posted soon.

Now people may want to know why so many demolition shots being posted -well the two contractors are going to be buying pics from me and this is a way for them to see what was produced and since each shot is time stamped in the exif file the head demolition guy can pull up that data and see how long it was from when they started to do XX and get to doing YYY-when I told him about that he was suprised that my system can get it down to the second (yeah the clock may be off a bit on time but the time lapse is correct).

Since I was just at 400mb on Pbase before posting this putting all the extra shots up for a while isn't costing anything extra to speak of I just jumped deep into the next section of hosting space on the account ($3 more a month). So I probably will leave them all up for a few weeks and then elminate a bunch that are near duplications. I have A LOT MORE TO ADD and I need to get out there and shoot this morning.

All the walls are down now, the cap on the basements is gone, most of the basement floor is gone, some of the basement walls are gone also and about 50% of the basement is packed with fill and has been compacted by the equipment-they have been going over and over areas to pack it down with a loaded dozer.

Heck the guys have even opened up and started joking around with me when they are near me on the fence line. Pretty decent group of guys. They do more work in an hour than a lot of work crews for the city do in 2 days with the same # of people.

I've been trying to get back onto the roof again-I am going to get up there for sure today even if I have to go back.

[firebuffgal]

You certainly did take a lot!! Neat project you're following!