Abandoned Structure Fire

[RandySmith]

Responded last weekend with local FD to an abandoned structure fire. These photos are out-of-camera, with no edits yet.

Any suggestions for improvement always appreciated.

[hhscr]

Great shots, I am surprised they did not just let this on burn down so they won't have to go back.

[dreemes]

Originally Posted by hhscr

Great shots, I am surprised they did not just let this on burn down so they won't have to go back.

Law requires that when there is a fire that was not started as a control burn we must put it out. I think the reason for this is there could have been someone inside and if there was they want to get as much of the corpse and building intact as possible for an investigation.

Several years ago, my dept respond one night to a structure fire. It was not real clear if the occupent was there or not. We put the fire out. Next morning it rekindled and we had to go back out there. Property owner was there and said there was no insurance and we could just let it burn so we did. Later there was bone fragments found. The state investigator was mad at us because a potential crime scene had been destroyed and there was a possibily that there could have been a body was concealed in the house especially after finding the bone fragments. The bone fragments were sent to a lab and found they were from an animal.

Edit to add:

There are also environmental issues and the state environmental people want it put out so that toxic stuff can be removed before anymore burning is done. On that structure fire a guy from the state that worked in the environmental part saw the smoke from a long ways off and tracked it down and chewed us out for not putting it out. And that was over 10 years ago and they are much more strict now.

[RandySmith]

Darrell & Dan -

Thanks, yes the Fire Marshall was on-scene and he directed the Chief to "put it out" ... he was not a happy camper because he had recently sent out letters to several owners of properties to remove the abandoned buildings so vandals would not do something like this and pose a threat to the community ... needless to say, this fire is under investigation.

[dreemes]

Another thing we have a problem with around here when it comes to abandoned houses is meth labs. We've had at least one abandoned house fire in the past 13 years that I've been involved in VFDs that we believed was started by someone cooking up meth.

[lscottpht]

Third and fourth one are awesome! Great job!

Edit, oops, I thought the fourth was all one shot. My mistake. That would have been really cool if it was, like you were looking both inside and outside the building. I still like the fourth, but I prefer the fifth between the two.

[lhdvies]

IMO-Good work Randy-for being "straight out of the camera", the comp on these are really good. #1 maybe could have been comped a little more left to show potential for more fire from the other building, but they are all good!-thks

[RandySmith]

Thanks for the comments everybody. I really appreciate the encouragements and critiques. If interested here's all of the photos I took. I just used "lightroom" to export "to email" then I uploaded 'em to this website for the editor to see and pick what he wanted which I sent later to him, so I didn't, and haven't had time to do any editing on any of the images yet. Just sharing what I dumped out-of-camera for now.

http://www.fototime.com/inv/145E39731EC3F30

Thanks.
Randy

[Comanche]

Originally Posted by RandySmith

Responded last weekend with local FD to an abandoned structure fire. These photos are out-of-camera, with no edits yet.

Any suggestions for improvement always appreciated.

Excellent! Numbers 4 and 5 are best because you are in tight, though #1 is necessary to estblish the story.

Curious to know when and if you are using a new 300 f 2.8 for these shots.

[RandySmith]

I took most of these with 100mm f2.8 macro, 24-70f2.8 zoom, and 70-200mm f2.8 zoom. Depending on the location and proximity to the fire. I didn't want to get in the way of the fireman, but wanted to get in "close" through the window on a couple of shots.
I'm seriously considering the 300 or 400 ... so yes, if I get one of those I will definately use it for these kind of events as well. Thanks !!