da house is on fi-ya
This is what we woke up to at 7:00 this morning. Sirens wailing and large vehicles driving down the street shaking the house, and when we looked out the window tarouchan's mom's house looked to be on fire. Frantic dressing and phone calls ensued, and we hit the street.
Luckily, it was not the mom's house, but the house next door to them, that is in fact four apartments in one house. That's our landlord in the burgundy jacket coming to check things out, and the mom in green.
One way the street was full of firetrucks, and the other was full of ambulances. By the time we were down there at 7:15, four fire fighters had been hurt when the porch collapsed, not from fire damage but negligence in maintenance.
One tenant had been trapped in the apartment building, and saw one of the injured firefighters on the street. He said the man was lying on his back, tears streaming down his face, and despite the pain he must have been in when he saw the man in the building he picked up his radio and called in, "we have another victim inside."
It was hard to see out front with all the trucks blocking the street, so I went around into the back yard to take pictures. What you can't see in this shot is that char's mom's house is cropped out at the left, right next to what was quickly turning into an inferno.
The moment the firefighters turned the hoses to the roof around front, water carried over into the back and this beautiful rainbow appeared in the spray for a few brief moments.
Of course when the flames got bigger, I moved closer. :3 I particularly like how the upward motion of the flames mirrors the profile of the tree branch.
After watching the back for a while I went back around front to find them dragging hoses from a hydrant over a block away...
...to provide even more water for the still-blazing house.
These firefighters were serious heroes today. They did a smashing job(lol) keeping the fire contained to the apartments, even when the trees started catching fire and threatening to spread it to the mom's house(!!) and the apartments on the other side.
I went around back again to catch these cool shots, as well as one of a firefighter taking pictures of his own. :3
Next, I ventured inside the mom's house to get pictures and video up close from her third floor window that was probably no more than fifteen feet from this raging beast of a tinderbox.
This upper, rear apartment was rented by a man who once owned a book store. I was told that he had around ten thousand books and magazines in his apartment.
Things eventually started calming down, so I went back outside and ended up wandering. In the backyard all the runoff was gushing across the patio and down the garden steps.
The water, or wind shifted suddenly, filling the back with smoke, and I took this of the path as I was leaving.
Finally, around noon the fire was all-but out and the owner of the building had called in a demolition crew to knock the remains down, per the fire department's advice. This CAT came rolling down the street off a flatbed trailer and parked in front of our apartment. In a few more short hours the house was gone, literally a pile of rubble and smoldering wood.
I took a ton of pictures and video of the demolition and the fire, but I can't get the video off my camera just yet. I also have more fire pictures I want to post, but I'm too tired to resize and upload them all tonight. It was such a harrowing day, worrying that the mom's house was going to catch fire, and watching the other burn down. The people who lived there have nothing now but the clothes on their backs.
The firefighters want copies of my pictures and video so I'll be taking that all down to them on Tuesday. :3 They said they like having that stuff, and that sometimes they use it for training. I'm not sure how well my pictures would suit that since I was trying to take them from a more artistic standpoint, but oh well! I'm happy to do whatever I can for them, since they worked so hard to save the other houses and all.
Also, there were either 6 or 7 firefighters taken to the hospital, some with broken bones from the porch collapse, others with pulled muscles. One man's foot snapped when someone fell on him. I can't imagine what kind of pain that must be like.
Last, while the firefighters were in the backyard a rat was washed out of the house and down the hill toward them. I wasn't there, but they asked Dr. E to shoot it. ^^;; It got away, but later they found another in the bushes, burned and traumatized, but still alive. Dr. E shot that one to put it out of its misery. It was so sad and pitiful, huddled and shaking in the bushes, fur wet and matted and face burned.
All in all, I was outside from 7-ish to 3-ish today. I took over 200 pictures and probably 15 minutes of video. I had never been so close to a fire before, and was surprised that I was able to get so close. The same is true for the demolition. I was very close to some of that. Will post the pics tomorrow.
So... what did you do today?