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How did I get there? It was Easter morning, and I was a member of the Mahopac Falls Volunteer Fire Department in NY State. I was also a senior in high school with a fire scanner, and as usual raced my car (with the flashing blue light poking out the sunroof) to the scene as soon as the call came in. The first floor of the gas station was already cooking when I arrived, and I grabbed one of the first hoses off the trucks as they pulled in. (Hey, what's a little burning gas station when you're 18, you're wearing a cool fireman's outfit, and you have a big fire hose?) Minutes later, my team and I were assigned to cut a hole in the roof. The idea was to stick the hose into the hole and spray water down water on the fire from above. Nobody knew that the attic was filled with burning rubber tires or they might have rethought that strategy. As soon as we cut through the roof, an acrid, dense black smoke overwhelmed us. I crawled to the peak of the roof trying to attach a hooked ladder over the roof peak so that others with the luxury of Scott Packs (compressed air) could hold onto it while fighting the fire.
So there I was, covered in black soot, blinded by the smoke, unable to breath and choking up all sorts of nasty stuff as I tried to figure out how to get the darn hooks to unfold. Suddenly, the smoke cleared for just a second and I looked down at the street in front of the station.
I saw a huge crowd of people across the street all looking directly at me struggling with the ladder. Several flashes went off, and that's when the sneaky camera bug bit me and I thought “Wow! This would make a great picture!” I wasn't thinking about how it looked from the ground, although photos taken there were probably spectacular. I was thinking about how it might look if taken from my perspective—with all those folks down there staring up at me with looks of concern and horror, smoke swirling all around me, and flames licking out the front windows below me. Finally, I got the hooks in place, and then I passed out.
Fortunately, somebody caught me as I slid down the roof and a few minutes later I woke up with an oxygen mask on my face. But my first thought was “I gotta get me a camera!” The next day, I bought a $19 Kodak pocket 110. Over the next few months, I took that camera to every brush and house fire I went to, and became known as a fire-fighting photographer. (Actually, the words I was often called were not printable.) I can't tell you how many times I've taken photos since, and I sure can't stop now. When it comes to taking pictures, my motto now is “progress, not perfection”. Although someday I secretly hope to capture the Perfect Photo.
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