Last week one evening while having supper with my parents, I received a call from Jim Bartle asking if I could cover a house fire for him as he was out of pocket…I drove over to Tipton Street, could see heavy black smoke from the Elmont Bridge on my way there….arriving after the first firetruck in….this was dispatched as a car on fire inside an attached garage. Sullivan crews had made a good stop on it soon after arrival, as the color of the smoke had changed to a dark yellow by the time I arrived….

Just a few days after the wet slushy snow, we were back to dry and windy weather, with more brush fires yet again….

In February, unbelievably, we warmed up into the 70`s and some thought spring had arrived early, and decided to burn their fields and leaves….this one was out north of town one day…I saw the smoke on the way back from supper and drove out to check it out, arriving ahead of the fire department once again. This was the first fire I shot with the video function of my newer camera….

Onyx and I sat up on the hill above the fire on Brewer Road and watched these two guys work around it with a water can sprayer, as the flames raced to the west….

…then the FD arrived with brush trucks and a pumper, which remained out on Erhardt Road and the manpower walked into the scene….

…as another brush truck arrived, one took the north side and one took the south side and they slowly made their way up each side, hitting the fire with water and making sure to extinguish the fire as they moved up the fire lines….

…the fire grew exponentially as the wind increased….moving up the hill didn`t help either….

…and even though you can`t see it in the photo above, the fire reached the neighbor`s driveway on the other side of those cedars, yet Brush Unit 818 was there to stop the fire, obscured by the smoke…..

…and here is what it looked like from my view, without the zoom lens….

…soon forces from the other side met up with forces on the south side, and then soon after, the fire was snuffed out….

In late January, I was returning home from supper when I noticed alot of red and blue lights up on Division Street, so I drove up Jackson Street to investigate and found a house on fire, police on the scene awaiting the arrival of the fire department. As I was photographing the smoke pouring from the front door, and from the rear of the house wrapping around the home, Jim Bartle from the paper walked up…I told him there was more fire at the back of the house but access to that side was limited, he walked around the other side to check it out while I stayed at the front and continued to shoot….

Medic Billy Harris helps with hose….

Luckily the FD made a quick stop on the fire that evening…

I took Saturday night off from work on the 16th so I could go rock and mineral collecting in south central Missouri that afternoon. I returned home about 7 pm and was headed to bed by midnight when I heard Franklin County dispatch Beaufort Leslie Fire District to assist Sullivan Fire District for a structure fire at 150 East Springfield. Sullivan FD recently switched over to dispatching services by Washington County Dispatch and I did not hear the tones drop. I quickly dressed warmly, grabbed my camera and flash, and headed for the truck with Onyx just ahead of me. We arrived soon after and found 854 on the scene with Captain Dave Konys and his crew of Ray Enloe and Davey Sumpter fighting the fire. Sullivan Ambulance was on the scene as well as a Sullivan police officer standing by securing the roadway and scene until Franklin County deputies arrived. It was obvious the fire had been burning hot, as the vinyl siding on the garage of the house to the west, as well as the trailer skirting to the east had melted down some…..Ray Enloe was on the nozzle at the street end of the trailer….

And then Bourbon, Beaufort, and St  Clair Fire Districts arrived to help with manpower…Sullivan had already established a good water supply thanks to some very good hydrants down Springfield Avenue. 

  Sorry for the blurs, I had the shutter set pretty low and slow to pick up extra light and everyone was apparently moving faster than an eighth of a second, which is what I was shooting at. Luckily for the family who lost their trailer, everyone got out safely.