Late in the evening on December 21st, I heard local police officers dispatched to an apartment fire on the other side of town, so I grabbed my camera and flash and headed that way, arriving just ahead of the on duty crew of firefighters…it was a very cold night and they were short of help, with firefighters on the way from St Clair, fifteen minutes away. Damon Sumpter, one of the off duty officers, lives across the street from this complex and he came over to help them hand jack the supply line from the pumper to the hydrant, a good couple hundred feet away. There were flames coming out of the middle apartment, around an air conditioner unit that was like a window unit but in a solid wood wall instead of a window…firefighter Nick White is pulling hose in front of  Apartment 32 and headed toward the flames as Captain Dave Konys, riding extra on the truck, checks the front door to the apartment….

…it is a bit of a ghostly image above…I shot it on aperture priority, when I should have had it on program, the flash illuminated everything fine, but I had to manually turn the camera off to get the image as it is, rather than wait ten seconds or more for the shutter to close on its own. I then shot from there on in program  mode, which I normally do at night. As the guys were straightening out the hoseline and preparing to attack the fire, I shot a couple of quick photos without the flash, only the strobe lights on the pumper illuminating the building as well as the flames on the other side of the apartment….

Apartment Building Fire 323 Jones Street , Apt 32 2021-1221

Firefighters were able to make a quick knockdown of the fire….

…while it took much longer to remove the smoke from the apartment…and a State Fire Marshal was contacted to respond for an investigation as things looked a bit suspicious. No one believed to be home at the time of the fire and all other occupants of that unit were evacuated prior to arrival of the firefighters. St Clair firefighters arrived and assisted with overhaul and repacking the five inch supply line.