A little Fire & Ice in town last night

[jstuedle]

We had a fire start in an upstairs apartment in the town of Lawrenceburg IN last night. Before it was dowsed, 5 buildings, 5 businesses and 6 families were affected. Obviously the fire jumped the alley to destroy it's last building closer to frame right. Luckily the only injuries were slips and bumps suffered by firefighters on the frozen streets. The temp overnight dipped down to 13 F. 9 fire companies responded and fought for hours. Shot taken w/D3, 35-70 f/2.8 @ 70mm. ISO 3200 @ f/2.8 1/40 sec.

 

[monkeykoder]

That has got to suck for a few people. Nice picture though.

 

[LaFoto]

Oi! No good! That looked like quite a "bit" of fire! Hasn't a similar fire destroyed a similar row of houses in Camden in London the other day?

Good to hear that no one was hurt in that fire, let alone killed!!! :shock:

Eerie scene ... the lights of the fire truck add a very welcome little extra and in their colours still reflect what must have been there (colourwise etc) some time earlier!

 

[Corry]

That looks frightening to me, because the winter before last, I posted somewhat similar pictures (very VERY cold, fire on mainstreet business section where all of the buildings are connected) from here in my town....only my apartment was above one of those businesses connected to the building that was on fire. Thankfully for me, there was a huge fire YEEEEEEEEARS ago that wiped out a good part of town, and because of this, it was rebuilt with firewalls in between each building....so the fire was pretty much contained to that building, with some minor smoke damage to the next business over.

Yeah...4am, ice cold, NOT FUN!

 

[Big Bully]

Holy cow! Fantastic shot there John! Sad for the apartments and businesses but, the shot is nice.

 

[Mesoam]

great shot of a bad situation...

 

[jstuedle]

I needed to return to town this afternoon, so I walked around the scene for about 45 min. It's unbelievable the damage, so many people affected by this fire. Id estimate 10-15 lost there home and 25 out of work. A couple of the business were running on shoestrings, they may never return.

Several brick walls are ready to collapse. The city is going to help so they don't fall and injure onlookers. The furthest building with red and yellow brick are almost unaffected. There are 4 side windows to the rear that broke and are already covered with plywood.

This ice covered dumpster is where the fire is thought to have started.

The corner building to the left of the alley is the building with the dumpster in the previous shot. The corner storefront to the right was a little pizza place. I covered there "Grand Opening" a couple years ago. The two people in the forground are a news crew from the local channel 12 news.

I'd say it was a warm fire. These glass globes are about 1/2" thick and were gas lights before being converted in the '60s.

This had been Angilo's Pizza. I covered there opening in July 2005.
Link: http://www.pbase.com/jstuedle/angilos_pizza_grand_opening_july_21_2005
Such a shame to see so many affected by this fire. The fire had to jump the alley to get to the pizza place, but the building to the extreme left is almost untouched. It's owned by one of the more politically powerful and wealthy businessman in town. Sort of makes you wonder.

All 5 storefronts now have the 2nd floor apartments and parts of the roof at ground level. Nothing in any of the 5 buildings is salvageable.

 

[ScottS]

Wow John! I feel like i was there. Its too bad for all who were affected. But very nice photojournalistic coverage.

 

[jstuedle]

The police have a 10 Y.O. in custody. He admitted to his parents he started the fire in the dumpster and fed it Styrofoam to make the fire bigger. He didn't intend to burn the buildings he said.

 

[That One Guy]

very nice captures of an unfortunate event.

very well documented :thumbup:

 

[kundalini]

Excellant shots John. Thanks for the follow-up paricularly. He may not have intentionally done the deed, but reprecussions are in order IMHO.

 

[jstuedle]

Thanks all for the complements.

 

[Big Bully]

Lets see a few years in Juvie ought to straighten him out.. But also I think the parents need to feel some of the repercussions for letting their 10 Y.O. out past midnight.

 

[Battou]

Nice shots.

 

[ScottyS]

Wow, that night shot with the firetruck is incredible. Very nice man