Building Fire in Tom Nevers

Shortly after noon today, I received a tip about a fire out in Tom Nevers. I love photographing fires, and more importantly the fire men and women who fight them. My grandfather was a Fire Chief in Michigan, and during my early childhood through teen years I was always fascinated by his work and spent countless hours with him and his fire fighting family at the station, and even tagged along on a few calls whenever I was visiting. 

All these years later, as a photographer, fire has always been a subject I love capturing. My first ever real photography award was presented for a photo I took of a firefighter in the aftermath of responding to a 5 alarm fire in Pittsburgh. The photo won first place in the photojournalism category of Digital Photo Pro Magazine's Annual Pro's of the Future issue back in 2009.

Needless to say, I geek out on photographing fires. I understand the devastation and loss that comes with structure fires, and my sympathy and prayers go out to the people affected by the tragedy  (thankfully, in this case, no one was injured), but I enjoy capturing firefighters at work. These people are modern day heroes- and when I do get an opportunity to document them responding to calls, I get a few rare moments where I once again feel close to my grandfather, who passed away many years ago.  

As I arrived on the scene, the entire structure was engulfed in flames, but due to the location, it was impossible to capture clean shots through the trees and multitude of emergency vehicles. Once it was deemed safe, Chief Murphy escorted myself and another photographer onto the property for a better view.

The amount of photos here might seem like overkill, but I wanted to document as much as I could, to give thanks to these rockstars for being truly amazing at what they do!