STAY AWAY from house fires

[navcom]

Hey all...I was down at the local marina taking a brisk walk in the great summer weather we are having here. Of course I had my camera along. As I'm walking, I here the fire whistle blow signaling the fire department will be heading out. About the same time I notice some smoke rising over the trees a couple blocks away. The fire department is also only a couple blocks from the rising smoke.

Anyhow, I snapped this picture....




...and I continue my walk. As I'm walking, I realize the the sirens are taking a very long time to get to the fire...and a LOT of horns blowing from the trucks (sirens too...but also horns)...a LOT of horns. Then I realized what was happening. Everyone had jumped in their cars and was heading to the rising smoke to "see the fire"...gawkers...and the trucks couldn't get there so they were laying on their horns to get people to move. I also notice many people near the marina (some with cameras armed and ready) running to their cars from their boats to head over to the fire.

I've worked emergency services for years and have been involved with "gawker" incidents. This just frosts me to no end. Some poor family's house is in the process of burning to the ground and those who can put it out can't get there because of people's morbid curiosity.

And thus the reason I just had to write this. In a situation such as this, as photographers, we may feel the urge to run and get pictures... or worse, just go to gawk. Unless you are a paid and experienced journalist who knows what to do at the scene, please consider just staying away as far as possible and let emergency services do what they need to do to save lives and property. If you give in to the urge, you may very well find yourself blocked in by all the others doing the same thing, and preventing those that need to get through from passing. It becomes a chain reaction and the scene gets very hard to clear once it's begun.

If you find yourself tempted, remind yourself that one day it may be your house on fire or your family trapped in a burning building.

Or think of this...in a similar situation, we found ourselves blocked out by a line of gawkers. We ended up ramming the last car off the road with our truck so we could get to the scene because they were so mesmerized trying to see the action. The rest of the line got the picture very quickly and immediately they began pulling into the ditch. The rammed car tried to sue for damage to their vehicle. The judge ended up giving THEM a $1000 fine for blocking an emergency vehicle.

Sorry for the rant, but when I heard the fire truck horns begging people to get out of the way and then also saw folks grab their cameras and head to the fire, I was fit to be tied.

[AndCity]

Very well put indeed! Sadly people love to watch other peoples misfortunes...

[Exelr8]

Very Well written. It is nice to see people actually have concern for emergency vehicles every now and then. I am a volunteer rescue line tender for rescue divers while I am saving for the equipment to become a certified diver. I must agree, It is very annoying trying to drive a rescue truck towing a rescue boat with 100 people standing blocking the road and even boat ramp.

[candleman]

Originally Posted by navcom

The rammed car tried to sue for damage to their vehicle. The judge ended up giving THEM a $1000 fine for blocking an emergency vehicle.
.

fail.. lolol ...they deserved that one

thanks for the insight..

Originally Posted by AndCity

Very well put indeed! Sadly people love to watch other peoples misfortunes...

yes.. thats why fmylife.com is doing so well (dodgy language.. be warned)
its strange hw people love hearing or seeing bad things in other peopls lives..
maybe thats the SoapOperas are stil being made !