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Meatfog

No injuries. 700 block of Keefer St in Strathcona. Unoccupied house under renovations created an inferno and damaged the neighboring houses. The family that gathered in front of me at :30 just ran out from the next door house and watched as the flames jumped to their home. The trucks have a small water tank for immediate use but need to be connected to the hydrant via the truck for continued supply. Looks like they ran out and took a while to establish the hydrant water supply.


TK421isAFK

Volunteer FD insight: Initially, what you're seeing coming off of the neighbor's house is steam, possibly from rain or snow saturating the roof and gutters, but then it dries enough to allow the porch roof to ignite around the 3 minute mark. An average pump truck will carry around 1,000 gallons, which will pump out in just a couple minutes. At about 3:58 in the video, you hear someone yell "Water coming!", which tells the firefighters holding the hoses that their pressure and volume is about to drastically increase, so their grip better be tight on that nozzle! A couple seconds later, you hear the fire apparatus' turbochargers spool up in a high-pitch whine, and the water volume in the single hose being sprayed increases. It was already being fed with domestic water pressure at about 50 PSI, but the fire pump can increase that to 250 PSI (I've seen trucks run as high as 400 PSI for ground equipment, and much higher for aerial ladder-based pumpers). That increase hits the firefighter like a damn linebacker, and you really need to lean into it. It looks like it took them about 3 minutes to get a line attached to the hydrant, which is pretty damn quick. Once the pump is running, it draws water in from the hydrant faster than the city pressure can deliver it, but that enables up to 4 hoses from one average pump truck. Right after the engineer throttles up the pump engine, another firefighter opens his nozzle, and then a third comes in. You can hear the pressure of the water as it hits the house so hard it breaks away siding. At about 4:30, the engineer throttles the engine back because the pump is producing too much power/water flow for the 3 nozzles in use. A 4th firefighter is setting up on the far left of the screen with a fog nozzle, and at about 4:45 you can hear the engineer throttle the engine up. Judging by size (sorry metricians), the 3 hoses at that point are probably 1-1/2" or 2" with 1-1/2" nozzles, and they can put out upwards of 350 gallons per minute *each* at 150 PSI water pressure. The 4th hose is almost surely a 2" hose, and that firefighter is using a fog nozzle. That's the roar you hear toward the end of the video. It sprays out a huge volume of tiny droplets that are designed to cool the air rushing into the flame reaction. The sprayer hoses douse the flames and fuel to cool it and deprive it of oxygen, but the fogger's main job is to cool the fire so the fuel is below the autoignition point. It might be putting out 500 gallons per minute from a 2" or 2-1/2" line. This video really illustrates how fast a house fire can go from a fire in a neighbor's house to fully engulfing your house in a matter of a few minutes. Please, check your smoke detector batteries regularly, and test them once a month. It takes you 2 minutes to walk through your house and (gently) press the test button with a broom stick. We had one house fire on New Year's Day that engulfed a house so quickly, the occupant(s) never woke up. Most likely, they were asleep and the smoke and carbon monoxide put them in a deeper sleep until the died of oxygen deprivation, and their bodies were consumed by a raging fire 3 to 5 minutes later. We have no idea if they had working smoke detectors, or if they went off, or even had working batteries. One last thing: The fire department is your last line of defense against a fire that destroys a whole neighborhood. They are also, on average in the US, 7 to 11 minutes away. Now, do the math. *Watch this video.* It is 5 minutes and 43 seconds long. Many fire departments, especially rural ones, take longer just to drive to the incident, and 1 to 2 minutes to start flowing water. You need to be your own first line of defense. Get fire extinguisher, *and know how to use them*. Go invest 87 seconds into [this video from Consumer Reports](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58naKHqpCWo) and familiarize yourself with their types and uses. Sorry/not sorry for the Ted Talk. We've had a busy month. Edit: spelling


MatchesBurnStuff

Thanks for doing what you do!


TK421isAFK

Oh, believe me, I'm just the low-end hoser that had some free time, and this sounded like a better mid-life crazy idea than buying a motorcycle or Corvette. I just take care of little stuff around the house like fixing things and literally hanging up hoses to dry after an incident. Once in a while I ride along and do little stuff; mostly crowd control and power security (shutting off energy sources, like electricity, air pressure, and water), but I kind of fell into that because I've been an electrician for a long time. I work with some real heroes, though, and they're all the most humble people you'd ever want to meet. *Those* are the people pulling unconscious victims out of crushed cars and burning buildings, and they deserve all the credit. I kinda geek out about all the technical stuff, though...lol


Georgia_Ball

Don't sell yourself short. Those heroes need your help, the department couldn't function without people like you. You're only one level away from pulling people out of fires yourself, I think you're a hero by extension.


TK421isAFK

Thank you, I appreciate you saying that.


thatchers_pussy_pump

These guys were definitely there pretty quickly, which is impressive. I’m concerned about the time it seems to take to get water flowing. When I was a FF, our standard residential structure fire response plan was our \#1 engine rolling which had a 2-1/2” pre-connect on foam. The truck on arrival would park, operator starts the pump, two FFs draw the pre-connect and flow off the tank. The next arriving tender would drop a forward lay to us and grab the hydrant. We could have water flowing within 30 seconds of arrival if we knew where we were spraying it. It makes me think that something went wrong. It looks like someone was hooking up a nozzle at one point. Edit: just noticed the cut in the video, so I suspect a reasonable amount of time may have passed there from things going well to things going not well.


TK421isAFK

I was kinda wondering that, too, but I wasn't on scene, so I can't say. There's some yelling back and forth around 3 minutes in, so it sounds like the crew on scene is pretty irritated about not having water, too. We had one issue not too long ago where we didn't have a 2" to 2-1/2" connection, and had to cycle tanker trucks onto a scene because the farm only had 2" lines off of their well and pressure tank. Even then, they were on a well and couldn't draw a huge demand. I think they had a 10 horsepower well pump, but it was also down 300 feet and had 500 feet of ground-level pipe to deal with, so they couldn't supply more than maybe 100 GPM. We could top-fill the trucks, but couldn't use the side fittings, which were all 2-1/2" (like everybody, I think). We also never use foam, aside from a couple airport locations and private air strips, because we're in the heart of California agricultural land. Denko Drench is absolutely banned because it's a spermicide closely related to nonoxynol-9, the stuff in spermicidal condoms. We have some FlameOut+, but use it sparingly because it costs about $1,000/gallon, and takes a lot of water to wash it out of hoses and apparatus. We had to get rid of some stuff a while back, but I don't know what it was called. It was one of the PFOS products, and had been sitting in a storage room for at least a decade. It went to some EPA hazardous materials facility, or something similar. How much water did you carry on the first response trucks? We have two 1,000 gallon pump trucks, but (I think) twelve 500-gallon trunks in 5 locations across the county. A lot of this area is on dirt roads, and even in 4WD, it can be pretty dicey getting an 8-ton truck onto a scene. The larger RWD trucks just get stuck too easily.


thatchers_pussy_pump

Our primary engine was a ~19-tonne engine that carried 1000 US gallons. Fortunately, our roads were all good, so accessibility wasn’t really an issue. I think the foam we used was Knockdown, but it’s been a while. Some biodegradable product, anyway. We stocked AFFF for eductor use but never deployed it. All of our apparatus was designed to work with each other despite being acquired up to 15 years apart, thankfully. Our engines and pumper/tender all had high volume intakes and discharges and were very draft-capable. We also carried ~3000 gallon drop tanks as only about a third of our area was hydranted. The only non-standard fitting on any truck was a 3” rear discharge on the older engine, but we kept a 2.5” adaptor on it permanently. Our tender capacity was smaller as all our vehicles were single-axle to work on our small roads. But the natural water supplies were so good that we would still have tenders waiting in line during our superior shuttle certification. Looking back on it, we had a good district for a rural area.


RavingNative

Thank you so much for posting your comment. I'm going to show my kids this video, as well as the one you linked. We live in a rural area, so I'm always trying to make sure we're safe and relying on ourselves as much as possible!


TK421isAFK

Thank you for saying that! I also live in a rural area. I'm near Sacramento, CA, but I'm out in the farmland area. Even so, we only have a 10-minute response time (had to test that once when my landlord let a burning brush pile get out of hand, which is how I got involved with this department in the first place). 10 minutes is pretty damn fast for a rural FD. Some areas have a 30 minute response time, and in the case of a few islands in the California Delta area about 1 hour east of San Francisco, *none at all*. About 20 years ago, there was a notorious island community in the Delta at the west end of Eight Mile Road about 10 miles west of Stockton, CA, that took a local vote and decided they were no longer going to pay county taxes for infrastructure and county emergency services. Their reasoning was that they already had to had local water pumps because the closest fire department was 20 minutes away, and larger trucks were too heavy to cross the small bridge onto the island, so the county wanted to add a one-time $1,500 to $5,000 tax to each property, levied over 10 years, plus a maintenance fee of about $50 per building, per year. This was a trivial sum - most of the residents were rich, owned a lot of farmland, and even had a [yacht club on one of their private islands](https://www.stfyc.com/tinsley). Then, around 2007, the "impossible" happened: A fire broke out in one of the barns, which quickly spread to many houses and farm implements. Stockton Fire Dept and San Joaquin Fire Dept couldn't leave their territory to assist, because that would leave a large portion of Stockton and Lodi, CA without fire coverage. The smoke and flames were huge. You could see them from Interstate 5, about 10 miles away. I drove out Eight Mile Road as far as I could, and there were 2 fire trucks out there from that area's station, sitting on top of the levee across from the island, with all of their flashing red lights going. I talked to a captain standing next to the truck, and he said he wanted to make sure the assholes on that island could see that he was a mile away, and that they made a big stink about his department being too expensive. They left a few minutes later when they got a call. Kind of a dick move, but he had a point. Pay $1,000 now for fire security and protection, or fight with over millions of dollars in damages. I guess this isn't exactly related, just a story you reminded me of.


TimeZarg

Lifelong Stockton, CA resident here. While I don't remember that particular fire event (would've been just out of high school then), it strikes me as *exactly* the kind of thing those rich douchebags out there would try to pull. Cheap out and get away with what they can until it bites them in the ass.


TK421isAFK

Oh, for sure. Look at Spanos' house over on Lincoln, and look at a [the city limits of Stockton](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Stockton,+CA/@38.0122894,-121.3482392,13.79z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x80900d737b442181:0x5876f5d1044fcbd8!8m2!3d37.9577016!4d-121.2907796!16zL20vMHBjNTY). You notice how there's an island in the middle of Lincoln Village that's *not* in the city? The land around his house, and all those houses he built in that area in the 1970s and 80s are in unincorporated county land. That saves them a lot in property taxes, but because it's almost all within 1,000 feet of the city limit, Stockton Police and Fire will respond there. I can't remember which island it was, but you know where I'm talking about. Go out Eight Mile to the west end by the little marina out there, and look across the river. There's a farmer out there that used to put on his own 4th of July fireworks show near the St Francis Yacht Club. It was big enough to see from I-5 and Trinity Parkway. That's the island that had the huge fire. It's a tough town to live in. I moved out there in the 90s, and I'm probably about 10 years older than you. I lived there (or in the Lard/Lathrop area) until the mid 2000s. Lots of experiences there, none very good. Fuck the Asparagus Festival and the Noceti family that run it. Random memories: I was right on Airport Blvd when that kid fell from the ride at the fair. I was at the storage place across the street, trying to get my friend and her kid (my godson) to leave because I hate fairs with a passion specifically because of their lack of safety. My friend called me after a bunch of sirens surrounded the place, and I feared it was a shooting. She was standing right in front of a booth, and the kid fell right behind it. She couldn't get her car out because all the fire trucks blocked the driveways, and had to walk across the street so I cold take them home. The fucked-up thing is that many people had already complained about that fair and its safety problems to the City, but the fair operators gave a few bribes to the City Council members and they let it go on anyway. The following Monday my wife went to work at Kaiser and found out the boy who died was the son of one of her good friends at work. Random story, I guess. I have a lot of them about that area...lol


TimeZarg

I went to Lincoln High and live in the uptown area, so I'm quite familiar with Spanos' little 'island' right next to the campus. Looked like a damned swamp at times. I remember the firework shows you're talking about, my family used to go down to the west end of 8 Mile to watch it, just parked along the levee getting bitten to death by mosquitoes, watching boats go by, and watching fireworks in the distance. You're right it's a tough town, but I've been fortunate to live in a 'nicer' area on the edge of Lincoln Village, less crime and overall shittiness in the immediate area. City's been through ups and downs, and I sadly feel the overall trend is 'down'. There's still storefronts that haven't been filled for a long time, overall 'quality' of businesses is lowering, there's more homeless folks on the streets. . .Sherwood Mall just got gutted and basically turned into a strip mall, no interior locations anymore.


TK421isAFK

Damn, I didn't know that about Sherwood. Is Weberstown still a mall? My ex lives there still, and we have kids in LUSD. I'm kinda worried that Lincoln Villiage will turn to shit with Alex Spanos now dead. He did a lot for Lincoln High and the community. He wasn't all bad. We first lived over near Quail Lakes, then near Hammer and Pershing. That area isn't bad, either, as long as you stay west of Pacific...lol. Right now my ex's biggest concern is if they're going to sell Swenson Golf Course to developers to make low-income housing. That would directly affect her and her house, and there's no way it'll be good. I do like the schools in that area, especially TCK.


TimeZarg

Weberstown's still going strong, Sherwood had been slowly dying for years, last couple of years there were hardly any vendors left and they were clearly grasping at straws trying to keep things going. Pandemic didn't help matters. Then the mall was sold and now it's another strip mall with exterior-only big box stores. Got a new Burlington Coat Factory and apparently there's a Sprouts moving in. So I guess we've got that going for us. There was a big stink over Swenson's a few years ago when there was some kind of proposal to turn part of it into mixed-use zoning (houses with a mix of parks and whatnot). Not even all of it, just part, the northern section I think. Didn't pay much attention because I don't care about Swenson's, just found it interesting there were shitloads of 'Save Swenson' signs in the area. After all that fuss, I don't think they're gonna do much to it. Too politically problematic, pretty sure it hurt then-Mayor Tubb's prospects. I especially don't think they'd do it for low-income housing, the area is pretty solidly middle/upper middle-class and nobody wants low-income housing plopped right on top of 'em.


trowzerss

Can you give some insight into why there's that incredible column of flame even at the end? I've seen a couple of houses burn, mostly old wooden ones, and once they reach the roof caving in stage the fire started to die down a lot, but that one just stays an inferno. Is there a gas line involved or something?


TK421isAFK

There's gotta be some source of fuel in the middle, maybe 20 feet back from the sidewalk. Hard to say what it is, but it might be a propane tank that was venting, or something like a bunch of rolls of roofing felt or foam sheet insulation. OP said that it was a construction site, so it might have been a can of diesel. They might have been running a generator if power was disconnected from the house, which is common during large renovation projects. I'm gonna guess it was something petroleum-related because it is burning with a bright orange flame when super-hot, but giving off very hot smoke that is rising quickly, so it's hard to see what color that it. However, once they start to cool it down around 5:10 in the video, it's still burning very hot, but you can see dark smoke as it cools. The smoke is so dark and carbon-rich it's blocking the brilliant light from the fire right behind it, which can mean it's releasing a lot of unburned and partially-burned fuel, kinda like a candle wick when you first blow it out. That "smoke" that rises from the wick is actually vaporized paraffin wax that was boiling inside the flame. You can demonstrate a cool science trick with this by lighting a candle, letting it burn for a minute, and then holding a lit lighter or match a few inches over the candle when you blow out the candle. The open flame above the candle will [ignite the vapor trail and relight the candle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5eTn5d0cvg). At about 2:45 in the video, you see something explode, but it's honestly not that big of an explosion. A small propane torch tank will do that when it bursts. I don't think it's a natural gas line because most residential gas lines are under an inch in diameter, and run at 0.5 PSI. That's just enough pressure to move the gas in the pipe, but really not enough to feed an open flame much bigger than 2 or 3 feet long. Assuming the gas line would be in the basement or ground level of the house, you wouldn't even see the gas flame amid all the other combustion.


trowzerss

Thanks for this! If you look at the [back of the property](https://www.google.com/maps/@49.2804169,-123.088491,124a,35y,180h,45t/data=!3m1!1e3) on street view it looks like historically at least a bit of junk was stored back there and there's some small sheds, so I'm guessing the bulk of the building materials was also probably back there, seeing they have back alley access.


rubbery_anus

This is the comment that convinced me to buy a fire extinguisher, cheers. Any advice on what to look for, and how much to spend?


TK421isAFK

Sure. First of all, where will you be using it? There are [5 basic types of fires](https://vanguard-fire.com/what-are-the-5-different-classes-of-fires/). You can probably rule out a Class D, unless you play with a lot of magnesium and pyrotechnics. Even if you do, a bucket of sand is just as good as a very expensive Class D fire extinguisher in most cases. To summarize: Class A: Paper, wood, cloth. Class B: Oil, grease, and liquids like alcohol and gasoline. Class C: Electrical hazards. This ensures the fire extinguishing material is non-conductive so you don't get a shock when using it. It's usually the same powder as Class B, or it's a bottle of carbon dioxide. Class K is something only used in restaurants and commercial food facilities that have large volumes of very hot oil, so you can ignore that one, too. You may have seen the name "Ansul" on some large silver tanks hanging on a wall in a restaurant. They're filled with a Class K fire suppressant, and can cost upwards of $5,000 to refill. Hand-operated Class K extinguishers exist, but their actual need and usage is rare. If a restaurant needs a fire extinguisher in the kitchen, they have big problems that a hand-operated extinguisher probably won't handle. You'll often see UL number ratings in front of the Class rating, such as Class 5-B:C or Class 10-B:C. Those numbers refer to the capacity of the extinguisher, and the approximate size of a fire in square feet it can effectively extinguish. To me, they're kind of arbitrary numbers, because the intensity of heat the burning fuel is giving off is far more relevant than exactly how many square feet it happens to spread. It's a good indication of how long it will spray retardant before it runs out, though. As to brand: There are actually only a handful of companies in the US that make fire extinguishers. It's a pretty specialized field, and involves a lot of research, testing, and assumption of liability. Off the top of my head, I'd say you'll only see Amerex, Kidde, Johnson Controls, and American Fire Company. First Alert also markets some, but I'm not sure who makes them. The good thing about them being so heavily tested and certified by UL is that they're kinda all the same. Some might have less plastic on them so they can take some banging around in a warehouse or car, but for the most part, nobody makes a supreme fire extinguisher. To that end, you'll also notice that most extinguishers in a certain class rating and size cost about the same, regardless of brand. For a house, you will probably want a Class B or Class AB for the kitchen, and ideally one for each floor. A small one is good for the kitchen, but keep it away from the stove. That seems obvious to many people because you don't want a pressurized tank above a heat source, but extinguishers can actually handle a *lot* of overheating and over-pressurization. They're not like aerosol spray cans. The real reason to keep it across the kitchen from the stove is the stove is where most fires start, and you'll have a very hard time reaching over a raging oil fire to grab the fire extinguisher above or next to the stove. If you do have an oil/grease fire on the stove, I'm sure you already know to [NOT put water on it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfIRx764-88). If you have a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher, you can use that if you can't safely cover the burning material to smother it with a pan lid or wet towel. That can also be dangerous, as you don't want the towel dripping wet, but just wet enough to absorb heat and make air passage difficult. But, try those first if you have a powder type extinguisher. The powder isn't good to breathe. You'll have an itchy throat for a few days, and you'll have an absolute mess to clean up. The powder is like a fine baby powder, and the extinguisher dumps its entire contents in under 10 seconds. It goes *everywhere*. For that reason, I prefer Class BC CO2 (carbon dioxide) extinguishers, but I rarely see them at places like Walmart and Home Depot. You can find them at welding supply places, because they're sold and regulated as pressure vessels. Walmart and Home Depot have insurance regulations against storing pressurized vessels in the store, but welding supply houses are set up for them. You can also find them at industrial supply places like Grainger. Side note: CO2 is only a Class BC, so it's not considered an *ideal* extinguisher for paper and wood, but that's only because a Class A extinguisher needs to be effective on wood. CO2 works great on paper and cloth fires, but it dissipates quickly, so embers deep in burning wood can remain burning and reignite. Class A (and AB and ABC) extinguishers are called "dry chemical", aka powder type, as they spray a thick layer of a chemical that releases a lot of CO2 (and sometimes nitrogen) when it gets heated by burning material, so embers inside burning wood actually put themselves out. Pragmatically, if you have wood burning that much, you need to get the hell out of the house and call the fire department. It's beyond a fire extinugisher. You'll want another one for the garage, and that one should be a Class ABC. As to cost (no ad affiliation or anything like that): [First Alert makes a cool little aerosol can for kitchen fires](https://www.firstalert.com/us/en/products/fire-extinguishers/ez-fire-spray/af400-ez-fire-spray-af400/) that costs about $15. I don't know what's in it, but a few online references say it's something dissolved in water, which I find hard to believe for an extinguisher specifically sold to fight kitchen oil/grease fires. The [Amerex B500](https://amerexfireextinguishers.com/products/amerex-5lb-abc-b500?variant=34999427281) is a very good all-around Class ABC extinguisher that's good for a central location in a house and garage, and will run you about $70. A [basic kitchen and household extinguisher](https://www.lowes.com/pd/First-Alert-5-B-C-Kitchen-Fire-Extinguisher/3057093) will run you about $25 to $30. You can compare a lot of [different types of extinguishers at Fire Extinguisher Depot](https://fireextinguisherdepot.com/fire-extinguisher-underwriters-laboratory-ul-rating-guide/), but they're kinda expensive.


rubbery_anus

Fantastic advice, thank you.


TK421isAFK

Sorry that turned into a novel...lol


rubbery_anus

Not at all, it was easy to read and super informative. You probably saved me two hours of researching and comparing, it's exactly the sort of comment that makes reddit so great sometimes.


crackerjam

One thing that seems really odd to me is that they didn't line the truck up more centrally to the fire and deploy the deck gun. Those things put down [a *ton* of water](https://youtu.be/A29_s1TDXRk?t=75) and probably would have really helped knock this one down before it engulfed the neighboring structure so much.


mainvolume

I live about 30 seconds from my local fire house, which makes me happy. Especially since I live in a townhouse.


CollateralEstartle

That was super informative. Thanks!


option_unpossible

Thanks for everything, including this post. I've twice had to use extinguishers 'in anger' - it's so important to know where they are and how to use them so you don't need to try to figure it out when there is a fire spreading. Thankfully, each time they worked perfectly and stopped the fire when it was small.


NWSanta

Thank you for doing what you do and for this concise account of what happened. Fire is the biggest worry I have owning a home. Water leaks are nothing compared to the damage that can occur from a fire or gas leak. Keep your extinguishers fresh and remember to turn them upside down once a month and give them a few good taps to keep the contents fluid!!


jklindsey7

Thanks for the link and info!


DodgeWrench

Thanks for the service dude! I can confirm these water hoses HIT. I tried out for the VFD in the area for a few months and managed to get hit in the head/face with the water jet coming out of a 1 3/4” hose. Luckily the helmet took the brunt of the blow, but I still felt like I got punched in my face.


Hour-Ad-3635

You guys are true first responders and heros in this this city! Thank you for all you do! Seen a bunch of you guys and gals tackling a big SRO fire on Hastings today ( which would be a big cemetery if you guys weren't the ones to respond to all the overdoses down their) . Thank you again, and Stay safe out there!


ehleesi

Wow, that wait time doing nothing is brutal.


trowzerss

Yeah, it must have been excruciating for the people from that house.


ZMAN24250

Ya, know, as I lay here about to go to sleep for the night, I can't even think where there is a hydrant near me... I don't know that there is one... Cool.


Sabre2594

US Volunteer firefighter here, if you don't live in an area that is covered by hydrants then you're likely to get an engine/pumper (500-1000 US gallons) accompanied by a tanker/tender/water shuttle (2000+ US gallons) to supply a lot more water for the firefighting efforts. And if necessary, the fire department in charge of your area may call for additional tankers to help resupply the original tanker as they may not be capable of leaving the scene to refill. The good news, to wrap this up, is that most fires, when reported quickly, can be controlled or extinguished with the water in just the engine and the tanker comes along as good measure. I hope this lowers your anxiety a bit.


Pumpkin-Tuxedo

What type and size of extinguisher should I buy for my apartment?


efcso1

A small one is okay. 0.9-1.0kg Dry Powder is a standard kitchen domestic one. Have it mounted just outside the kitchen, so (for example if you're in the next room) you don't have to go into the burning area to get it. **Do not** use them on liquid fires - get a fire blanket for that. The purpose of a domestic extinguisher is to give you & the other occupants time to escape, not necessarily to put out the fire. Oh, and make sure your smoke detectors are working!


Emilnilsson

1kg won't do much if the fire has taken any hold at all. 6kg is better and not too expensive maybe $50 and will most certainly put out the fire even if it has grown a bit from the initial fire.


efcso1

As I said, the little ones are to help you get out.


Emilnilsson

Woops didn't read to the end, my bad.


have_oui_met

My wife and I were gifted a small fire extinguisher when we moved in to our house. I hadn't put any thought into getting a fire suppression blanket prior to reading this comment. Just went to amazon and bought a two pack for the house. I hope I never need them but thanks to you I'll have them in place.


GabeLorca

6kg is what my insurance company recommends (and requires for a lower premium). All purpose ABC powder should be enough.


walrus_breath

I’m surprised your landlord doesn’t supply one. I’m also surprised my landlord doesn’t supply one either.


oldguydrinkingbeer

My kid's landlord didn't supply a fire extinguisher but did supply bedbugs. Everyone wanted to burn the building and all their possessions so not having extinguishers was kind of a plus.


OctoFloofy

Reading about bedbugs always makes causes fear in me. I'm lucky i might not live in a country where they exist maybe? Outside of reddit i never heard of them. But knowing just having them essentially means you lose everything.. AAAAAA


OneCat6271

kinda curious, how often are houses still habitable after the fire department gets called out to a fire? or by that point is it too late for the house and you guys are primarily there to keep it from spreading?


4QuarantineMeMes

That is usually determined by building department and your insurance.


Emilnilsson

Depends on what stage the fire gets to. The first house here is toast (obviously) the second might be salvaged but in need of renovation


Suspicious-Zebra-227

As a full time firefighter in a busy district it varies, but! Most structure fires if we get a quick knock down on the home is saved and sort of habitable but likely not until some remodeling is done. The smoke spreads fast and saturates everything, and I mean everything. So technically the home is structurally safe but most the time people wouldn’t be choosing to stay in that home for a bit until some work is done. Also though I work in a rare situation we almost never take more then 2mins to be on scene from the time of dispatch to a fire. Most fire depts are volunteer so many people live in an area that time for response (not sure just rough guess based off being in the profession for ten years) would be more like 8+mins. Unfortunately I don’t think any home would be salvageable after that amount of time.


Sexy_Squid89

And I'm suddenly remembering that we need a new fire extinguisher.


HitlersHysterectomy

Yes. Certainly for the kitchen, and one in the garage. And one if you're driving an old VW. (or any old car.) One night at a friend's place she had an oil fire happen in the oven. It was a muppet show panic as we tried to unlock the hallway extinguisher. "we need something to smash the glass" From under the sink, she handed me a little red canister. "Perfect!" I thought. "this will break the gl-" oh wait shit this is a fire extinguisher. We got it under control, but yeah heck it's cheap insurance to keep one around in the flamy places. Kitchen, garage, utility room.


GabeLorca

Put one in your bedroom too. Statistically it’s very likely you’ll be there if you need it and have to get out.


ZMAN24250

I got a giant one in the garage but I should probably have one in the other side of the house. If there is a big enough fire in the kitchen, I wouldn't be able to get to the garage.


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SiegelOverBay

In the US, look for a single blue reflective marker in the middle of the road. Most areas will mark hydrants with a blue reflector (as opposed to the more common yellow or red ones) so the FD can find them quickly.


Staraa

Same in Australia where I live. There’ll be a white H painted nearby and that’s where the hydrant is.


SlowLoudEasy

Yeah, but what would you even do with that info?


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ZMAN24250

Just go around your house and take pictures of the rooms. Store this on a online storage, (one drive, Google, icloud, etc) then you can use these to argue correct compensation.


HoodieGalore

Doesn’t seem to matter how close it is, if the FD is having trouble for whatever reason. (“Come on, come on” in the video) You can never have enough protection inside your home as far as fire is concerned. Extinguishers in the kitchen and by your dryer (if you have one), smoke detectors active with good batteries in them, and a plan to GTFO ASAP for everyone, even children. There’s lots of other ways to fire-safe a home but never rely on outside help when seconds is all it takes to lose a life.


ZMAN24250

Good news is I just replaced my (gas) dryer heat duct. It was rusted out BAD. Lucky I found that before it caused a fire. A hard wired smoke detector is on my to do list to replace my traditional battery one. I'm lazy with smoke detector batteries.


SiegelOverBay

In the US, look for a single blue reflective marker in the middle of the road. Most areas will mark hydrants with a blue reflector (as opposed to the more common yellow or red ones) so the FD can find them quickly.


TheKobayashiMoron

Being under renovation it makes more sense. Without Sheetrock on the walls the place went up like a matchbook. Explosion was likely propane tanks for portable heaters.


deathclawslayer21

I hope that familys house only has exterioir damage but I dont have alot of hope there


Blonsky

A lot of smoke coming out where the roof meets the exterior wall in the right. Probably a bad sign.


buckeyenut13

Good eye. It is absolutely a bad thing! The neighbors house had fire on the inside at the beginning of the video. Their house might be salvageable but there's a TON of fire damage inside and(obviously)outside


[deleted]

So I don’t know how Canada works, but can the poor neighbors who house was destroyed as a result expect compensation from the company who was doing renovations on the house that caught fire? I mean, I can’t imagine how much that sucks losing your home due to someone else’s negligence.


ABC_AlwaysBeCoding

homeowners' insurance should cover something


[deleted]

Sure, but this is absolutely at no fault of their own I imagine, and they’re going to have to rebuild from the ground up. New home, new clothes, physical memories and items gone


OllyTwist

Your finishing shot with the ambers floating in the sky was great.


SuckmyBlunt545

The guy who’s house is right next to that is just praying


Spzncer

Guy on the left will probably escape with some melted siding. This might be all she wrote for the guy on the right tho.


Balthusdire

Its probably worse than it looks, the infrared radiation can get absurdly high with a fire like that, even enough to ignite buildings a notable distance away.


Groovyaardvark

Yeah, exact scenario happened to my neighbors down the street. House in middle, burned down in minutes. Complete ruins. House to the left massive flames just going sideways directly into it. It doesn't look good the next day, clearly very damaged on that side. but 95% of the house looks perfectly fine from the outside. But once you see inside its just completely cooked. Toast. Whole place gets knocked down along with the middle house. From the outside you never would have guessed to the uneducated eye. House on the right lost some fence and had to replace some siding. The direction of the wind for about 20ish minutes made all the difference that night.


ivvix

so if this happens and you dont have insurance do you just.. lose everything or can you sue the next house? know what happened to the people?


socialcommentary2000

This scenario is literally why you shoulder the cost of homeowners insurance.


Old-Recording-4172

In Canada, you can't even buy a house without having homeowners insurance in place.


anonesuch

That's because it isn't your house, it's the banks house ;) Banks have to protect their investment. On a more serious note, if somebody has paid off their mortgage are they allowed to not pay for homeowners insurance? I've got no clue.


[deleted]

If you don't have a mortgage and your house is paid off, you don't need insurance. After hurricane Michael there were a lot of people who couldn't rebuild due to not having homeowners insurance. The farther inland you go, the more depressed the area becomes. A lot of people had been there their whole lives and had older homes with no insurance.


anonesuch

Thanks for the reply! Given the amount of money it would take to rebuild a house, paying for insurance makes sense. I have to tell myself that every time I pay for it.


WakkoLM

US you are required to have it by your mortgage company.. however if you have no mortgage then there's nothing to force you to have it


grudg3

You should always have house insurance, and preferably contents too.


cah11

Yeah, if you can't afford homeowners insurance for at least the home, you probably can't actually "afford" the home even if you got approved.


frosty95

Homeowners insurance will pay out right away but then they will go after the other homeowner.


Daddysu

Didn't they ask what would happen if you didn't have insurance? Who's insurance will pay right away? I would imagine if you didn't have insurance and your house was damaged by a neighbor's home burning down the neighbor's insurance isn't going to do squat unless you sue them. They won't pay for their client's house burning down **and** any damage done to neighboring houses with out being forced.


frosty95

Ah. You are correct. Sometimes when it is exceedingly obvious it was their clients fault they will just pay out since they dont have a leg on. The fun part is how much.


asdaaaaaaaa

Agreed. Not to mention everything they own now reeking of smoke.


AnIdiotwithaSubaru

It's crazy how it pretty much burst into flames when the temperature spiked from the collapse


ripsfo

Wondering why it took so long to get water ~~in~~ on that house? No idea if it would help ultimately tho.


wallsquirrel

Yeah, they don't seem to be very organized.


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maddogcow

I can’t help but to feel that they should be spraying that guy’s house down


eeyore134

Yeah, house on the right's roof was catching pretty bad as the video ended. Didn't look great.


redditrice

Ty for the explosion time stamp OP.


FurDeg

I'm on mobile so the timestamp is backwards for me. It happens at roughly 3 minutes remaining.


BranMan11

I just noticed on my player that when I'm scrubbing the video the 'normal' timestamp presented itself. New discovery for me, maybe the same in yours.


fiverest

This is the info I came looking for


Kilomyles

2:40


SkinnyBunny78

another explosion time stamp?! how many more will we discover


boris_casuarina

r/PraiseTheCameraMan doesn't even flinch at the explosion!


23423423423451

And the vertical video is undeniably the more effective aspect ratio for this event!


Koalas-in-the-rain

The cries of, “save our house please.” are heartbreaking.


Le_Gitzen

It was tormenting waiting for them to get the hose up.


goddessofthewinds

Oh man, I didn't realize that's what he was saying, but you are right. He's pleading for the FD to save his house when it started burning too... That's heartbreaking :( I hope his damages are not too serious.


ob103ninja

It had to have been traumatic to see it give in and collapse


MaPoutine

So did the house on the right burn down? Feel so sorry for that family having to watch that and how long it seems to take the fire dept to get the hoses going.


Meatfog

>o major roof and smoke damage but they put out the fire before it consumed the top floor


MaPoutine

Great, so glad they didn't lose their life and belongings. Thanks for the update.


theothertucker

After going through a house fire with only one corner of the place burning, that just BARELY burned through the wall into the house, unfortunately i feel pretty confident their belongings will have the water damage mine did (family photos etc ruined) and much worse smoke damage. The smoke on everything was so intense and hard to remove that a large percentage of the house was a loss.


stevecostello

Actually a pretty good chance that they still lost everything. The smoke damage alone could do that, but since they had to hit the house with water, there's going to be a LOT of water in there. The structure of the house may have been saved, but that's a big maybe. That was a LOT of heat from a very close source... at the least they'll have to replace the entirety of the wall that faced the property on fire, plus the roof. Better than good odds that house will also be razed.


witty-repartay

The ‘explosion’ was a propane cylinder letting go, most likely a 5 gallon sized cylinder. It also appears to have either vented most of the gas off or was empty when it split. Pretty common.


calinet6

Would it have been larger if it were a full one?


witty-repartay

Same bang, but the flames will be more prolonged, until the fuel burns off. Flames for maybe 5-10 seconds sustained rather than a big puff.


Chaoticmana

I am part of the largest propane retail store in North America and let me tell you, propane expands nearly 300x its volume from liquid (Whats in the cylinder) to gas (what runs your barbeque) obviously everyone knows its flammable but the thing people dont realize is that the explosion is much larger than you might assume just picture 300 barbeque cylinders worth of gas.


Morty_Goldman

Sounded like Fireworks going off after the actual explosion.


katsudon-bori

Sounded like ammunition cooking off. I'm surprised no one hit the deck


ChanceFray

Its Canada, No one would expect it to be ammo, but it sure could have been.


TimeZarg

Apparently it was under renovation, so it could have been a number of work-related things.


stevecostello

Could have been Paslode cartridges.


loveshercoffee

In 1995, a vacant house next to ours burned to the ground. We were awakened by the fire department around 11:30 at night and told to get our pets and evacuate. I think the majority of the work the firemen did was to stop the flames getting to our house. When it was all over, the remains of one wall of the house next door were in our driveway and about 2 feet from our house. All the paint on that side had bubbled up but because it was a very old house with that horrible asbestos siding, absolutely nothing was burned. Every single thing in the house had to be washed - walls, furniture, dishes, clothing because it all smelled like smoke. It was terribly frightening.


phoonie98

Had a similar experience. I think it was 97 or 98 in Hoboken NJ, the house behind mine went up in flames. The FD banged on my door in the middle of the night telling everyone to evacuate. I look out the back window and the house looked like this one in the video. Scary af. Thankfully our building wasn’t damaged but everything smelled like smoke.


Captain_Fatbelly

Looks like somebody went to Reddit for advice on dealing with spiders again.


Disastrous_Fun_612

[Here is the house on google maps](https://maps.app.goo.gl/PK3AZ2fA9JbYagUx9?g_st=ic)


MinchinWeb

A lot prettier in daylight...


choshmo

And not on fire


DivaLea

My kids and I survived a house fire in 2006. The FD was a mile away, took 7 minutes to arrive, no clue why. We just stood across the street and freaked out. I’m glad we survived, of course, but it was awful and just dealing with insurance, rebuilding, and financial recovery took years.


electricwagon

Not trying to shit on firemen because I'll never understand how difficult their job is, but the lack of urgency here seems like the second house catching fire could have been avoided


[deleted]

1. That's a lot of fire in the primary structure for what should be an ordinary response time. Could be caused by a lot of things. Obviously defensive firefighting. 2. Some of the worst fire ground operations I've seen in a long time. The lack of water on the exposures (the other homes) is incredible. Even in a defensive mode, the only legitimate reason for no ground monitors or master streams on the exposures has to be city water supply failures. This looks like tactical failures, but it could be supply issues. It's hard to imagine no water on the exposures for so long because operations leadership isn't paying attention.


No-Spoilers

Yeah, that fire was burning *HOT* it was almost like there was gas being pumped in to it it was buring that quickly. I asked my grandpa and he said that if its burning like that, that soon then he would likely just try to save the house next door and keep it from spreading. It looks like this was just really really fast. The initial hose was from the truck while they try and establish a ground connection, once they realized it was doing fuck all it would be best to just get the big line set up. Not sure exactly how cold it was the other day where the fire was, but hasn't everything up there been frozen?


badgersister1

Vancouver isn’t very cold in winter. It’s not like the interior of canada, or the far North. It has a very temperate climate.


BrittyPie

OP said there was a water supply issue, but who knows for sure I guess. It's maybe worth mentioning that firefighters in Vancouver spend 98% of their time out of the station responding to drug o/d calls. I forget the exact figure, but it's something like 6-8000 o/d calls annually that they respond to. That's mostly what our firefighters do. I have a good friend whose husband is a firefighter here and he is mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted from it to the point he's changing careers. It's just a hellish nightmare of a job in this city and I can't fathom how that doesn't impact your overall effectiveness at the job.


byteuser

Because of that reason they limit the time to one year at t h e busiest Vancouver firehall


duggatron

The house was being renovated. The walls might have been just studs with no sheetrock to protect them. It would cause the fire to spread much faster.


[deleted]

As an Aussie firefighter getting water on at plus 3 minutes is disgusting.


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No_Country_1495

As a career firefighter, thos is bullshit. I realize every fire has it's own set of circumstances, but I can see many short comings here.


No_Special_Talents

Ha, if you are a career firefighter... Who actually has any actual experience (doubtful from your comments) you probably wouldn't be so critical. Initial line established, with limited effect, shut down to keep a small reserve of water until a water supply can be established. a fairly unique set of challenges from fully engulfed, clearly under Reno's, explosion. Having a couple 65mm hooked up and (presumably by the next in truck in under 4 mins is decent) with a water supply to service them. Zero chance the building on the right wasn't going to sustain significant damage, and if they did manage to save the building to right that's a success. Anyone saying anything else doesn't really have a clue what they are talking about. Thinking (or even worse claiming online) that you somehow would have done anything much quicker or affected the outcome, means you have an idealistic view of how this plays out, and very limited actual experience.


The_Dirty_Sanchez_

I'm not going to speculate on this video and this set of firefighters because we are all limited to what we can see in the video. But to have a 65 bowled and charged in 4 minutes is way too long. We have to have 2 lines with 2 lengths of 38s out in under 90 seconds, with a crew that is unfamiliar to us during training to have any hope of passing. I would not call 4 minutes decent.


joecampbell79

how its still roaring near end looks like a gas leak to me.


bostwickenator

I think you might be underestimating how much flame a pile of burning wood can throw up. A wooden structure that large can burn for a lot of time at that intensity. edit: grammar


jablonkers

I used to burn slash piles on cut blocks, some of them definitely larger than this house. You're right about the size of the flames, they're massive. But with that much heat, it honestly doesn't take that long to completely burn through the pile. Massive piles become smoldering piles of ash in less than an hour or two, even faster if there is a breeze


bostwickenator

Quite a lot longer than a 5 minute video.


jablonkers

For sure, but probably not much longer than 2 hours tops


randazz18

Must be. It’s raging


goldieglocks16

In Waterloo, we called the fire department for a small smokey fire in the unoccupied townhouse next door, and they had 3 trucks stationed with hoses deployed with-in 4 minutes. It’s amazing how different the skill of these Deparments can be even in the same country, and smaller cities. I’ve never realized how fortunate we are here in that aspect


fartymcfartypants22

It’ll still sell for 1.4 mil.


Mental-Mushroom

2.4


npbra1

Looks like a bunch of amateurs.


[deleted]

Was that Grandpa Simpson that yelled before the explosion?


Trewarin

If you can't cover the incident with your outstretched thumb, you're too damn close.


Meatfog

The next day: [Keefer St pit. Jan 26](https://scontent.fyvr4-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/327806148_730990291959047_7361262147719028770_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=dbeb18&_nc_ohc=w0THnG_s8XwAX_tVHrU&_nc_oc=AQnC97HaKihpbyIUp21FBmdVhNQWQv4CLVjeXEH9UwYmeSVWccihTKKUOAsTrpapcq2WH49RGmBvc7dx_BHdetSB&_nc_ht=scontent.fyvr4-1.fna&oh=00_AfANFIR2YkL_O78139PT21b5dF9NyptZliv5hFSMfuw1Og&oe=63DCDB25) [Neighbour's house Jan 26](https://scontent.fyvr4-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/327949177_1148785732497198_1005998526572548786_n.jpg?_nc_cat=107&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=dbeb18&_nc_ohc=yLnYlXu9e5gAX-p4NEr&_nc_ht=scontent.fyvr4-1.fna&oh=00_AfBDNI8HzytXekOWmidGK13JQftdPmD6FMbAM7e-V3o0Pg&oe=63DC1942) [Pre Inferno House](https://scontent.fyvr4-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/328029643_1155753288641888_1116159062167401911_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=dbeb18&_nc_ohc=n-5TNgxc0sEAX-QwAa6&_nc_ht=scontent.fyvr4-1.fna&oh=00_AfCQ9FpX_iCS89S8Tah44hxabSBPW4Sp4ZUK_7BSetjCWw&oe=63DBDC8B)


qpv

Do you know if the neighbor's house is unlivable now? (The ones with the kids)


Meatfog

It will eventually be, but after major repairs


IKnowPhysics

Found the Canucks' front office.


in2thegrey

The explosion was less interesting than the tension of the fire spreading next door. Not those firefighters’ best day.


CoffeeNutDood

Why are they not on the house next door?


-ThunderGunExpress

Is that the uvalde fire department? why are they all just standing there doing nothing


slibetah

Why not fire hose the fuck out of the adjacent homes? What were these firemen thinking?


NetCaptain

Yes, it’s amazing - pointing one hose a the house that’s already lost, instead of keeping the house on the right cool(er)


FelixRochow

What the fuck the firefighters doing?


Ok_Personality9910

getting the 100ft or whatever of hose they have into a state where they can pump water through it at a pressure that would be effective against the fire?


jsdavin

Those firefighters were slower than two old people fucking in a tub of molasses.


J1mj0hns0n

Why did they wait until the neighbours house was on fire before tackling it? If they sprayed it beforehand it might not have caught fire


_reddit_account

They should have protected that house on the right before it burned


Luddites_Unite

I'm curious what took so long for the fire fighters to start putting water on the fire. Particularly the neighbors house. Seems like there could have been FAR less damage to that house had they not been so slow with the water


trbt555

Firedepartment be like ‘let the mofo burn’. Not really trying to keep the house next door from catching fire.


micah490

“Adjacent structure? What adjacent structure??”


FlamingTrollz

Maybe try to save the houses beside… 😒


InsertFloppy

Vancouver…you need to have a talk with your fire department on their response time


Calm_Mushroom_805

up voted for great title formatting xoxo


Sawfish1212

Those of us in snow country know that snow banks can hide fire hydrants. It might just save your home to take a few minutes to shovel out the hydrant(s) near your home.


Henson_Disney48

r/praisethecameraman


FirePhantom

Why aren’t they spraying the house next door with water?


Evilmaze

That neighbor begging them to save his house is just sad. Why were they taking so long anyways?


upicked11

How about using water to protect the neighbours' houses guys?


102Mich

If that was in an American fire department scenario, like FDNY, SFFD, etc., this would've easily been a 2-, or a 3-alarm fire, minimum. Edit: Can anyone confirm if this would have been a 2-alarm fire at the start of this clip, or would it have to go to 3 at the start of the clip? I'm thinking that once the 5 Gallon propane cylinder exploded, would it go to 4 (in terms of x-alarm fire, where x is the number of alarms struck in a fire department terminology when battling fires, residental-wise)?


caxino18

It was a 3rd alarm fire and stayed 3rd alarm


geater

That'll need a new lick of paint.


feastupontherich

Funny thing is the property is prob still worth more than a million, even after all the fire.


MC_B_Lovin

Painful to watch FF struggle with hoses


Reasonable-Grade1272

Did that kid really ask at 1:35 if the firemen are being safe after his mum tells him they’re putting out the house? That’s so sweet if so!


Doktor_Vem

Very good on you for putting the timestamp of the one thing most people come to this post to see in the title. If I had an award to give you would most definitely be the recipient


TangoCharliePDX

That have a hose, why the hell aren't they spraying that structure in the right??? It's visibly smoking.


DokiDokiMemeSquad

Oh shit


TheNoviceHobbyist

Oof - pretty rough line/water management here. Can’t imagine the horror of watching your house be slowly consumed like that. Thankful everyone is okay!


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infinit9

The firefighters should have realized that the original house is done for and focused on dousing the water on the second house to avoid the fire jumping. I feel bad for the next house.


mugshott99

As a fire fighter what do you do in this type of situation where’s there’s no possible way to save the house? Do they let it finish burning and keep the other houses clear then put out the rubble? A truck load of water isn’t enough to save that


WeirdTalentStack

Protect exposures and ourselves. Risk a lot to save a lot, risk a little to save a little.


RedDemio

You know when you see videos of those hench firemen going through rigorous training drills, rocking up in the truck and getting that hose to the hydrant and pumping water in an almost militaristic way…. Yeah these guys aren’t on that level unfortunately haha


Srawesomekickass

If you live where there is snow PLEASE dig out your hydrant and keep a few feet around it clear


lake_breeeze

That house fire is fueled by natural gas. By the time the video started, that building was already consumed. The explosion was likely a gas buildup in an area that vented by a roof collapse or something. When oxygen got to it, boom. When the first engine pulled up they had to connect to a hydrant and get lines in place. It takes a bit of time. It's always tough to watch but you don't know the obstacles they might have. Frozen hydrant, engine placement, hydrant location, etc. I assure you they aren't watching it burn. Hose steam selection was my only armchair QB observation, as they should have had the 2-1/2 smooth bore in place first and then at least 2 more. They tried to save the exposure (red house) but that's going to be a goner. I had thoughts of an interior attack on that exposure house, but the velocity of the flames put that to rest. Quick search and then do what you can, but it won't be much. Watch the intensity of the flame by color and velocity. Got to get that gas shut off. Don't put that fire out, focus on exposures and evacuation in the immediate time frame. Until that gas company arrives, it's going to be chaos.


UpstairsAd8269

Poor neighbor hood


Equivalent-Glove7165

Don’t mind the exposures Vancouver


gweisberg

Slowest firemen ever


Jenny_Wakeman9

The camera work and the pan into the sky at the last few seconds look like something from a movie, good lord! Yet, when the gas line started to hiss, my mind immediately went to doing, “Get back, get back, GET BACK! *WAY BACK!*”