As a photojournalist there are only a small handful of outcomes when arriving at the scene of a fire.
- The fire is totally burned out and there is nothing left to shoot.
- The fire is still burning.
- The fire is still burning, but the fire department won’t let you anywhere near it.
Those were the scenarios running through my head as I sped off from downtown Green Bay to rural Greenleaf when I heard over the police scanner that the two fire departments in that area had sent their whole crew.
When I arrived, the fire was mostly contained with no injuries. I didn’t know how close the firefighters would let me get so I immediately started shooting away as I walked toward the scene. To my surprise, the scene wasn’t taped off and I could essentially wander wherever I wanted.
Awesome.
Also, the sun began to set just behind the clouds of smoke. Even better.
The sun did make it hard to do much besides fiery silhouettes, but overall I’m pretty happy with the photos I got.
Lukas Keapproth 