It was a good day and a bad day.

A day to remember, that's for sure.

It was shaping up to be a good photo day.

I got a call to go to a house fire on Alfred which is not that unusual. I was the first media person to get there and it looked like a fairly tame fire, some smoke no open flame that I could see.

I was walking up the street looking at the house trying to find something interesting to focus on when I saw a fireman hammering his fire axe at a boarded up basement window. It was the only active aspect at the time and I crossed the street to get a better shot from the sidewalk in front of the house. I ended up standing beside a couple of cops and civilians, though I didn't think anything of it because I was focused on trying to get a shot of the fireman. I guess I was a little too close to one of the cops because he turned around and started giving me the third degree.

So, I moved back to the other side of the street and started shooting some video. A TV guy showed up right about then and set up beside me. After a few minutes the cop came over and apologized for taking my head off. I was quite surprised at this... I've never had a cop apologize for doing his job. So, I was feeling pretty good, but it was still an uneventful house fire. No injuries (thank goodness) and no flames. Until I heard that there were some dogs still in the house.

I decided to go around back to see what was up and that's where I hit paydirt! I tried to wave to the TV guy and get his attention, but he was looking the other way... oh well! You snooze you lose.

The cop was back there too, but didn't stop me from moving around to get the shots and video. Before I knew it all the dogs were packed into a truck and off they went.



I still had to stick around to get the District Chief on camera, otherwise I would have been transmitting the stills back to the paper.

After the Chief I drove back to the paper in a really good mood. Then I found out that a couple of good reporters had been turfed. As well as the Auto/Homes editor who basically kept me in freelance money for a number of years while I was just getting started at the paper.

Sad sad day. One I will never forget.