a house fire yesterday prompted the opportunity for us to get a story and pictures for a Sunday piece on the county's newly re-structured fire investigation team....very strange to be in the house that belongs to the woman on today's front page, wandering about the bubbled paint and charred remains of someone's lifetime's worth of memories...this scorched crucifix on the wall caught my eye as i was leaving, and these are just a few of the frames that turned out best

following the fire team as they started their investigation, i assumed they'd gone into the house, and following the sound of voices, started making my way in the dark, punctuated only by the small shafts of light coming in through holes leading to the roof and broken out windows...turns out no one was really in the house but me - they were in the basement, and i realized that only me walking upon the spongy floor filled with broken glass, wood, beams with nails jutting out, was inside here....needless to say, it struck me then...hmm, this might not be very safe....i came out, found the team, and they told me, yeah, i probably shouldn't be in there yet, i may have just fallen through to the basement, cos the only thing apparently holding up the floor is the furnace it's resting upon...we later went in, and though a chunk of the floor came up with part of the furniture, it was fairly safe after all....so i was able to stay in with them and make more pix inside....but it's just another reminder to me of how i sometimes don't think in my own best interest when in pursuit of images...which means i may make/or have made for a really good or really bad war photographer....