Upde Designs

Happy Tuesday!

I continue with the Saturday training session for the Maquoketa Fire Department.

This image shows that the fire has been started.  It was ignited in the basement and if you look closely at the left most window you can see the fire showing through.

One of the things that has always impressed and scared me about fire is just how fast it can travel once it gets started.  I understand that this house was set up with a “chimney effect” to facilitate the burn but having said that, fire still travels and spreads at an amazing rate.

It wasn’t long until the left side of the house was fully enveloped.  Fire needs three things to exist.  It must have heat, oxygen, and a fuel source.  In this particular instance it had an abundance of all three. To put a fire out you must remove one of the three.

As the fire enveloped more of the house it got pretty interesting.  There was a steady 15 – 20 mph wind that was blowing toward the front of the house (sorry I can’t tell you the compass direction.)  Even though the wind was strong and I was restricted to 30 feet away from the house the heat was intense.

Fire is an interesting photographic subject.  I shot about 350 images (I thought I had taken more but I mistook how many images I had left on the card as opposed to how many I had taken.)  I would have liked to take more but once the fire started it really didn’t last all that long.

What about the aerial video?  More on that later.  There is still lots to show and tell you about this fascinating day so please come back tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.