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Fire
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I was asked to take some “before” photos for a client of mine whose business is cleaning burnt buildings.
This was a solicitors’ office where a burglar had torched the building out of spite when there was nothing worth robbing.
I found it interesting to see the way the fire had spread and the damage resulting even in the unburnt rooms.
Most of the burning had occurred in the stairwell (it’s a Georgian terraced townhouse with 4 floors, each split level)
but the rooms had all suffered heat and smoke damage. The stairs were deemed safe to use, though they
made me distinctly uneasy in places.Photography wasn’t easy because everything was covered in soot and the windows were mostly boarded up. Lighting
was provided by emergency lantern things strung along a huge extension cable. I used the TTL flash, but as there
was nothing to bounce it off, I just pointed it where the lens was pointing and used it on top of the camera.I came out with a thumping head to my client’s cheerful assertion that the soot and dust are carcinogenic.
This is one of a series of extinguishers all the way up the stairs.
This clock and the plastic flower were in a room totally untouched by flames. The heat had simply cooked
all the plastic – you can see that the paper was unburnt.
I’m going to call this one “Look after yourself”.
Nice pictures Pete-
Would like to see some overview of the rooms though-
you know, wide ones-I like the way the statuette escaped the fire completely-
A miracle-j
The widest lens I have is 18mm and it struggled in fairly small rooms.
Here are a couple more. The confusing one is looking up a stairwell –
the burnt stairs you can see are the ones I was nervous about walking up.
jb7 wrote:
I like the way the statuette escaped the fire completely-
A miracle-j
:lol: My thoughts exactly…
Some nice shots there Pete, though as Joseph already
mentioned, wider would be nicer.As for soot and dust being carcinogenic, well, so is toast,
cr?me br?l?e, keeping a budgerigar, hillwalking, smoking
and air…
…that is of course if rumours are to be believed…Rob.
You did well with the single flash,
helped, no doubt, by the matted and blackened surfaces-The pictures fulfil the brief, and get into the details,
though I can’t help feeling there should be more in them, to them, done with them,
for pictures posted here-Though I fully understand the difficulties-
The wide shots are definitely necessary-
j
Thanks for taking the time to look.
You’re right JB, they aren’t really photos posted for critique. I found the experience fascinating, so tried to give
a taste of what I saw. I should have borrowed Andy’s 14mm lens – but these things only occurred to me later.The clock and the statuette interested me most!
Thanks Rob, for the cancer advice. I’d have felt more reassured if you’d said that the smoke was harmless and
people feed it to babies with no ill effect. C’est la vie (et le mort, je suppose).
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