The Things You See When You Have A Camera: Part 1

Sorry about yesterday and no post. I got distracted a bit. This post will finish up with 2006 and next week I will move on to 2007. So this will be a picture thread as well as a commentary.

Back in about October 2006, I was working temporarily at a mall here in Toronto. It was pretty busy, and I realized that not only do I hate going to shopping malls, I hated working them as well. Personal bias really, my first security job was in a shopping mall back in 1987. Old history really, and that's it.

So any way, there was a house behind the mall that was a stone throw from the security office. There had been a couple contractors during the day doing some roof work that involved a propane torch and BBQ tank. Normal type of tools for dealing with patching tar. Well the Contractors went home when the sun went down leaving their tools of the trade behind.

Then the fun began. I don't know exactly what time it started at, but all of a sudden flames began shooting out of the roof. Fire department arrived and started doing their thing. Unfortunately since it was so close to the mall, I and my fellow guards were busy keeping people back from the area, and assisting the fire department access. It was a sight to behold. Even a little scary too. Apparently a propane tank was left on the roof and they were worried about the fire setting it off.

Eventually the fire was put down enough and I was able to start snapping pictures.

From Year 2006

This one was taken without the flash. It seemed everyone fighting the fire was up on the roof..

From Year 2006

Here's what it looked like with the flash. Those reflective strips really showed up pretty good. I was at least a good 50 feet away when I took this shot. It really ruined my thoughts on how powerful the flash was.

From Year 2006

Here I was about 100 feet away using the flash. If you look you can see ladders with hoses on the top right and left hosing the place down from above. On the center left you can see a spray that they were hosing from the back first floor roof next door. There were at least 5 trucks there fighting the fire.

From Year 2006

I snuck in a little closer for this picture, the fire had died down enough so that the fire department wasn't worried about us security guards.

From Year 2006

Now I want to draw your attention to the lower left. Yes that was a fellow guard with his cellphone taking a picture. Reason I bring that up was that at one point I looked back at the crowd of people beyond the safety line and I saw something like five to ten people holding up cell phones, cameras, taking pictures.

So that's it. Keep a camera with you cause you never know what you may see while you are out and about.

PaladinPhil