Controlled Burn
Originally uploaded by LightBin

This house had been used by the local fire department for training exercises, and was eventually destroyed. I had been taking pictures of the training, and was invited to take pictures of the fire as well. This was a chance to take pics of something that I had never witnessed, and it turned out to be very educational. This house was opened up to allow lots of air flow, and the fire was set in multiple places. So the fire got a faster start than it would in a “real” fire. However, once it got going, it was unbelievable how fast it moved through the structure. My friends on the department said that as soon as a fire finds a source of air, it will take off like this. This image was taken 25 minutes after the fire was started. It is so hot that a heat vortex is forming over this end of the house. At this point, there is no place in the structure that would be safe if someone were trapped inside. 25 minutes. It was actually fully involved way before this picture was taken. Looking at this, it is obvious how important it is to have working smoke detectors in your house. You would not want to wake up and find yourself in the middle of a fire that had already been going for a period of time.

See more photos of this structure fire, and the training exercises that were done before it was burned in my flickr stream.