House Fire, To shoot or not to shoot?

Fivehole

This evening there was a house fire on my street. After we made sure everyone was safe i took some pictures of the fire.

Later in the evening i posted some of the pics on another photo forum. At that time i was criticized for taking the photos. Someone was saying i was being disrespectfull to the owners of the house. Now i'm not a profesional journalist or anything but is this not what they do? I did not take any "people" pictures just pictures of the house.

Any feed back would be great.

Thanks

roccityroller

hmm.. seems like that would be a touchy subject, but i also can see how that would leads to amazing pictures. did the family know you were shooting?

ivar

I think it's a matter of priorities. First, I'd make sure the people are safe, then help if you can preventing more fire/save the house/other houses. If nothing can be done anymore by you, I wouldn't have a problem if you would shoot, personally.

Howard Barlow

By that person's reasoning, news is disrespectful. It is totally irrelevant who posted the images. If a nonprofessional/pj captures an image, it shouldn't be publicized? Gimmie a break.

Bendr

I tend to agree with Ivar, if there is something you can do about it, do it!
But, if you have exhausted your resources, and there is nothing that can be done, By all means, you might as well try to make something positive out of it... It's what I was doing when I shot this thread: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=99665


Ben

docwalker

I am taking off my support hero hat for this one. And putting on my Firefighter/Photographer hat.

As a firefighter, I have no problem with you taking the photos as long as you stay out of my way and do not enter the danger zone. How close is too close? If you can feel the heat you are too close. Hoses can and will rupture, buildings will collapse, propane tanks will explode.... Stuff can and will happen. If I have to worry about you, I am not able to do my job properly. Let me focus on the job at hand.

It sounds like you did the right thing by making sure the family was out of the house first. For that, I commend you.

I have been asked by my fellow firefighters to start taking more photos on our scenes. I do have better access as I have the training and know what to watch for so I pretty much can move around the scene without interference. I will also drop my camera in a heart beat to help my brothers when needed. You do not have that training and in a problem situation, you may be tempted to help. Chances are you will get hurt.

Disrespect is if someone asks you not to take a photo of their person, and you continue or post the photos. People grieving their loss is not something that I would photograph without good reason. Photos of the house to me is not that big of a deal as it could be any house on any street in the world.

There is another side to the story as the photos may be evidence. The firefighters may want to see them for training reasons, they may be useful for lawsuits, insurance investigations, or even criminal investigations. I have seen photos taken on fire scenes used to prove that a gas can was sitting outside the door, or that windows were intact etc. So you may provide much needed help and not know it. If a fatality was involved, you may have something of more value than you know.

I am not going to criticize you for posting the photos to the forum but I have to ask what the intention was. I do not know the context so I do not know if something in the post caused the reaction by the members or if it was just the photos. It may be that some of the members there are just sensitive to that type of photography. If you had posted it on a firefighters forum, you might have gotten a different reaction.

Keep shooting. If asked to stop or move, do so. When you are done, consider the nature of the photos. Then carefully decide what you do with them.

Blaker

If you were standing on a public street ( not on the person's lawn) and took the photos you are free to publish them in a newspaper, put them on a website, email them to your friends, whatever.
If the house is recognizeable, I believe you would need a release form in order to use the photo in an advertising campaign.
As far as the photos being 'evidence', you are not required to give up your memory card/camera or photos to law enforcement unless they obtain a warrent for them.
Oftentimes, if a lawsuit develops from the accident /fire, the lawyers may want to buy your photos to use as evidence in the lawsuit. It is entirely up to you whether you want to give them away, sell them to the lawyer, or just keep them for yourself.
So, short answer is that Yes, you can post the photos on the forums.
If the family asks you to remove them, it is entirely up to you whether you do so or not.

docwalker wrote:

There is another side to the story as the photos may be evidence. The firefighters may want to see them for training reasons, they may be useful for lawsuits, insurance investigations, or even criminal investigations. I have seen photos taken on fire scenes used to prove that a gas can was sitting outside the door, or that windows were intact etc. So you may provide much needed help and not know it. If a fatality was involved, you may have something of more value than you know.