Burn It Down

Here is an article I wrote recently and it made the front page of one of my local newspapers. The accompanying pictures were ones I took and they wanted to run a third one, too, but didn't have the column space. So, I will include it along with another one I wish they had used. The article following is what I submitted. But following the pictures is the one they edited and used.

Controlled Burn

Several citizens gathered Saturday afternoon to witness a house burn down. What was unusual about this particular empty residence located on the 100 block of West Main Street was that it was intentionally set on fire. The Norris City Fire Department was participating in a controlled burn to bring the house down. Assisting them were members from several other departments, including the Omaha, Enfield and New Haven Fire Departments.
All volunteers present were seen to work together in an extremely coordinated offert and once all the safety equipment was in place, a lone fireman entered the building at 2.15 p.m. and started the blaze. Fire erupted from a nearby window almost immediately. The smoke from the ensuing conflagration could be seen for miles and a cloud hovered directly over the heart of Norris City for a brief while. The fire raged fast, and with precision, the crew brought the house down to a smoking pile of rubble in less than an hour. By 3 p.m., all that was left standing was the front door frame and an old refrigerator that sat inside the house. Due to their skill, there was not a single injury or any damage to the nearby buildings.
Afterwards, when all the danger of any possible spread of the fire was removed, the fire crews gathered for a group photo. If you see any of these brave volunteers, please thank them for making our communities a whole lot safer.

These two pictures are the ones they used, but were naturally converted to black and white dot-matrix. The Editor wanted to use this one, but due to lack of space, couldn't:

And here's one that I thought would have looked good and been descriptive at the same time:

But, they didn't use it. What they did do, however, was to edit my story. Here it is as it was published and renamed:

Firefighters Burn It Down

Saturday afternoon, the Norris City Fire Department led a controlled burn and training session, that included the removal of a house located at 108 West Main Street in Norris City. The structure was used as a training site to improve skills in search/rescue, ventilation, nozzles and water streams, overhaul, and forcible entry techniques. At approximately 2:15 p.m., a lone fireman entered the house and started the blaze. Fire erupted from a window almost immediately. Smoke could be seen for miles, a cloud hovered directly over the heart of Norris City for a brief while. The fire raged fast and with precision, the crew brought the house down to a smoking pile of rubble in less than an hour. By 3:00 p.m., all that was left standing was the front door frame and an old refrigerator that sat inside the house. Due to their skill, there was not a single injury or damage to the nearby buildings.

Assisting Norris City were members from Omaha, Enfield and New Haven Fire Departments.

If you see any of the brave volunteers pictured above, please thank them for making our communities a whole safer.

So, there it was! All in all, I was proud to have my name attached to it. The firefighters were kind enough to pose for a portrait after the fire was extinguished and a copy of that picture hangs in the fire department today. I'll close this post with an old joke about Editors.

Three men: an editor, a photographer, and a journalist are covering a political convention in Miami. They decide to walk up and down the beach during their lunch hour. Halfway up the beach, they stumbled upon a lamp. As they rub the lamp a genie appears and says "Normally I would grant you three wishes, but since there are three of you, I will grant you each one wish."
The photographer went first.

"I would like to spend the rest of my life living in a huge house in St. Thomas with no money worries." The genie granted him his wish and sent him on off to St. Thomas.
The journalist went next.

"I would like to spend the rest of my life living on a huge yacht cruising the Mediterranean with no money worries." The genie granted him his wish and sent him off to the Mediterranean.
Last, but not least, it was the editor's turn. "And what would your wish be?" asked the genie.
"I want them both back after lunch" replied the editor, "the deadline for tomorrow's newspaper is in about ten hours.