I went to this house fire a couple of days ago. Flames were shooting out of the attic and fire crews had a heck of a time getting into the home because of so much trash and stuff that had been pack-ratted in every corner of the home, that the house pretty much was a total loss.
The fire was raging out of control. The flames were high enough that they caught the power lines in front of the home on fire. A snorkel truck that had parked in front of the house had to move across the street to escape the flames and the danger of the burning wires.
I positioned myself across the street in the driveway of an abandoned house. I was shooting the fire when I noticed an old man next to me watching the fire. I also noticed he was standing under a power line that was swaying because it was attached to the lines that were on fire.
I mentioned to the man that I was going to move because of the wire and suggested that he should probably do the same. He followed me and we were out of harm's way of the wire. Just then, the snorkel truck, which by this time had lifted it's ladder, opened up it's snorkel and started dousing the house.
As I was shooting the firemen below, a huge blue flash and a boom rang out. I pulled out wide in time to get the the second flash an a louder boom from the electrical lines in front of the house shorting out. The snorkel was hitting the wires, which by now had their insulation burned off by the fire and were now bare.
After the second boom, the firemen in front of the house scattered and surrounded me and the old man across the street. They were all breathing heavy and some were saying they felt sick. I felt sick also. The shock wave from the explosions went through us all and I'm not surprised that we all didn't have our insides rattled a little from the impact of those shock waves. I felt better about an hour later with a little ginger ale inside me.
Oh, and that wire that the old man was standing under, it came down about 25 minutes later. We all were pretty lucky that night.
