It was the start of the third quarter of a decidedly mediocre Iowa-Michigan football game (at least, if you were an Iowa fan) and I was reconsidering my decisions for how I was spending my Saturday evening. A choice presented itself—stay at this bar and keep watching a probable Iowa loss (spoiler alert: they lost) while paying DC beer prices for the privilege? Or settle my bill and head home to find something more productive to do? As it turned out, the decision was made for me: they cut the audio to the game and a manager came out to tell us that, while it wasn’t an emergency, there was a fire in the building next door and the fire department was kindly asking us to exit the building right now. Well this audience was full of Iowa fans so there might have been more than one person quickly finishing off their beers lest they go to waste (I may or may not have been one of them) before we grabbed our jackets and headed downstairs. As soon as we got near the windows, there was no mistaking that there were indeed firemen outside—a lot of them in fact. “Hmm, is this going to be a thing?” Well, I learned painfully over 20 years ago (and have to relearn occasionally because, apparently, I have to make the same mistake three or four times before I catch on), you should always carry a camera with you. And while I didn’t have one of my SLRs with me, I did have my little Fuji x100.
We poured out into the street into the midst of around a dozen firetrucks and dozens of firemen huddled in bunches waiting for orders. Everyone streamed across the street and, naturally, the cell phones started coming out. I already had the Fuji out and immediately started documenting what I could, expecting us to be cleared off the block at any moment, But, a curious thing happened: nothing. Basically, as long as you stayed across the street, none of the firemen or cops paid any attention to you. The crowd drifted off on their own accord but I hung around until I felt like I’d gotten everything I could get with what I had. Sure, I wished I’d had my heavy gear with me but as the saying goes, the best camera is the one you have with you, and so it proved this evening.
And the fire certainly proved more exciting than that football game.
