Members of the public attended the Fire Service Day event held at Los Angeles County Fire Department station 129 in Lancaster, California on May 14, 2016. The event featured a chili cook-off, interactive displays and demonstrations by the Sikorsky S-70A Firehawk helicopter, Urban Search and Rescue (USAR), live auto fires, physical rescues, hoist rescues, helicopter water drops and more. © DurlingMedia
At around 7:45pm on March 10th, 2016 LAFD units arrived on scene of a reported structure fire at 1566 Rio Vista Ave in Boyle Heights to find a large, 700 x 150 ft commercial structure with heavy fire showing. The massive fire was brought under control in under two hours with the assistance of eight ladder pipes and numerous hand lines and deck guns. No injuries were reported and the cause of the blaze was under investigation at the time of this posting. © DurlingMedia.com
The Ventura County Fire Dept. responded to a fast moving brush fire with multiple starts along the 118 freeway in Moorpark, CA in the afternoon hours of November 7, 2015. Through the quick efforts of VCFD and assets from LACoFD, CalFIRE and others, the fire was kept to approximately 50 acres. The cause of the fire(s) is currently under investigation. © 2015 Craig Durling / www.DurlingMedia.com
A fast moving brush fire which started near Lincoln and San Gabriel in the city of Montebello, CA quickly brought resources from numerous departments including the Los Angeles County Fire Dept. The fire reached a 4th Alarm with the Montebello Fire Dept. (Verdugo) and a 3rd Alarm with the Los Angeles County Fire Dept. Numerous aircraft including two Super Scoopers were used to keep this fire from spreading any further than it did. At the time of this writing the fire has been held to just 370 acres however four firefighters have been injured and one LACoFD helicopter was forced to make a hard landing in a nearby cemetery. A transient suspected of starting the blaze is in custody.
A fast moving two-alarm brush fire along the 14 Freeway just north of Los Angeles this afternoon was kept to under 15 acres through the aggressive, combined effort by the Los Angeles County Fire Dept. and Los Angeles Fire Department.
At approximately 7:45pm on April 7, 2015 LAFD responded to a reported high-rise structure fire at 1543 W. Olympic Blvd in the Westlake District of Los Angeles. Upon arrival heavy fire was seen from the upper floor with occupants trapped inside and seen in upper level windows trying to escape the flames and smoke. Over 170 firefighters soon arrived to the seen and kept the fire confined to the original floor. After numerous rescues only minor injuries were reported.
The Sikorsky S-70A Firehawk (Copter 15) performed demonstrations for the public throughout the Fire Service Day event at LA County Fire Station 129 in Lancaster, CA on May 31, 2014. An 13,000+ people attended the popular annual event. This is a brief compilation shot and edited with my iPhone 5. (Hey, it's all I had with me!) © Craig Durling / firegroundaction.com
At just after 8pm on May 27, 2014 LAFD units responding to 1809 Hancock Street in Lincoln Heights reported heavy fire showing from an automotive scrap yard with explosions reported. They immediately requested two additional task forces ultimately bringing nearly 100 firefighters to the scene. One minor firefighter injury was reported. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.
A daytime fire in a Glendale strip mall on Feb. 21, 2014 quickly escalated to a 3-alarm blaze as flames spread rapidly throughout the interior and roof. It is believed the fire in the 600 block of Glenoaks Blvd. started in a dry cleaning business and quickly spread to adjoining businesses. One elderly person was treated for breathing difficulty but no other injuries were reported at the time of this post. The cause of the fire is under investigation. All images copyright © Craig Durling / DurlingMedia.com
Resources from the Los Angeles Fire Department battled a major emergency fire in two adjacent lumber yards at 11027/29 Sutter Ave. in Pacoima on the evening of January 2, 2014. Downed power lines added to the danger as the bulk of the heavy fire was quickly extinguished with the use of heavy streams from deck guns, aerial ladders and handlines. No injuries were reported and the cause of the fire was unknown at the time of this posting.
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Here is a brief compilation of four Phoschek fire retardant drops by Tanker 911, a DC-10 used for indirect wildfire suppression. The four consecutive passes/drops were from a single load!
I'm sharing an experiment that I thought you might find interesting. Using a variety of portable HD video cameras I documented a portion of day one of the Springs Wildfire in Ventura County, CA on May 2, 2013. The point was to not only test out the cameras but to share "a day in the life" of a Fire Photographer with you...from my perspective. It's a rough video with no bells or whistles. It's meant to just be a taste of my experience on the fireground. On a side note for those unfamiliar with Fire Photographers, we are all credentialed members of the media and/or official fire department photographers on scene documenting the events and efforts for the public. We communicate via two-way radio, as you can hear in the video.
While skimming through some old footage I came across some stuff I shot TEN YEARS AGO while on a tour of Fox Air Tanker Base in Palmdale, CA. Fox is home to the region's air resources for the United States Forest Service. During the tour, presented for area fire photographers, aircraft was dispatched to brush fires started by several lightning strikes in the area. Unfortunately I was shooting on tape and much of the footage from the tour was unusable due to age (it happens!). I managed to piece together enough footage to make this video. Enjoy!
A local documentary by Arpan Roy on the Angeles National Forest and the San Gabriel Valley features some of my footage from the 2009 Station Fire. Check it out:
