What to do when your neighbor's house exploses and catches on fire

Why you risk life and limb to get exclusive pictures.

On June 27 at about 4 PM, the quite afternoon was interrupted by three explosions. The first one was very small, I thought it was thundering. Then about 4 seconds later a little more intense explostion that shock the house. I ran out the back door to check the sky for storms. Nothing. I couldn't at this point see any fire either. Then as I turned around a huge explosion that rocked the house and rattled the windows pretty well. Sending a huge plume several feet in the air of smoke, fire and debris. A fireball started the house next to it on fire too. Now, we've got two infernos going. I could hear the sirens coming. We live a short distance from a fire station. Thank goodness. In just a matter of seconds both houses were engulfed with flames.

I ran in my house to grab my camera and the keys to the back gate to gain access to the alley. I took several shots by holding the camera up in the air with it set on auto. Just point and shot. When I saw that this wasn't going to get me the photos I wanted. I decided to climb up on one of the houses fences to get a bettter view. The fire was extremely hot. I was only able to take one shot, then have to get down and cool off before taking another shot. By this time the firemen had arrived and was only fighting the fire from the front. A neighbor and myself took note that the wooden fencec were burning extremly fast and coming our direction. Not wanting the fire to get into the alley as there was high dead grass and other debris behind these houses, we decided to use our water hoses to wet down the fences. It worked!! It wasn't long until a shot of foam came shooting from the front of the house down the fence line and snuffed out the fire. Good, now I could take more pictures.

The firemen soon had the fires under control. No one was hurt or killed, as far as I know, in this incident. Cause of explosions and fire is a gas leak I'm supposing. I'm pretty sure the last explosion was the gas tank of a car in the driveway of one of the houses. The fire nor the police departments didn't treat this as a crime scene (meth lab related). The neighbor's were allowed into the homes that evening to secure their property. They already started the process of cleaning up and rebuliding their lives. Although the *pleasant* smell of charred, water logged fire debris still hangs heavy in the air.

I was contacted by www.firefightingnews.com to submit my photos and story there, after seeing my photos on Flicker. You can go there and check out more photos.