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It's a little brisk this Saturday morning in March in the City of Delavan at Route 43 & Hwy "X" but you could not tell that to these brave men and women from Darien, Delavan, and Sharon Wisconsin fire departments who are learning the art of fire fighting. 

Inside their Nomex fire fighter's protective suits, known as turn-out gear, these firefighters can still feel the extreme heat that is devouring the building next to them.  Even the firefighters that are 50' away protecting other buildings by dousing them with continuous streams of water can still feel the heat from the monster.

Today it is hard to find people that have the guts enough to do this type of work.  It takes a very special kind of individual to go into a building that is burning to save a life or property for someone else, and sometimes they are even volunteering to get into these predicaments. 

Fire photography is the act of taking photographs of firefighting operations and the individuals that practice this form of photography are called fire photographers.  My name is Dennis Aitken and I am a fire photographer for fire departments within Walworth County with my priority being the Lake Geneva Fire Department.  Professional fire photographers are used for training, interdepartmental use, media and sometimes even personal use.

Since fire photography involves being relatively close to incidents that are potentially dangerous, fire photographers need to have special skills and knowledge about emergency incident scenes, operations, health and safety. Additionally, fire photographers are often required to wear the same protective equipment as firefighters do.  I met my first fire photographer many years ago out west.  He was in full turnout gear and his helmet shield had PHOTOGRAPHER where either Chief or Captain or the Lieutenant shield would be mounted and his name was written across the back of the jacket just like all the rest of the crew.  He was also a county wide photographer and did not have a department name on his coat, just the word PHOTOGRAPHER so that he could be easily recognized and sometimes called on at the scene.

To be considered in this field you must first prove that you know the photography end of the business by showing your work to the heads of the departments that you would be working for.  This would be for their  evaluation.  Next is gaining their trust to get into the department's "family” at the station or anywhere near a fire for that matter.  This can be done through years of emergency service related organizations and / or organizations like the Emergency Service and Disaster Association (E.S.D.A.) where you go through many of hours of training weekly before even going out on "real" calls.  Having any type of medical background is an added benefit in this field and makes your fellow workers feel more confident if an emergency occurs.

In general, fire photographers are not directly employed by fire departments unless it is for a big city. Instead, they provide a specialized photography service, which may involve a fee on a per-hour basis, per-call, or per-photograph basis because their equipment runs into the thousands of dollars not to mention all the gas they go through chasing after each call and let's not forget the turnout gear that has to be purchased by most photographers. Not being a paid firefighter through any particular city means that access to safety perimeters can be an issue. As such, fire photographers usually develop good relationships with their local fire department to improve access to fire scenes. Such access may, at the fire department's discretion, require additional training or other arrangements. I have been part of an organization for some time now that is called the International Organization of Fire Photography (IOFP).  A formal fire photographer's certification process is now being drafted by IOFP and this is the certification that I am trying to achieve after all these years of being a photographer. The intent of this certification is to attest that an individual has sufficient training, skills and knowledge in relevant areas (health & safety, firefighting operations, etc.) to operate safely within a safety perimeter on an emergency incident scene.

When people think of the Fire Department many things come to mind but not necessarily digital photography.  In going to photograph a new office building being constructed and the kinds of materials being used for potential future reference, or by creating a training video on a new respiratory mask, the Fire Photographer plays a crucial behind-the-scenes role in educating and ultimately saving lives. Digital photography, video, file sharing and presentation have yielded increased accessibility, productivity, and usability of many of today's modern fire departments from small towns and villages to the big cities for visual resources and preservation of history. A PowerPoint presentation can be easily distributed and displayed in the firehouse of  images from a three-alarm fire or practice burn for training purposes.

Many Fire Departments have gone digital. From Human Resources pictures that are taken of every uniformed member at each of their 12-15-month physicals, to dramatic documentation of three-alarm fires, to providing PowerPoint presentations on safety for training and education, the Fire Department's Fire Photographer is very busy and is usually well-paid for his/her expertise in their field. The Fire Photographer provides all still, and/or video photographic services for the fire departments and all their administrative needs. With a high demand and a big county to cover, efficiency and productivity are crucial. For this, a multi-talented photographer is faced with multiple tasks and switching to a digital workflow has made all the difference.

Up until January of 2001, all of the photographic work was shot on film then processed and printed in a traditional chemical darkroom. An expensive and slow process, the old photo archives take up many huge file cabinets and, if caught in a flood, could be ruined forever.

The primary goal of the Fire Photographer is photographing for documentation and education. The Fire Photographer produces huge quantities of files that need to be archived and accessed by a number of people for an array of needs. By January 2001, the cost of digital equipment had finally fallen to the point that going digital became a viable alternative for this Fire Photographer.

The long-standing protocol of only photographing firefighters when they first joined the Department can prove to be particularly challenging while searching through old personnel files to locate and then scan the photographic prints of missing firefighters - headshots that have been stapled or taped to personnel files, sometimes fifteen or twenty years ago are not always very helpful for identification purposes in an emergency.

Now a photograph of every firefighter should be had at every 12-15-month physical to keep up-to-date photos of each member and store the high resolution files in a digital personnel database. It is necessity for the image to be captured at the highest resolution possible, and files named properly and stored in the right location.

Fires are unpredictable, dangerous, and warrant immediate emergency response. Firefighters and their officers have their hands full working the fire and don't have time to think about the proper aperture setting on the camera but, on the other hand, the photographer is concentrating on the settings and not even thinking about running into the burning inferno. It is hard to prepare and train individuals for something you can't predict or necessarily control. This is why constant documentation of fires, changing equipment, and department protocol by the Fire Photographer is so important to the operations of all fire departments. All of the still photography, video, and PowerPoint presentations the Fire Photographer produce are key contributions not only for the local fire training academy and but also for keeping veteran firefighters up to date on changing conditions.

I can't show you all the pictures but this will give you a good idea of what a firefighter endures for training for your safety and to help protect your property and the property of others.  I purposly did not copyrite these photos so that you can use them for a screen saver program or a wallpaper.

Special thanks to the men & women from the Darien, Delavan, and Sharon fire departments for the respect that they showed me Saturday at their practice, especially Assistant Chief Timothy O'Neill from the Delavan Fire Department.

Snowhawk