You can be too close.

An Athens-Clarke firefighter walks past a fireball erupting from the remains of J and J Chemical Company on Wednesday, July 28, 2010 in Athens, Ga. The fire broke out around midnight and flared up around 8:15 a.m. The Athens plant produces toilet bowl disinfectant.

Everyone who knows me understands that I am a spot news photographer. I love it, i love the chaotic environment and the stories that come from it. I also like being there and witnessing stuff as it happened.

But there's such a thing as being too close....






I'll tell the entire story. I was leaving for work, made a left and saw a 500 foot tall column of smoke from about 5-10 miles away. That is not normal, moreover that is more than likely going to be the story of the day as everyone can see it. I make a few phone calls and find out that its a chemical fire over in the industrial part of town. I check the prevailing wind at a traffic light (you always approach from upwind, just in case) and speed off, trying to find the fire.



Firefighters get equipment off the top of a HazMat truck while the remains of J and J Chemical Company burn on Wednesday, July 28, 2010 in Athens, Ga.

I get there and its a fully involved warehouse and the fire dept. is pulling back as i pull up. I start shooting, expecting to get tossed out at any moment as well as fearing for my own personal safety - I have no idea what is cooking off in this plant but there isn't anyone in haz-mat suits but they are pulling out air sampling devices.

Then the fireballs start kicking off.




I work the scene and see some firefighters going up a hill that would overlook the building. I follow them by going around the building next door, and work myself into a position roughly 50 yards away from the fire, photographing with the 80-200 from what i thought was a safe distance, back by another building. They go to leave and suddenly a huge fireball kicks off, bigger then any i had seen. My location was about 25 feet above the ground level of the fire. I never got a clean look at the building. But i got an up-close-and-personal viewpoint of a 100-foot high fireball. I felt this enormous heat and decided that i needed to be much farther back. The fire began to die back down and I left.



Contaminated water flows in Trail Creek on Thursday, July 29, 2010 in Athens, Ga. The blue water appears to be toilet bowl disinfectant that ran off following a fire at their plant. (No, i did not adjust the saturation on the camera)

Move forward to the next day, we've found out that its a plant that manufactured chemical toilet disinfectant with formaldehyde, methanol & blue dye stored there. I get a call that the creek that was behind the chemical plant is now a lovely shade of bright blue. All of the chemicals managed to run unchecked into the creek. I spent 2 days in and around whatever was in the creek.




Environmental cleanup workers stand outside the remains of a toilet bowl disinfectant plant that caught fire Wednesday as seen on Thursday, July 28, 2010 in Athens, Ga.

To finish our coverage, I convinced my boss that we needed aerial photos of the plant.
Naturally i got air sick.

It made for good photos but it made my skin crawl.




The remains of J and J Chemical Co as seen from the air on Friday, July 30, 2010 in Athens, Ga. Fire officials said they do not expect to start their investigation until Monday.