Photo of the week

They say news is never convenient. It wasn’t this day either, as I was

finishing up a very long Sunday shooting the annual Spirit Run and final

round of Toshiba Senior Classic.

I literally had just hung up the phone after making dinner plans with

the family when, in the background, I heard radio talk about a structure

fire in Costa Mesa. I was waiting for the normal response of “nothing

showing, investigating,” which is a majority of fire calls.

I was gathering my stuff to leave when the radio dispatcher warned

units racing to the scene that several calls continued to come in about

the fire. If a lot of people are calling, usually it’s bad.

I waited and listened, car keys in hand, dinner in mind. So many times

a fire is attacked quickly and under control within 10 minutes. This was

different. The urgency and tone of the visual reports from the scene, as

heard over the radio, proved this was for real and would be big.

I sped to the scene. Watching the police helicopter from miles away, I

couldn’t imagine what it was. Nothing was visible until I turned left on

Whittier Street and saw the glow in the sky.

o7 For Don Leach’s full column on covering Sunday’s fire at a Brioso

Lane business complex, see “Photographer’s Notebook” in features at

www.dailypilot.com.

f7