The existance of these photos was a complete accident; I've been cooped up at home for over a week due to car problems, and I finally made it out to run some errands. I decided to have a leisurely lunch/dinner at a nearby park, and as I was leaving the house, I decided on a whim to grab my camera.

As luck would have it, one of the largest fires the area has seen for a long time started two blocks away as I was finishing my meal. So, I was able to capture the heroic work of the Harrisonburg Fire Department as the event unfolded.

After pushing through crowds of people to get some worthwhile photos of the event, I saw just how large the burning property was. It spanned most of the width of the parking lot, and one part of it was still prominently burning! I assume it was something worthless and/or very difficult to extinguish, but still a bit unnerving to see. I accidently got a bit too close in the process, or at least it felt like it; I was right under the constantly-burning pile at one point, and it felt like a sauna! There were no barriers or anything, and other photographers were freely wandering much closer to the firetrucks than me (with much greater zoom capability, go figure), so I guess it wasn't a big deal. Just toasty.