Posts Tagged 'fire department'

Photojournalist Explains Scene of Deadly Fire

Published May 11, 2011 Photography Leave a Comment
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I don’t know for sure, but this seems rare — that a photojournalist for a TV news station would come forward to explain the context of a high-profile story.

In this video, WKTV’s Tim Fisher walks viewers through a deadly fire in West Utica, New York this week. Family members apparently accused the fire department of not doing enough to save those inside. A mother and her three children died in the fire. Fisher defends the firemen at the scene, recounting what he saw, heard and felt that day.

I am a photojournalist. I am obviously not a firefighter. But I have to present the narrative that I feel is accurate and true, the more so because one that I perceive to be clouded with emotion and grief has already been told, demanding another perspective.

. . .

I believe it is important, especially at this moment in our country’s history when public servants are being resented for what they earn or bargain for to see them at work as they truly are. Folks just like all of us, doing a hard days work. In this case it was a very intense job in which they faced “a clear and present danger”. Still, they did it and then went back to their firehouse to await the next call. We don’t even know their names.

Source: WKTV

PA Fire Chief Spars With Photographer

Published August 16, 2010 Photographers' Rights 1 Comment
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The Republican Herald in Pottsville, Penn., reports on a nasty confrontation between Walker Township’s fire chief and a freelance photographer at the scene of a car accident. Normally fire department personnel are more equanimous and don’t get into scuffles like this, but freelance photographer Lawrence Neff, 61, seems to have caught Fire Chief David J. Duffy, 51, at his breaking point.

Now both have them have been cited for harassment. Each accused the other of being “overly aggressive.”

Neff said Duffy “snapped, cursing him and pushing him, and that Duffy ‘grabbed me by the throat, threw me two lanes across the highway and into a rocky area.'” Duffy, 51, claimed Neff was sticking his camera in his face, even after he told him to get back. And he said Neff overplayed the incident, saying he “did this very dramatic backpedal across the road, set his camera down, then laid in the grass complaining.”

The two apparently have a history and have sparred before. Neff claims Duffy treats him like a child; Duffy says other emergency personnel have had problems with the overzealous Neff. (If this sounds a little crazy to you, you’re not alone.)

Neff claims to have video of the incident and is planning to file a lawsuit.

Article from the Republican Herald

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