The Photo 50 Project
Description -
I am a Fire Commissioner for the City of San Rafael in Marin County, California. The Photo 50 Project grew out of a desire to document the current activities, and eventual history, of the San Rafael Fire Department. I've done photography for many years. It's one of way too many hobbies!
During a conversation with San Rafael Fire Chief Christopher Gray the Chief mentioned that when he was Fire Chief in the city of Glendale they had a retired Fire Captain who was an avid photographer. After he retired the department issued him a pager and he responded to fires to capture the action for the department and its personnel.
That was all it took. I got a pager issued and began responding to fire calls in San Rafael. Along the way I also began photographing promotion ceremonies, retirement lunches, training activities, fire acadamies, and other things that the fine men, and women, of the department do on a daily basis. Some of the results are what you see on the following pages. But, remember as you look through the accompanying photos, this is only a small part, not more than 1%, of what these folks do every day. The majority of our firefighters are also fully qualified paramedics. Medical calls make up 85% of our calls for service, and those are not included for privacy reasons.
About Me -
I was appointed to the San Rafael Fire Commission in early 2007, about a year before I became semi-retired. I have served on city committees connected with public safety for some years before that. My working career included a 4 year stint in the U.S. Navy, some years with the telephone industry, and more than a little time self employed as a developer and general contractor. When I interviewed with the Mayor and City Council for the Fire Commission appointment I made clear that, if appointed, I wanted to do more than just go to meetings. I wanted to do some work for the City and the Fire Department.
When the idea of photographing department operations came along it seemed like the perfect challenge. I already had more than enough camera equipment. What I needed was some safety equipment. That was added as quickly as possible and I began getting used to the pager going off at all hours of the day and night.
As time passed, and I became more knowledgeable, two important things happened. First, incident commanders realized that it could be helpful to have someone at the scene who was not assigned to firefighting operations who could be tasked with photographing some aspect of the scene for later use in training. And second, I was available to take photos for the investigator whose job it is to determine to origin and cause of the fire.
I soon learned that working with the investigators requires special knowledge to properly document the scene. I researched the training required to be a fire investigator and set out to get that training. I completed the training required by the State Fire Marshal for fire, arson and explosion investigators and participate in 2 - 3 training events a year to grow my knowledge and experience. I belong to two professional organizations for fire, arson and explosion investigators, the California Conference of Arson Investigators and the International Association of Arson Investigators. As a result you will find that this website also includes links to some of my other fire, explosion and arson related activities.