From A Photojournalist's Lens: The Story Behind Shooting in the Middle of Flash Flood and Fire

I awoke to an emergency phone call at about 2:35 a.m. Friday night. When I saw emergency vehicles from a faraway suburb, I knew they were on a mutual aid call, which means the home team was maxed out and needed back-up.

Thunder rolled as relentlessly as the rain fell and the paramedics told me the Edens Expressway was flooded, structure fires burned in at least three neighboring towns, homeowners were without power or in peril, and motorists were stranded. I checked in with two editors as I tugged the bootstraps on my fire boots, snapped up my raincoat and grabbed camera gear.

Even when you know what type of spot news you're covering and there's an odd sense of calm, the mental aspect of going from zero to 60 can pop the clutch a few times.

I reached Tower Road on the Edens, and the Illinois State Police and Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) had already shut down the road. I had to exit. It was a relaxed scene because the flooding was some miles south and at a point of the highway I knew would take a lot of jockeying to reach. Frontage Road gave me a minute to play a quarterback option -- head to a house fire, try for the Edens pool, or hope to catch a break along the way.

I caught a quick break, and one which served our Northfield, Winnetka, Glencoe community not once but thrice, once in each town.

Photographing Northfield

As soon as Frontage turned into Central Avenue by Chase Bank, the well-drained pavement turned to above-the-rims water. Driving a SUV, I rolled through carefully, all the while thinking that I should have gone through the bank's drive-thru to avoid it. I got out and started shooting the cars behind me, and not one took the high road -- I had plenty of images in just a few minutes.

For our amateur photographer readers, try not to use a flash when shooting in the rain (or snow) because it reflects off the drops (flakes). Slow your shutter speed way down (or turn off the automatic flash) and work with the ambient light. Getting the shot -- no matter how grainy it may be -- is what it's all about.

Northfield, check.

Photographing Winnetka

As I headed east on Willow, the utility trucks orange lights caught my eye on Hibbard Road. Winnetka's linemen work checking electricity lines, but across the street a circular sewer grate went "crunk!" over and over as the geyser below nearly kept it levitating.

Click, click, click. A fairly slow 1/30-second shutter speed - thanks to the work light on the utility truck - at a high ISO ("film" speed, yes, even on a digital camera) was enough to keep it sharp and show the pushing water. The guys were doing nothing interesting and so this would not be a people picture.

Winnetka, check.

Photographing Glencoe

I headed back toward the highway, thinking I'd head for another Patch region's problems, when a Wilmette fire engine rumbled by northbound on Forestway Drive. Did lighting struck a tree in the middle of the Skokie Lagoons?

Without my scanner and with editors asleep or onto other stories, and Newsradio 780 not dialing it in to our Patch region, I had to follow my instinct which meant following Wilmette's crew. (I always follow at a very safe distance.) 

I didn't realize it, but we were now in west Glencoe and noodling around on Sycamore Lane and Prairie Street.

Lo and behold, the Northbrook Fire Department was accessing a hydrant and laying a hose down the block...into darkness.

Around the corner, though, on Lincoln Avenue I counted at least eight fire trucks. A home was burning and a "box alarm" - a term that in general refers to a large incident where mutual aid from surrounding communities, and with certain equipment, is required - was called, according to the Northbrook crew. That's never a good sign for a home.

At the scene of the fire

Neighbors and firefighters not in the action are usually the best people to quickly, politely, and sensitively gather initial information from. Friday night, Gary and Janet Scheier, 599 Lincoln Ave., who live next door to where the fire was, at 595 Lincoln Ave., were most helpful.

They didn't know there was a fire until the trucks arrived, she said.

"The fire department discovered it only because they were downtown [Glencoe], could smell the smoke, and were driving around trying to find it," said Gary Scheier, "until finally someone did call it in."

The homeowners, Bill Fritz and Tom Goslin, are in Texas for the summer and were not at home, he added.

Mutual aid came from as far as Long Grove and Morton Grove, with a number of other nearby departments, including Highland Park, Northbrook, Northfield, Winnetka, Wilmette, and Highwood.

I worked my angles, dealt with the dark night under a thick tree canopy and steady sheet of rain, both of which kept the smoke hanging like a wet blanket.

I shot most of my images at f/4 at between 1/4- and 1/30-second, all handheld, all wet, and dealing with the camera's own raincoat, rain on the lens, and ultimately some fogging inside the lens.

By then, I had made more than enough usable, storytelling images, and was ready to head to Northbrook's flooded streets, but that's a story for another Patch.