The city of St. Louis is in the state of Missouri, sitting on the banks of the Mississippi River. It is home to the famous Gateway Arch, an iconic 630-foot monument clad in stainless steel that honors the early 19th-century explorations of Lewis and Clark and America’s westward expansion. It’s also the city where I buffed (a term for going to a fire to watch, learn, and photograph) my first major fire. When I arrived, Pumper 9 and Hook and Ladder 13 were operating on the scene of a large six-story warehouse with smoke coming from all six floors. The Flower City Warehouse fire was spectacular. (1) Sitting just north of downtown, it escalated to five alarms with several special calls for additional apparatus. Right after the fire concluded, I knew I was hooked! Little did I know back then that one day I would be sharing with the readers of Fire Engineering how 40 years of fire buffing has made me a better company officer.
I inherited my love of photography from my father, Ted Dubowski, a World War II Army veteran who carried a camera with him throughout his time in North Africa and Italy. In fact, my dad is who bought me my first camera, a pocket-sized Kodak Instamatic that held a roll of 110 film. My early photography consisted of scenes around downtown St. Louis as well as trains. As I began my fire service career in 1984 as a volunteer firefighter in north St. Louis County, I was able to combine my love of photography with my love of the fire service. Along with this came the need for a new camera, so I purchased my first brand new 35mm Pentax camera.
The National Personnel Records Center Fire
Today there are unlimited ways to hear about fires across the country. Social media posts, alerts from local news media, and direct messaging from numerous apps provide up-to-the-minute updates on fire incidents and emergency calls. In 1984, this technology was not available. To hear fire department calls you needed a scanner. I had two. My trusted Radio Shack handheld crystal scanner scanned six channels and went everywhere with me. The other was a Bearcat base station scanner that sat next to my bed along with a list of 10-codes, which most departments were using at the time. Also sitting alongside the scanner was a large map book, because in those days you couldn’t simply look up an address on the Internet. Looking up streets when a fire came in became a great way to learn the St. Louis and St. Louis County streets and the structures that are in the different neighborhoods. Something that still benefits me today.
Living in north St. Louis County made travel easy to the scene of a fire or a large-scale emergency incident for some quality buffing opportunities. No matter the time of day, if a good fire came in, out the door I went, scanner and camera by my side. Most of the fires that I photographed were in the city of St. Louis, but there were also several other significant fires in St. Louis County throughout the 1980s and 1990s I was able to capture on film. Another city that was nearby and easy to access was East St. Louis, just across the bridge in Illinois. East St. Louis is a very busy fire department, surrounded by numerous impoverished communities that rely on understaffed volunteer companies to respond to structure fires on a regular basis. The “east side” always seemed to have something burning. Fires were plentiful in those days, which only enhanced the opportunity to photograph firefighters at work throughout the entire St. Louis metropolitan area.
The Learning Begins
As photographing fires and firefighters was now happening on a regular basis, I realized that every fire became a new learning experience. Hired as a career firefighter in 1986, I soon found myself bringing photographs back to the fire station to show the rest of the crew. Looking at these photos, we would critique things and point out tactical operations and the safety factors that the photos revealed. There was no YouTube, Instagram, or Facebook in those days, so we didn’t have instant access to what was burning across St. Louis, let alone the country. I guess you could say that my photo albums were an early form of the “fire porn” so many of us look at today online. Back in the old days, many of us waited for our monthly fire service magazine subscriptions to show up to view the “hot shot” photos that were published of fires that occurred three or four months earlier, so we could critique them and educate ourselves.
Be Kind
An early lesson I learned while buffing was to always give visiting firefighters the red-carpet treatment. Three of my favorite hangouts were in the city’s busy north-side firehouses. Engine House 17, 10, and 8 welcomed me with open arms. The officers and the firefighters at these stations were some of the kindest and best you could ever run into, willing to share fire experiences and a friendship. Whether it was Captain Don Pikesley at the 17s, Captain Mark Chrun at the 10s, or Captain Mark Duffy at the 8s, the welcome mat was always out for fellow firefighters and fire buffs. These guys all had one thing in common—they wanted to go to fires and share the brotherhood. Every time I’d stop by the 17s, Denny Walsh, one of the most respected firefighters on the job, would always say “tonight was the night that the dynamite factory across the street was going to burn.” Not that there was ever a dynamite factory at the corner of Martin Luther King and Leonard Street, it was just Denny’s way of saying that he was ready for a fire that night.
Calm, Cool, and to the Point
Part of being a good fire buff is listening to the scanner for fires in the surrounding area; that ensured you wouldn’t miss going to one. Often, I would monitor St. Louis Fire Alarm, North Central Fire Alarm, Cencom fire frequencies on the Illinois side, and numerous fire agencies that relied on their local police department to dispatch their calls. As you can imagine, having a police dispatcher trying to manage a multiple-alarm fire and simultaneously communicate on the police radio did not always go well. By listening to the scanner constantly, I soon realized that there was a proper way to talk on the radio, whether you were a dispatcher, a company officer reporting from the fire floor or a chief commanding a scene.
Jonah Smith: Understanding Emergency Communications
One of the best examples of that I ever heard was Battalion Chief Jerry Eveland. While out buffing one night, St. Louis Fire Alarm dispatched a first-alarm assignment for a fire at the Crown Roofing Supply Company. (2) As the chief approached the scene of the fully involved warehouse, he simply requested the second, third, and fourth alarms in three-minute increments. Calm, cool, clear, and to the point, no screaming or excitement in his voice. Those are some big attributes company officers should strive to follow when they speak on the radio. Doing these things help keeps the scene and radio calm, with orders heard the first time without having to be repeated.
Learning New Tactics in Old Buildings
The debate of positive pressure ventilation (PPV) during fire attack continues today. Many will say that there are definite advantages—if used correctly. The trouble was that when PPV was first introduced in the 1980s in our area, it wasn’t always used correctly. There just hadn’t been enough training or experiences on using the fans. In fact, many times when I saw the PPV fan being set up at the front door of a frame house, I’d always reach for an extra roll of Kodak film, because things were about to get good. Introducing air into a 2½-story, balloon-frame house when the fire hadn’t been located always made for some good photos. Many times, I captured images as the fire extended through the roof. To this day I will not use the PPV fan until the fire has been extinguished or the building’s construction is conducive for using it.
Yes, Fires Go Bad
It didn’t take me long to learn that fires go bad. One afternoon while driving, companies were getting dispatched to a report of a church fire. Anytime the report of a church fire went out on the scanner I would drop what I was doing and start to head that way. In the eyes of a photographer, church fires are spectacular. Many times, fire would engulf the steeple or be blowing out the front rose window. In addition, they’ve also been the scenes of tragic collapses where brother firefighters have perished. Crossing the river into Illinois and approaching the scene, I witnessed a large, modern church with light white smoke showing from one corner of the roof. Within minutes of arrival and after a few photos taken, conditions changed drastically, and heavy brown smoke began pushing from the front of the church. (3) Fire conditions progressed so rapidly that the only aerial apparatus on scene had to be retracted and repositioned out of the collapse zone. Quickly, the incident commander (IC) was faced with the need for more water and resources. The fire was beyond the capabilities of the units operating on scene and it was time to play catch up, a position that nobody, especially an IC wants to be in.
In the fire service, learning from others’ misfortunes is very important, and as a fire buff I witnessed many poor tactical decisions made on the fireground. It was never my place to criticize those actions. When submitting photos to the trade magazines, I would never send ones that would embarrass a company, department, or, most importantly, embarrass the firefighters featured in the photos. On the other end of the spectrum, I’ve witnessed and captured incredible acts of bravery, teamwork and operating in the harshest conditions by firefighters along with strong tactical decisions made by some of the best company officers and chiefs in the nation. The past 40 years of listening to scanners, chasing fires, seeing scenes unfold in front of my eyes, and capturing them on film to study and critique have helped me succeed on my own fireground and in turn have made me a more educated and competent company officer.
David J. Dubowskiis a 40-year veteran of the fire service and an engine company captain in north St. Louis County.He is an award-winning fireground photographer and has a strong passion for preserving our fire service history throughphotography. Dave serves as secretary on the executive board of theF.O.O.L.S. International.
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