Fire, fire .. !

 

 

 

 

 

My Mum was on the 'phone the other day, telling me about a new building that's going up on her street. "I've been watching the teams of men working on it," she said. "All in hi-viz and big boots and helmets." I, in turn, told her about a French chap that's re-tiling the roof over the way, tippy-toeing across open roof beams as he works alone in shorts and trainers, with only a soggy Gaulois as counter-balance. I mention this because I've been thinking about 'Health and Safety', and how it seems to have gone crazy in the UK. Indeed, I remember one occasion when, needing to get a touch higher to photograph a group of people, I was forbidden to stand on an office chair because of the 'dangers' involved. Anyway, I've found some old negatives of a factory fire I photographed in the 1980s, and show them today to illustrate how it was in the 'old days', when H & S hadn't even been invented. I started my work with a long shot of the burning building, and ended up right next to the firemen as they entered a door to tackle the blaze. I'm amazed I was allowed to get so close. I'm even more gob-smacked that I was daft enough to be so reckless. Oh, the joys of youth ..