Just a few weeks ago, I posted a blurb about missing a great shot of firefighters. I didn’t think I’d get a chance to see them up close again. Well, last night I got real close.

I left work and began walking toward the climbing gym for a standard, non-St-Paddy’s evening, when I noticed a huge inky cloud in the sky. I continued walking along thinking nothing of it, as Parisians do (ignore, ignore). A bit later, I glanced up again and this time, stopped cold. This was no ordinary black inky cloud. This was clearly coming from a fire. A big, big fire. And it was close by.

I reached for my camera and nearly kicked myself in the shins when I realized I didn’t have it. Not again! Didn’t I say I would never leave home without a camera? Will I ever learn? Ugh! <kick> <kick!!> <ow>

But wait! My trusty iPod has a video camera on it. If I couldn’t take a still, maybe I could take a short video clip of the cloud hovering over “La Banque Postale,” an ominous image. And thus began an epic evening, as I continued to take clips all along the walk and realized the fire was actually right next to where I was going. Obviously, I got a bit sidetracked from the gym, and joined the crowd of curious onlookers. You’ll notice in the video that I actually walk right past a couple of news stations, who were probably scrambling to get the story of their own neighborhood.

The victim was a huge, empty, factory that was being demolished to make room for a new development. (Uh, I think this might have helped it along, a bit). I’ve never seen something this big – you could see the fire inside, with magnificent flames leaping out of the top openings in the building. And smoke, lots of foul smoke. (Another article here)

I hung out for a while, watching and studying the way everything was organized. Unfortunately, the iPod video doesn’t do so well in the dark, and you can’t make out the flames themselves. Therefore, I began to focus more on what was around - the crowd (see if you can spot the two cigarrettes in the video), the firemen (check out the shiny helmets, I wasn’t kidding!), firetrucks, hoses, people chatting on their mobiles, and passersby on bicycles casually getting in the way of firemen. Finally, at the end, a big set of flood-lights is lifted to help the firemen see – and this illuminates the building pretty well. Unfortunately, you can’t see the actual firemen up on their lofty ladders or the immense spouts of water coming from their hoses. I was really missing my telephoto lens.

Needless to say, I did not ask any firemen if they would take a picture with me…