Small town, Big fire

Okay so now I shall tell you what happened. Yesterday morning while I was getting ready for the day I heard sirens. Lots of sirens. Our first guess was an accident on the interstate based on the huge snowflakes coming down and the fact that we have a lot of accidents near our exit. Then we heard more sirens and dad saw the Watervliet fire trucks headed into town. Next guess: FIRE! A little later I got a call from my brother letting us know that it was a banquet hall burning right in the middle of town. To go or not to go? I like this kind of photojournalism but I am not real gusty. I didn't want to make anyone irritated or get in trouble for being too close. Well pictures won out and I grabbed my camera and Suzanne and I headed down the hill.
Upon arriving in town I parked at the post office...farther away then really neccessary and walked down the street with my zoom lens ready. As I inched closer and closer...with a running commentary of how I thought if we just go over there no one will care...I began to snap some shots. Not very good ones considering you couldn't really see the damage! Then our big break came, the guy blocking traffic waved us over and basically told me to get some good shots! There are distinct advantages of being a small town girl with a highly visible hardworking family. (everyone recognizes us!)
So we walked closer and closer. It is hard to get good images with so much snow and smoke and gray! Some of the fire fighters looked at me a little strange but no one asked me what I was doing there. I guess that became obvious as i lifted my camera. I walked all around and then high-tailed it out of there as Suzanne and I were late for shovelling!

Once we got home I immediately loaded my images and called 2 local papers. I was not that pleased with my images but I am so proud of myself for being bold enough to make those calls. One paper gave me an email addy and told me they might use them...depending. The other paper had already been there before me and said he would look at mine but probably use his own. I sent them each about 11 images. Then we had to wait...