The Follies of Fire chasing

From time to time my brothers and I go fire chasing. For those not in the know that means you listen to you scanner and if you hear about a fire nearby you go to it and take pictures or just watch. On occasion we actually get to a fire before the Fire department does, usually we don't. So for anyone else out there thinking of doing the same, here is a list of "The Folly of Fire Chasing".



1. - Nothing interesting happens in your immediate vicinity.
2. - When an interesting call comes in it will be on the opposite side of town.
3. - If an interesting call comes in and it "IS" nearby you will not be able to go to it due to: traffic, job, or the scanner is not on.
4. - Any attempts to reach the site of a call will result in failure due to: unintelligible address given by the fire department, address not found in your map software, overly efficient fire fighters get there before you and extinguish the blaze, traffic congestion blocks your progress, or the police get there first, and will allow anyone else access except you (because you have a camera).
5. - On the rare occasion that you reach the scene it will turn out to "NOT" be worth seeing, you will forget to un-pause your camcorder, or you don't have your camera .
6. - If you have your map, GPS, someone to help navigate, all your camera equipment, it's the weekend, and traffic is sparse there will be no calls of interest whatsoever.
7 - You are more likely to stumble upon a fire than hear the call and be able to get to it.
8 - If you do manage to get to the scene of a working fire and take lots of pictures, many of your pictures will not turn out well for whatever reasons.