I witnesed today a huge fire.

[ND66]

Seeing the smoke, my first impression was, it’s got to be closer then ¼ of a mile. Why don’t I hear any sirens?

It turned out to be like couple of miles away, it was big……. .

CHICAGO (STNG) -- A 4-11 alarm has been called to a wholesale warehouse fire and Level 1 Hazmat Saturday evening that can reportedly be seen for miles around in the northwest side's Albany Park neighborhood.

Firefighters and police are responding to a fire at 4150 N. Knox Ave. that broke out about 5:15 p.m, according to Albany Park District Police Sgt. Kenneth Pang.

The fire was upgraded to a 4-11 and the wholesale warehouse is completely and fully involved, according to Fire Media Affairs Assistant Director Eve Rodriguez.

The Level 1 Hazmat was called to the warehouse, which is Chicago Imports Inc., because "there might have been a sound of an explosion at some point," Rodriguez said.

"They don't know what is inside the factory yet, so right now it's a precaution," Rodriguez said.

As of 6:20 p.m. 135 fire personnel are on the scene "working 14 master streams of water on the fire," Rodriguez said. There are also 45 pieces of apparatus on the scene.

..................

There are no reported injuries from the scene as of 6:20 p.m., Rodriguez said.

The 2-11 alarm was called at 5:29 p.m before the Hazmat was called five minutes later, according to Rodriguez. At 5:44 a 3-11 was called and it was upgraded to a 4-11 alarm at 6:06 p.m.

[Jon P. Inghram]

Great photos! What kind of camera you using?

[ND66]

What kind of camera you using?

I'm experimenting with Fuji S6000fd, it was a "budget buy" choice. I needed something affordable to fill in the “low light – too far for flash” territory.

You know, there is always something to complain about, and so there is about this camera as well.
But, looking at the amount paid ($308) for this camera, it is a great choice for this money. BTW, it is not a P&S camera, only in a daylight it works well in auto mode.

Things I like so far:

The amount of $ I paid for it
The way it feels holding on to it and how the zoom ring feels
Build in flash range is great, better then anticipated
Picture quality and colors

Things I don’t like:

Need of optical image stabilization.
Electronic viewfinder s _ _ _ s!
Too much noise reduction post processing in higher ISO
AA rechargeable batteries convenient but too slow for flash recharging


The funny thing, I did try the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50 and took over 400 picks with it. At the end, it just reassured me that S6000fd will be my choice.
Looking at the low light performance, S6000fd takes cleaner picture at ISO 800 then FZ-50 at ISO 400.
After couple weeks of using it……… I wish I could take the FZ-50 for a shootout again. Not sure if it would be my choice, but would like to pay more attention to the optical image stabilization behavior under certain conditions.

But then again……… I could have all those things if I went with “real” DSLR from Nikon or Canon, paying $$$ more over this camera price. And that was the thing I tried to avoid, I just gave away my SLR outfit to a friend, worth way over two grands just because nobody would pay more then $200 for it… .