On Friday, as I was coming home, I saw a huge plume of white smoke at Jenny Wong's Beauty Spa. This spa has been around for a while and I always found their building to be quite unique. It was such an out-of-place house stuck between a ravine and a busy shopping plaza. Anyway, I was quite shocked when I saw the many fire trucks at the scene, and the entire roof being burnt through. It was almost unreal.
According to MingPao's account, there was some roof repair work being done earlier that day. The spa had been in operation for ten years, and they were afraid that the roof was getting too old and would leak water through, so they decided to get some routine repair done. The cause of fire is still undetermined but may be related to the roofing job. Ironically, the spa doesn't have a roof now, and they have a very big water "leak"/flooding problem.
I was chatting with RC (Rich) afterwards, and gave him the shocking news about his favourite spa and how I wanted to take my dSLR out to grab some pics. It was the perfect opportunity for my SLR camera to make its first trip outdoors to the real world. On the other hand, I just didn't feel right taking pictures of other people's suffering. Rich told me he'd do the same thing, so I decided, what the heck.
By the time I got back to the scene, the fire had been put out already, and I missed most of the action. What a poor reporter I'd make. lol. I felt really uneasy standing alone on the sidewalk taking pictures. Photographing the building was alright, but taking pictures of the people was really awkward. But I really wanted pictures a firefighter in full gear, so I snuck a few shots in when they weren't looking at me.
As I have been for the past few days, I'm still surprised by the colour quality of these pics. Some of the pictures were slightly blurry, but without the VR, they would have been a lot worse. For the last picture, I was standing on the sidewalk in an unsupported position, with my zoom fully extended (300mm). The picture came out clear! I love TochiCam and TochiLensVR.
The building needs a facelift now =(.
BTW, if I was the insurance company, I would be suspicious about the timing of this fire. I'm not saying that's what happened, but it would definitely stand out.