Beyond The Fireline
Jason Coleman Cobb and Capital City Fire Photos
It’s the middle of a dark night, the fire is going good, and much effort is being expended to bring it under control. Firefighters are stretching lines, taking out windows and removing victims. They’re opening
up, chasing the fire, exposing and dousing it into submission.
A mere skirmish in a battle that never ends, it’s a story that’s become typical over time. A story that might not even get a mention the next day in the papers or on the news.
It’s is a story that deserves to be told, a story that speaks of a war that is waged in every community in our country on every day of every year.
The story rarely gets told, though, outside of the firehouse in a way that speaks to its true nature, to its true challenges and its inevitable toll.
Throughout history there have been a small dedicated group of photographers that brave the elements, the bystanders, and sometimes the police, to capture those harrowing moments and in turn tell the story of America’s firefighters and their battle to protect lives and save property.
When we start thinking of these individuals’ names come to mind, Dreyfus, Noonan, Spak and a handful of others.
For so many of us though throughout Pennsylvania, the first name that comes to mind is Jason Coleman Cobb. Jason is the photographer behind the lens at Captialcityfirephotos.com and is an excellent fireground photographer.
But Jason is more than that. He’s a great friend to many firefighters, a supporter of the fire service.
His most important role, however, one that he does with a quiet and humble dedication, is that of visual author, telling the stories of the battle that firefighters wage day in and day out. His vivid images capture and illustrate the challenges faced in these incidents and the grit and resiliency required to bring them under control.
I recently had the privilege to sit down with Jason and reminisce about more than 25 years of responding to and shooting fires.
When did you start shooting fires?
It was around 95-96. I wasn’t really doing it though like I am today, it was sporadic, I really might have only made about 10 fires in the whole year. But it was about that time that it really got set in motion.
There was a fire in Harrisburg up on 6th Street and an image from that made Hot Shots in Firehouse Magazine in that year. But I really wasn’t buffin’ 100|, I was still kinda young and out there hangin’ out being a knuckle head, you know|
Around 98 I started putting stuff in the First Responder Newspaper and it kind of just grew from there.
Back then it wasn’t like today. You had to scan your pictures, put them on a CD, type up the article, print it out and then mail them in.
You can definitely see your progression over the years and how your images have improved.
My photo albums from the 90’s aren’t really all that extensive. And a lot of the pictures weren’t good, because I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. There was a fire up on Whitehall Street that I remember. There was fire showing and I got it but the whole rest of the picture is black.
A lot of people think that I’m like a |photographer|, like I can do weddings and stuff like that. But that’s so much more personal, I’m not even really close to being that kind of personal to be at someone’s wedding and shoot that.
It was cool to have you come by the firehouse with albums of printed pictures so we could take a look through them and order copies.
Ya, everyone wanted me to bring my albums up. The only way I could reference the images was the labels I stuck on them. It was the only way I could reference the picture to the roll of film. So if they said they wanted picture 126, I had an Excel spreadsheet that said picture 126 is film roll fire 84 and then I could figure out it was slide 15 on roll 84 and that’s how I’d have to take them to Walmart to get printed.
You’ve been around to other cites besides Harrisburg, did you start doing that right away or did that come later on?
That started right about that same time. My cousin’s and I would take rides down to Baltimore for the fires and then just hang out and check out the neighborhoods and stuff. That was really always my interest, big city shit, Baltimore, Philly, Detroit.
What was it like shooting the riot’s in Baltimore after the killing of Freddy Gray?
Man, that was a crazy night, it reminded me of Detroit on Devil’s Night. It was wild.
Especially the image of the fireman opening up with the saw, because to me that encompassed the whole thing right then and there. It was right across the street from the Gilmore Houses. That’s where Freddy Gray was arrested, that’s where he lived, it was right across from there.
You had police in riot gear, helicopters flying over and you still had people that were in the streets that were excited, you know whatever they were doing. So that was just a surreal scene.
I remember to get that shot I was actually trying to shield myself from everybody else.
Did you go by yourself? Did you think about what was going on? Like hey I’m going to the middle of a riot?
I went down by myself, I got down there like 8:30 – 9 o’clock. I remember when I first got into the city, I got off the highway and got into an area where I could get comfortable first, I didn’t go straight to West Point Avenue or anything like that. I stopped in an area between the east and the west to kind of get my bearings straight and see where the calls were at.
There was all type of like nuisance stuff going on like car fires, trash fires, stuff like that. Eventually, I made my way to the west side and went from there. It was just like one fire after the next.
So, you weren’t thinking anything like hey I’m going to the middle of a riot?
No, no, I was just thinking they are going to get busy down there. I didn’t think of anything like that. I just remember thinking I need to be down there.
I didn’t go up to like West North Ave up by Monroe and all that, that was the hot zone. I didn’t fool with that at all. That’s where people were bricking apparatus, that’s where the real hostility was.
The fires I was at there was no hostility like that. I never went up to that area. But everything was just happening so fast.
About 2 o’clock, two thirty in the morning things had quieted down enough for me to think do I need to start heading home. The next day I had planned to shoot some apparatus in Lancaster County, So I was thinking by the time I get home I’m not going to get any sleep.
I was thinking, should I just stay down here. So, I just found a place to park and chilled for a bit and then it seemed to be dying down enough where I thought it might be safe to go home.
I headed up 83 and got almost to the Pennsylvania line and they went 3rd alarm on Pratt St. So I ended up going back down and catching that and another one and then I sat in my car until the morning.
I remember a fire on Greenwood St. in Harrisburg where the people weren’t really happy with you being there.
Was there ever a time besides that shooting fires where you felt like people didn’t want you there or you felt like they were coming at you?
Ya, there’s times where people came at me. I was down in Baltimore and they had good heavy smoke coming out of this dwelling, I was there kind of early and I guess it was the occupant and he was like, |no, no, no..|
I always first and for most try to respect the occupants. Even for me, I mean if my house is on fire and I see someone running up with a camera I might be like whoa, whoa, hold on, you know? So, I always to avoid the homeowners and just go another way.
Has there ever been a time where you were like, no I’m not going to take that picture?
Ya, there’s times, you know because it depends on the conditions. I think if you’ve got and active fire and its rollin’, it’s kind of different than if it’s knocked down and it’s not as intense. I always try to make sure that anything I post is not detrimental or offensive or anything.
I don’t go into situations like I’m here with a camera and I have a right to take a picture, if there’s resistance or whatever I’m not going to let anybody try to bully me, but at the same time I’m not going to go anywhere like yo, I have a right to be here.
I spent more time dealing with the police or fire police than anything. You know you, you go somewhere and they are like no you can’t go down there, and I’m like why, look at all those people that are there? Sometime though I just don’t even press the issue.
But I always try to respect the scene first and the people, but sometimes it is the story, especially if their making a rescue, or something like that.
Are there places that you want to go shoot that you haven’t been?
Ya, I’d like to retire and just go check out Gary, In, a lot of the Midwest. Oakland, San Francisco, I’d really like to go check out all the cities.
But I don’t know what the traffic is like in these places. That’s why I like Detroit so much, it’s just a buff friendly city. You can just get from one end to the other quick.
You can check out Jason’s fire ground photography at
