Nothing to do but watch

The driver of a Toyota pickup truck, who declined to be identified, watches the vehicle burn on the side of Southbound U.S. 321 near the Hardin Road exit on Sunday November 25, 2012. The man pulled over and helped his two children and their mother out of the smoking truck before it became engulfed in flames.

Webb St. Shooting

People who are reportedly family members of the victim console one another at the scene where a woman was shot and killed and another injured at 1655 N. Webb St. on Wednesday March 28, 2012.

Gastonia Police tackle a man identified by relatives as Toshawn Adams after he charged through police tape chasing after another man during a small riot that broke out after a large crowd of onlookers had gathered at the scene on N. Webb Street.

Gastonia Police detain a man who took part in a small riot at the scene.

Two people console one another at the scene.

A nice evening for arson

Firefighters asses the situation after arriving at 303 Lowell Ave. just off of Wilkinson Blvd. near McAdenville to find a mobile home fully engulfed in flames on Friday March 23, 2012. McAdenville, Lowell, New Hope and Belmont Fire Departments responded to the blaze, which was brought under control quickly with no injuries. Gaston County Police were called to the residence earlier in the day for a domestic, and the fire marshall is now indicating the blaze may be arson. 

Sometimes preparedness pays off. Friday night I had just gotten into my car to leave work when I heard a structure fire dispatched. The address caught my attention. It's the same address where police were called out to a domestic a few hours earlier.

This could be interesting, I though.  

And, as luck would have it, I pulled up on this fire right behind the first fire engine. I was standing there camera ready as they assessed the situation (above) and began fighting the fire (below). 

It's a good thing too; mobile homes fast. It was probably less than 25 minutes from when the first dispatch about the call came out to when the fire was more or less under control. 

Firefighters begin attacking the blaze.

Junkyard Dogs

I spotted these two mischievous, I almost want to say demented looking, dogs while taking pictures at a home where police ar investigating the deaths of a number of dogs found dead at a home on Mitchem Road near Ranlo on Thursday October 13, 2011.

South Point Homicide

Trey Gercak consoles Allison McCall, right, and a Gaston County Police officer talks with McCall's mother as police investigate the death of McCall's sister, Christina McCall, in front of the home at 129 Midwood Lane near Belmont late Sunday August 28, 2011.

Christina McCall was reportedly ending her relationship with her boyfriend of three years,Franklin Janell White, when he shot and killed her in front of her home where she lived with her parents and teenage son.

White died later Monday morning in a shootout with York County Sheriff's officers who were attempting to arrest him on a warrant for first-degree murder.

More details in this developing story from The Gaston Gazette

Hartford Drive Homicide

A family member consoles a woman who made statements indicating that she was the mother of a man found dead at 2102 Hartford Drive off of Hudson Boulevard on Friday June 17, 2011.

Read my original story here, and the follow up with details here.

Guns drawn, Gastonia police officers prepare to enter and clear a home at 2102 Hartford Drive where a man, covered with a yellow tarp, was found shot in the chest in the front yard just before 10:00pm on Friday June 17, 2011. 

Neighborhood children watch as Gastonia police investigate the murder.

RV vs House

A recreational vehicle sits crashed into a the garage of a home at 615 Rosemary Lane on Saturday May 7, 2011. Firefighters were dispatched to the incident that sent one man to Gaston Memorial Hospital with non life threatening injuries at 8:15 p.m. on Friday. 

Up in Smoke

Firefighters battle a fire on the roof of a building at National Gypsum on Drywall Drive in Mount Holly on Saturday April 16, 2011.

Two Alarm Fire

Firefighters from eight departments battled a commercial blaze at Roseberry's Salvage Building Supplies at 215 Davis Heights Drive on Saturday January 8, 2011. Read the full story at gastongazette.com

Goble Street Fire

A firefighter lifts a burning trash can from the remains of an unoccupied house on Goble Street that burned to the ground around midnight on Saturday October 23, 2010.

Crane vs House

A firefighter walks past the wreckage of a 70-ton construction crane that fell onto a house at 1212 Oakwood Avenue on Thursday October 21, 2010. Crews contracted through Denton's Tree Service were using the 140 foot boom to remove a large tree on the side of the home when the crane tipped over and fell onto the house.

Read more: www.gastongazette.com/news/house-51820-crane-ton.html

EMS personnel take a worker from Denton's Tree Service to an ambulance after the crane collapsed. The worker was reportedly a tree climber working to cut sections of a large tree that were being removed by the crane, and when the crane began to collapse in his direction he jumped or slid down the tree sustaining non life threatening injuries.