WXYZ-TV DETROIT: For the past year, Scott Ziegler of the Highland Park Fire Department mounted a camera to his helmet recording amazing footage.
Scott Ziegler used a helmet-cam to capture on-the-job firefighting video in Highland Park, Michigan. The video was recently featured on ABC with John Schriffen reporting on Diane Sawyer’s segment. Ziegler filmed his day job for a full year with a camera mounted on his helmet, showing his view of his crew responding to fires. He works in Highland Park, Mich., near Detroit, where there are a lot of abandoned buildings. His videos give a rare look at what it means to be a firefighter.
Here’s Scott’s video on YouTube …
“2012 a year on my lid, in Highland Park MI”
“2012 a year on my lid, in Highland Park MI” with music by Eminem “Till I Collapse” and some graphic language in lyrics.
The video shows warehouse fires, house fires, car fires, smoky fires, fires at night, fire up close, fires from the end of a hose line, fires, fires from the end of an axe, interior attacks, and crashes. The work is excellent. A lot of helmet cam views are not this steady.
“This video is to show people what it is like to fight fires, and what firefighters across the nation do every day. The more people who realize, the better it will be for our profession.
I put together a bunch of clips from some of the better helmet cam footage I got this year while fighting fires in Highland Park. I had to replace several lens’s and a couple mounts throughout the year, so the camera was not always on my helmet.
All the clips are from my own camera, and they are all real fires. No training fires.
The music is not minem it is obviously Eminems- till I collapse. I was just trying to make it a bit more interesting then just a bunch of clips. I understand some people might not appreciate the music, but hey its my video.We love doing our job in Highland Park. And we do it often. Our aggressive attack might seem odd to some since most of these are “vacant” homes. But we are here to put fires out and the best way to do that is from the inside. Stay safe brothers…stay low
Check out www.firevideo.net these guys hooked me up and I will be using their camera from now on.”— Scott Ziegler
Several videos have featured the extra-busy firefighters in the failing economy of the Detroit area.
BURN – The Detroit Firefighter Documentary. Engine Co. 50.
Detroit on Fire – a documentary. A look at the arson/vacant home problem in Detroit through the eyes of the Detroit Fire Department.
The reason behind arson in Detroit:
(1) People trying to gain from burning insured property.
(2) Revenge fire where fire is a weapon. House firebombed.
(3) Pyros burning homes for fun.
(4) Juvenile arsons — just pranks
(5) Vigilante fires set by neighbors upset with drug houses and other hazardous houses.
FOX 2 DETROIT … Detroit Fire Commissioner: Let it Burn
Medic 8 … What’s your status?
Detroit EMS: No Unit Available…PERIOD!
BLIGHT …
Detroit’s urban blight, and dwindling population.
See also …
ABC News Detroit Firefighter Films His Job for One Year
DetroitFire.org — BURN The Detroit Firefighter Documentary official site
Very Cool!
I grew up at 160 Florence, and was FLABBERGASTED to see what I saw on your site. Thank you so much for what you do. I always knew you had a dangerous job, but now I’ve seen it. I also saw inside my old home. Very sad to see the state it was in prior to the fire as well as after. We are good friends with Dick Veldman, and saw him last week. He realized that my house was one of the ones during which you were taping, so let us in on this site. We lived there from 1948-1969, my dad being a HP policeman.
Thanks for sharing!