…last night / early this morning, someone broke a window at the Vankleek Hill Collegiate Institute, our high school, and tried to burn the place down. They failed miserably. The school might be too small, and poorly designed, but the sprinklers definitely work.

That stain, and an empty space where a science station used to be, are all that’s left of the incident. Thank God the children are safe. Or something.

The local paper emailed me early this morning, asking me to take photos of the incident, but this was my son’s first day at school, so I didn’t get the email until everything had calmed down.

The photographer they did send was kicked off the property.

Once I got the message, I walked onto the property, straight up to the people cleaning up, and took a shot through the window while I interviewed them. But there was too much reflection in the window to make a decent photo, so I went back later on, put the camera right up against the window, and used the multiple exposure setting to make sure I got something in focus.

Personally, I’d love to go back in the morning to get a shot from inside, but with someone in the shot — preferably the chemistry teacher, or the principal. But the paper-people say they’re sending someone else.

Which is cool, and not at all insulting.

…anyway. This shot is almost entirely unremarkable, except that the story about the fire ran on the websites of both Ottawa dailies, and the CBC, and our local paper’s sites, and I was the only one who got the story right, and the only one to get the shot.

Not that I’m gloating.