Grae O'Toole walks down the steps of her former apartment with the second of three armfuls of items that survived the fire in Woodstock, Vt., on Thursday, July 19, 2018. O'Toole was woken by the smoke alarms on Monday morning and dialed 911. Among the items that survived were her birth certificate, passport, social security card, and journal. (Valley News - August Frank) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.
Grae O'Toole walks down the steps of her former apartment with the second of three armfuls of items that survived the fire in Woodstock, Vt., on Thursday, July 19, 2018. O'Toole was woken by the smoke alarms on Monday morning and dialed 911. Among the items that survived were her birth certificate, passport, social security card, and journal. (Valley News - August Frank) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. Credit: Valley News — August Frank

Valley News staff photographers and interns are sharing the stories behind their favorite photographs of the year. More of their favorites can be seen in Photo Galleries. Valley News photo intern August Frank shares his pick below.

I arrived in Woodstock in the middle of the day after being told investigators were back at the scene of a fire with a dog that sniffs for accelerants in potential arson cases. It was mid-July, and just three days earlier I had been at the same spot as a fire raged inside the building that housed Pi Brick Oven Trattoria, The Vermont Standard and The Collective in addition to several apartments on the top floor.

I talked to a fire investigator and was told an arson dog (named Guava, I later found out) was inside resting.

So I got to work photographing investigators at the scene, trying to salvage the trip in the absence of an arson dog.

As I continued to shoot, I noticed two women and a man who approached the back end of the building where the apartments were. One woman put her arm around the other. I walked up to them and struck up a conversation. As we talked, I learned that the younger woman, Grae O’Toole, was living in the apartments and had dialed 911 when smoke detectors went off and woke her up. The fire chief came by and put his gear on to enter her apartment to retrieve any belongings that may have survived the fire.

I watched as he crawled through the window and brought out three armfuls of items for Grae and her parents. Grae and her mother began spreading the items across the ground. One of them was a graduation photo — “University of Wisconsin-Madison Commencement May 2013” it read. There also was a small box wrapped with a red bow. And a soggy journal bound with a black string.

Grae’s father told me as I was leaving that the message to convey was the importance of working fire alarms.

“They saved my daughter’s life,” he said.

Spot news is often a run-and-gun type of photography. You rush to the scene of an accident or fire and shoot whatever misfortune might be occurring. Photographing Grae reminded me that, for victims, it could quite possibly could be one of the worst days of their lives. And it taught me the importance of following through on a story and keeping compassion for those I photograph.