Daniel Purvis, The Fire (Documentary/Photojournalism)

The Fire was photographed in Nikko, Japan. On the way up the mountain, Tomo (my translator) and I stopped by a house which has just begun to smoke, then erupted in flames. The home was owned by the older woman, who could do nothing but stand and watch. The small rural community gathered as the firefighters and volunteers swarmed in to contain and extinguish the blaze before it spread.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.