Photo of the month: January, 2000

Every month, we choose three outstanding photos for recognition. These are photos submitted by Associated Press member newspapers. From these, we select a winning photograph, and two honorable mentions.

Previous winners

1999
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March

How I got the picture

"I was in the newsroom when a report of a structure fire in Unity came over the scanner. I opted to wait for a condition report when a minute later a dispatcher stated that the building was fully engulfed and that there were children trapped inside.

"I bolted out the door. Upon arrival 20 minutes later the house and garage were in flames as firefighters surrounded the buildings. I could see a large gathering of spectators and a screaming woman on a stretcher as she was carried into an ambulance. It was the mother of triplet boys who died in the fire.

"She received burns trying to save her kids. In addition to the triplets a longtime firefighter died that night of a heart attack while fighting the fire."

About the others

Honorable mentions went to Ryan Mercer of the Portsmouth (NH) Herald for a Jan. 30 picture of Yolanda King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., during a candlelight march in her father's honor at the University of New Hampshire, and to Don Himsel of The Telegraph in Nashua, N.H., of a snow shoveler framed by the windows of a hotel.