It's that time of year-- when people are getting in the last of their vacation and personal days before 2018 leaves us forever. I wound up producing Newswatch 16 yesterday morning.
The broadcast was essentially done when I heard about a fire in Hanover Township. It seems like they had the flames knocked down pretty quickly at 2:40 AM, but it was close and overnight photographer/editor Nora had most of her tasks finished. I asked Nora to drive down and take a look.
Just as Nora made it to Hanover Township, morning reporter Sarah and photographer Dave arrived at the office. Nora texted me that she saw ambulances with fire victims leave the scene. Sarah already had another story in the planning stages, but when you hear about people hurt, the scales are tipped toward the fire. Dave and Sarah were in the truck, heading south, minutes later.
Sarah saw the coroner at the scene. We later learned three had died. Awful. We reported what we knew and showed the video. Sarah is just the person you want on the scene of early morning breaking news. She calmly and factually built on Nora's foundation It's how good journalism works.
There really is no major moral to the story. I know people like having an inside look at how television news works. You should also know you have some really good people, like Nora, Sarah, and Dave working hard to get you the information you need.
