Wednesday, May 10, 2023

First Person: Little Things Becoming Big Things

 

Early, early Monday morning wasn't turning out to be particularly busy,  Something crossed my computer screen.  It didn't appear to be earth shattering, but I thought it could be interesting.  Photographer Tim and I went out to take a look.

A block of East Ridge Street was closing so the Nanticoke Fire Department could bring in an outside firm to test its hoses-- all 15,000 feet!

Above is a screen grab from the Newswatch 16 story that ran at noon Monday,  I should have taken my own photos, but I was pondering other matters at the time.

Television is all about the visuals, and this one was neat-- fire trucks, and fire hoses strung down the block, water, pressure tests, coiling and uncoiling of all those lines.


Many of us think firefighters only work when something is burning.  Not true.  There is a massive amount of training and equipment maintenance

We could have easily treated this as a routine filler story, but there was more here.  We showed how having tested and working gear gives firefighters more comfort and confidence.  The young man heading the testing, on the left, takes pride when he sees firefighters more effective because he spotted a problem before it became critical.

A long time WNEP employee looked at the script and the video, and he said it might have been the first time we've covered something like this.  In more than forty years of broadcasting, it was a first for me.

Maybe there is a life lesson here:  look deeper.