Fire on Salt Springs road in Manlius. Smoke seen on right side of photo.
/ Matt Mulcahy.
When one police car flies by with siren and flashing lights I always wonder what is going on. When I have to pull over for the second car I turn on my Scanner app on my Droid. When the third police car is tagging along behind a fire truck. I stop. Turn my car around and start to follow.
As a news guy in good standing I can't in good conscience keep going the other way. What if it's the big story? What if it would have made a difference if we had the first reporter on the scene? Plus, after all these years of covering stories there's still nothing quite like an emergency call. In this case it turned out to be a pretty good housefire.
What is different these days is the ability to report on the story immediately from the scene via social media. I tweeted details and photos. I posted to Instagram and Facebook. I uploaded a video from the scene. I e-mailed photos to the station. Called in details for the website. Guided our coverage for the 10:00 and 11:00 pm newscasts including getting out a crew with a television camera and live gear to report from the scene.
The good news is no one was hurt in the fire. The house is badly damaged. The owners lives in Utah, but rents out two apartments.
For a few minutes the rush of covering spot news was back.
Any questions or comment please forward them to mattsmemo@CNYcentral.com. I may even use some of your thoughts on NBC 3 News at 5:00, the 10:00 News on CW6 or on CNYcentral.com.
The opinions expressed in this blog are the sole responsibility of the author and are not reflective of the views or opinions of Barrington Broadcasting, WSTM-NBC3, its management or employees
