In an unusual move, New York photojournalist Tim Fisher came out from behind his camera this week to give a firsthand, on-camera report of what he saw while covering a fatal fire that killed a mother and three children.
Fisher was documenting the Utica duplex fire for WKTV, an NBC affiliate, when an emotional family member told him that firefighters were not doing enough to save the people inside. The same man lunged at Fisher’s camera earlier in the day.
The station aired the accusation, then Fisher, a 40-year veteran photojournalist, put together a detailed story of how the firefighters did their job.
It is the May Nielsen ratings period, so you can imagine the temptation to air a hyped-up attack and put the fire service under a microsope. Instead, Fisher offers photographic proof that firemen risked their lives again and again, battling the fire before collapsing in exhaustion.
For the 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. newscasts, Fisher produced a one and a half-minute piece that explained what happened. He produced a nearly seven-minute story for the station’s website.
The station posted the long version around 2 p.m. Tuesday. All afternoon, the story gained viewership online.
WKTV News Director Steve McMurray told me, “By 6 o’clock we were getting thousands of views on the long version from around the country. Fire departments were viraling the story. Our station manager, who used to be a news director, said it is a ‘no brainer’ to run the long piece at 11.”
In addition to being News Director, McMurray is one of the station’s anchors. For more than 20 years he has also served as a volunteer firefighter, so the accusations that firemen might not have made enough of an effort to save lives put him in a tough position.
McMurray told me:
“I run into the dilemma once in a while. The victims were probably dead before the firemen even arrived, the fire was that far along. I thought, ‘[If] I don’t run what the family members are saying, it it looks like I am catering to the fire service. If I do run it I have questions about whether what we allow them to say is fair.’
“I sent two 2-men crews down there to cover the story. I brought all four guys in and asked them about the statement the uncle made … they disagreed with his version of what happened.”
McMurray said, “These firefighters were physically and emotionally drained. When people saw that, it was terrible. And you were always looking for somebody to blame, but don’t blame them.”
The station aired live coverage all morning during the attempts to rescue the family. They fielded several complaints for showing the graphic video of the dead children being carried away, McMurray told me. But Fisher’s story received the opposite reaction.
“We’ve received notes and emails from across the country. As far as the family, the initial anti-fire department feeling has subsided a little, but some family members and neighbors told our crew on the scene the next day that they were still upset that the fire department ‘should’ve done more,’ ” McMurray said.
Viewer reaction on the station’s Facebook page has been overwhelmingly supportive, with 53 comments as of Thursday evening.
You can watch the entire video below:
Special acknowledgment: I first read about this story on Stewart “Lenslinger” Pittman’s blog.
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