reporting my first fire

i am absolutely loving my new job. it's still surreal and i can't believe i'm working at one of my dream jobs! i am so very blessed - thank you Jesus. i am a general assignment reporter, but my main "beat" is health and features. which is perfect. i get to cover fun community events and what's going on in the world of hospitals, healthcare, and healthy living. i couldn't ask for a better beat.

general assignment means covering just about anything that needs covered, so this week i covered my first fire. technically it was my second, but the first one i only had to make a phone call after a fire was over. this time i went to the scene of the incident, panicking all the way that i was going to get lost and miss it. (i really want a gps!)

that turned out to be a silly notion not only because i found it just fine, but also because you don't really "miss" fires. at least not based on my one experience. the crews are there for a long time working. i parked where they had the road closed off and walked down, regretting my choice of outfit that morning - a cute dress and cardigan with boots, that didn't exactly send a "hardcore reporter who knows what she's doing" vibe. but that could have just been my nervousness. nonetheless while i stood around waiting to be able to talk to people i played a mental game of tennis, tossing around pro's and con's of dressing a bit more butch for work. (butch did not win, just for the record.)

the chief talked to me and i did my best to pretend i knew what questions to ask even though i was thinking about the movie ladder 49. so often when i'm interviewing people i glance around expecting someone to say, "look, we all know you don't know what you're doing, get outta here kid." so far that hasn't happened.

after i talked to him i had to wait across the street for them to finish up until i could talk to the red cross and the homeowner. a shady public adjuster came over and told me a bunch of (what seemed like) important information, but when i checked those facts with the police it turned out he had made all of it up. i'm not sure if he thought it'd be funny to test me, or just felt like being a total a-hole. either way i was glad when the red cross shooed him away for trying to capitalize on the situation.

it turned out the homeowner was a single mom who had told her elderly mom not to cook, because they had just finished remodeling their home. but that morning the mom cooked anyway, fire broke out, and now the house was a total loss.

i had to hold back tears and refrain from being a creepy stranger/reporter giving the lady a hug - it was so sad! you could see the devastation on her tired face, and i wanted to hug her and let her cry. but she was hiding the tears, trying to smile even, and i felt so lonely for her.

the whole day made me think 'i can't wait to write books.' because when i am observing things i would naturally rather write it from an emotional perspective. or details like the way the smoke smelled. or how i met my first mitzy that day and she acted exactly the way you would expect someone name mitzy to act. for now i can save the emotion, insight and opinion for my blog, but someday there will be a book about a brand new reporter - and a lot of other things too.

my editor said the story was great (phew!), and then he made some changes before it went online and in print. this is a bit hard to get used to - watching your stuff get tweaked. i like the help and most of it is super beneficial, but sometimes a clever intro i come up with after a lot of thought and am happy with, will get replaced with something bland or cheesy that i am embarrassed to have under my byline.

or a typo will get added by whoever works on the story, making me feel like a moron when it is not even my mistake. like with this fire story: " ... and four people were displayed from their home." displaced, c'mon! oh well. i think my nerd wart is showing, better quit complaining and cover that thing up.

God bless firefighters for all of their hard work! it really is amazing what a solid family of volunteers we have at local fire companies. i am super impressed by them, and thankful for their hard work. i can't help but add that i found it quite ironic to watch one of them smoking a cigarette beside the fire. and the cops there were eating donuts! okay so i added that part about the police. maybe it's good they have me stick to writing the straight facts. ;-)