andrewzahler.com

I grabbed my video gear and headed out to cover breaking news for the first time in ages today. Here’s the result.

For the story, go here.

This was fun. As the footage shows, I was able to get close into the fire initially — just outside the parking lot gate. Officials then booted us back 500 feet because of the inhalation and haz-mat risk: The site is a cold storage business and uses anhydrous ammonia tanks.

(A highlight was listening to another reporter try to wrap her mind and mouth around that phrase during questions with the fire chief.)

As I was looking for somebody to interview, I started talking to a couple employees of another business who told me one of their guys had called in the fire. He was eager to go on camera and gave me some great stuff.

The rest I gathered at the command post, where the fire chief was giving TV the rundown. After getting a little from him, I stepped aside to get the B roll you see at the end.

Altogether, this was just under a three-hour turnaround, including travel and creating a 25-second raw-footage teaser to post right away when we got back. Not bad for using a new camera and shaking off some serious rust.