Here is a post from years ago about the big Castle West fire…

It’s 12:50 am and I am fast asleep… that all stops when my Nextel starts beeping. I jump out of bed, and answer it, I am told a three alarm fire at a apartment complex, I quickly get dressed and head out the door. I walk out my door, and look near the Citadel mall, and I live near the Southgate shopping center, and I can see the flames from my place. After doing a map-quest it is 5.8 miles. Anyhow, as I am leaving, Engine 4 was leaving as well, lights and sirens. I have a escort to the scene. As I pull up to the corner of Unitah and Delaware. I get out of my truck, and I can see the flames, they are HUGE, I see some of the victims, I get my gear, and the police tell me I have to move, this is where the FD and AMR are coming through, I not able to get any video, they tell me where I need to go… I put my gear back in my truck as I am driving away, I rolled my window down, and I hear this screeching scream, from a women, the kind that sends chills down your spine. I go onto Academy and parked my truck, I jump out and there are flames visible, I get my camera and start shooting, just then, this HUGE flame rips through the front of the building. I shoot some more video, and I need to get closer, I cross Academy, and go behind one of the stores there, at this time flames are everywhere. The firefighters are doing the best they can throwing millions of gallons of water onto the fire. The closer I get, I can see the victims of the fire, families, looking at a building, their home, all their belongings gone. I see a lady looking at the building crying, a man trying to go back into his apartment on the bottom floor to get more things, they make him leave, a firefighter gives him a hug, and the man walks away with the clothes on his back, as walks into a smoke filled parking lot.

With a job to do, I continue to capture the images to tell this story. I see firefighters climbing into the building while flames are shooting out only a few feet away. I see a young guy, no more that 20 yrs old, he is standing there, looking at saying to his friend, ‘It’s all gone.” I ask him for a interview to tell me his story what he saw. He told me that he was in bed, and people are banging on the doors yelling fire, he quickly got dressed and a ran out, with the clothes on his back.

I then move to the south west side of the complex, next to the church.  This where there were some amazing flames. shooting outside the window, maybe 10 – 15 feet, the FD just got the ladders up (where I was) and stated to fight the fire from atop. Water was everywhere, freezing as soon it would hit the building. The cars below are all going to be covered in ice when the day was over.

It was no later than 1:15 am, and I stepped back from the camera, and looked around, and really took in what was going on, I knew this was going to be the story for the morning, that we needed to get the morning crew there ASAP, So I called our morning producer, Aaron, and told him that we need to get me a reporter here as soon as possible, this is a big story, and I need help. He makes all the calls and our morning reporter Rachel Hoffenberg is now up and getting ready. I continue to shoot more video, trying to capture every possible image that I can, and tell as many stories as one can. I talked to a few more victims as they were going to the church which is set up as the emergency shelter. I then go to the parking lot of the church and people are being taken to the hospital, for what I do not know, I would assume that it would be for smoke inhalation, but again, I am not sure.

It must have been 2:30 am or so, I am not really sure, I looking around to see what I am missing, I see a car from Major Crimes pull up, but I am not 100% sure, I make a few calls to see if anyone has heard on the scanners if major crimes is here, no one has heard nothing. maybe 15 min later, I see Sgt. Sal Fiorillo, of Major Crimes, I then made a few more phone calls and now realizing the story has changed, **in my mind** from a fire to something much more. I again call our producer Aaron, and tell him that I need another crew, with our Satellite Truck and another reporter. Aaron makes some calls and Cindy, our News Director has a few questions, so I call her, and tell her what I know, and she agrees and she calls in the second crew. At this time, Rachel arrives with our Live truck.

We park our live truck on the conner of Unitah and Delaware, and we get to work, we work on a game plane of what we need to do. We get more interviews with victims, try to get some official information from the FD. We have to wait a bit so they get all the information they need, to give us some info. They will call all of us when it will be held.

Now time is a factor, we need to quickly shoot as much as we can, edit some video together, establish a live shot, with out engineers in Pueblo, and set up a live shot. all this is done in what seems to be 15 min.

We get everything done, and we have our first live shot around the top of the show. Rachel does her bit, and I have to run over to the other-side of the church for the press conference that is already happening. I run over there, get what we need, hand the tape off to our normal morning Photographer, Steve Lewis, and he goes to edit some sound together, and Rachel and I get ready for another live shot. From the time the we finish the press conference to we run back over to our live shot location, get everything set up and cleared for air is less than 3 minutes and Rachel is on the air again, telling you what the latest word from the FD is.

A few minutes later, Reporter Bill Folsom shows up. We are now in the heart of the show, teases and live hits every 4 – 10 minutes. Bill and Rachel do live shots together, to get the most information we can to our viewers. Another concern that has come up is now traffic, they have had to shut down lanes of traffic due to ice. With the sub-zero temps and the millions of gallons of water, the roads were freezing. Making it unsafe for people driving, and people at the scene, including Fire Fighters.

About 5:19 am, our Satellite Truck arrives with Chief Sat Truck op, Juice, and he gets the Sat Truck ready for Bill and his live shots. As soon he is set up and ready, Bill goes over to the Sat Truck and we now have to live shots up for our morning show. We have a GREAT morning crew team, from the producers to the director, studio crew and the anchors, and everyone in-between. It is hard and can be very stressful working Breaking News. Things are changing all the time and they are the best at it.

Now it must had been 6:15 am, I happen to look back at our truck and I see our News Director, Cindy at the scene, helping us out in any way she can, It really says something about the News First team that the News Director comes out the scene to help in anyway she can, we have a Great team at News First.

7:00 am now comes up and the morning show is now over, so Rachel and I get to work, she has to sit a log and write the story with all the tapes that I shot on, a this point there were 4 tapes, of about 33 min each… lots of stuff for her to do.

I leave Rachel to the writing, and I grab my camera, and the sun is now up, and I start shooting again, and I make my way over to Juice and Bill to see if they need any help, as they are doing the Today show Cut-ins. After I get all my new video, I have to head back to our live truck and wait for Rachel to finish writing our story.

I take a 10 min break and sit and relax in the truck, and have a cliff bar.  it is now about 9:00 am, and this is the first time I have had a chance to sit down since 1:00 am. My 10 min break goes by supper fast, as Rachel is done, I now need to cut the story for our midday show. That takes me about a hour to cut. Once I am done, I have to set up our live shot again for the midday show, raise the mast, run the cables, etc. I have about 25 min until our live shot, but there is no time for rest. I keep shooting, getting the best video for the day crew who will be here soon. 11:00 am comes and we do our live-shot, which was flawless, not bad for Rachel and I who have been out in the elements for many hours, of non stop news. I now have to tear everything down.

Around this time, the day crew is here, James Jarman and Gene Cotton, they quickly get to work, talking to the victims of this terrible fire. Now you may think Rachel and I are done… Nope, There are hundreds of stories yet to tell, and we too quickly get back to work and talk to some of the victims to help out James and Gene. Finally around noon Rachel and I are done for now, we sit our live truck waiting for the night crew to come and relive us. A VERY Long day.

We hope to be going back to the station at 1:30 pm, but the FD has called a 2:00 pm press conference, and we need to help out the night crew of Susan Davies and Mike Duran, so we are back to work, we go inside the church and setup. We shoot the press conference and Rachel briefs Susan on everything that she knows, and I do the same with Mike, of all the, now 7, tapes he has to work with.

Rachel and I drive back to the station, put things away, I need to log things into the computer. I finally leave the office about 3:15 pm. One long day, but when I think of what these people have just gone through, this was nothing.

To do a job like this, and work these crazy hours, you have to truly love what you do, and I think that our product we produce shows the care and dedication of News First.

Tags: Blog from the Past, Castle West Fire, News First