The local media have gone all out in their coverage of the Everett fire. I’m not going to try to evaluate it — from what I’ve seen, it’s all been good. Instead, I want to call your attention to what’s taking place just outside your peripheral vision.
Both the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald have done some interesting work on their Web sites. The Globe has two slide shows, one on the ground, the other from on high. The Herald has a gallery as well, although it’s on a page that doesn’t allow me to provide a direct link. Click here and scroll down.
I particularly like an interactive map the Globe has posted (above). It takes you through the accident step by step and gives you a much clearer idea of what happened than the static graphic that appears on page one of the print edition. The Globe is also asking readers to send in photos (I don’t see any yet) and to share their stories (so far, it looks like people are mainly interested in pointing out that the Globe has mislabeled Route 99 in some of its coverage).
The Herald has posted a couple of videos — a two-minute clip that was shot at the scene of the fire, and an interview with a witness. They’re not slick, but they have a compelling raw-video feel to them that you don’t get from television newscasts. Unfortunately, the Globe is hampered in experimenting with video because of its content-sharing arrangement with New England Cable News, several of whose stories are posted alongside the Globe’s content.
I was somewhat surprised that I couldn’t find any amateur content on Flickr. However, I did come across a nearly six-minute video on YouTube, taken at the scene, that was uploaded by someone who goes by “97K.” Overall, though, there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of citizen journalism coming out of the fire. Adam Gaffin, who does a great job of rounding up such things at Universal Hub, has very little. Adam did lead me to a local blog called the Everett Mirror (link now fixed; thanks, Ron), but so far there’s not much there, either. I’m not sure why, but it could be that Everett, as a working-class city, has fewer citizen-media types wielding video cameras than some other communities.
A little more than a year ago, an immense explosion in Danversport, right down the street from Media Nation, resulted in no deaths and little in the way of injuries. This week, another miracle occurred.
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Ron Newman
Correct URL for the Everett Mirror is:http://theeverettmirror.blogspot.com/
Anonymous
EB3 hereBeing the jerk that I am, there is one thing driving me crazy about the reports on this fire. I haven’t seen the homes that were destroyed but on the tv news this morning the reporter was in front of a 3 story home that was damaged but not destroyed. The reporter kept referring to this home as a “three decker”.Listen up people, a “three decker” is a flat roof three story building with one apartment on each floor. There are matching back porches on each floor and often front porches. These homes were built usuallyin the early 1900 and are easily identifiable. They a a New England thing and not often found in other parts of the country.A house with three floors and three apartments is not a three decker. It must have flat roof. Each floor resembles the nopther both inside and out.Goddamn it get it right. This is a very important point not to get wrong when one is reporting on a fire that left scores of people homeless and without any possessions. 🙂
Abe
Dan, We’ve been pretty clear, for about 600 years, on this fact: There is no such thing as a miracle.
O-FISH-L
The print and electronic news coverage of the Everett accident was indeed major league overkill, despite the circa 1977 CHiPS-like drama, complete with exploding gasoline tanker. Nobody died, no significant injuries, not even any significant environmental damage, yet endless coverage. Meanwhile, just south of Boston in Brockton, a former city councillor dies in a house fire, two of his family are injured and three heroic police officers are treated and released at a local hospital after saving lives, but the story barely makes the NiB section. Of course, sans Erik Estrada or an exploding gasoline tanker, who cares about a fire?What a sad state of affairs, this Boston media.
a danversport resident
for whoever says that there is no such thing as a miracle, they dont know what they are talking about. im a survivor of the danversport explosion along with all of my neighbors, and i have never believed in miracles more. if you were there and experienced the pure feeling of fear and heartbreak we all went through when we thought our friends and neighbors were gone then you wouldnt be saying that. it is indeed a miracle that we are all alive and it amazes me every day of my life.