Arizona Papers Move Staff, Offices For Wildfire Story

By: Joe Strupp Arizona Daily Star photographer David Sanders didn't have to wait long to put his recent training to the test. Less than a month after Sanders and four Daily Star colleagues took a U.S. Forest Service course that gives them special access to fire areas, Sanders found himself thrown in the middle of the state's worst-ever conflagration. "I was able to get shots of houses fully engulfed and 50-foot flames eating pines," said Sanders, who received the service's special "Red Card" allowing him to go beyond the media staging area and travel with a fire crew. "There were a couple of times when I had to put down my camera and put out spot fires or throw dirt on flames." He spent a week with fire crews battling the blazes that have consumed nearly 500,000 acres of the White Mountain vacation area.

For the Forest Service's weeklong course in nearby Benson, the Daily Star had sent three photographers and two reporters. Although the training was free, the newspaper had to shell out about $400 a person for fire suits and equipment.

The Daily Star was among many papers statewide that shifted into high gear for coverage of the blaze. Publishers added pages and bumped up press runs. "This is about as big as it gets here," said Jim Ripley, executive editor of the East Valley Tribune in Mesa, a Phoenix suburb. Since June 20 -- when the fire expanded into the eastern town of Show Low, leading to evacuations of the area -- the Tribune has put at least 10 of its 30 reporters and five of its eight photographers on the story. "Some people had to pitch tents and live in shelters out there," Ripley said.

For The Arizona Republic in Phoenix, owned by Gannett Co. Inc., covering the fire has meant sharing resources with Gannett's NBC affiliate, KPNX-TV. A Republic staff writer reported on the air from the scene, and TV reporters contributed to Republic stories. "We've also had access to their helicopter for photo shots," said Republic Editor Tom Callinan. "It's been the first true test of convergence here."

Closer to the blaze, the wildfire forced one weekly paper, the White Mountain Independent in Show Low, to escape its offices and relocate to a smaller bureau in nearby Apache County June 22. As of Friday, the paper was still operating out of the smaller confines, with staffers living in motels, friends' homes, and, in some cases, evacuation shelters. "Two of our circulation people slept in sleeping bags along a creek," said Publisher Greg Tock. In the rush to leave, employees were able to take about half of the paper's computers, one printer, several files, and old issues on microfilm -- but they could only bring one copy of each of this year's issues.

The fire and evacuation did not disrupt the paper's printing operations. The Tuesday press run, normally 8,000 copies, was boosted to 10,000, while the Friday run, usually 12,000 copies, was hiked to 20,000. Since all of Show Low's residents have evacuated, the Independent distributed copies throughout Springerville, Eagar, and other locations. Free copies went to people forced to stay in shelters.

Other nearby weeklies, such as the Apache County Reporter in Eagar, a major evacuation site, also distributed papers free to those forced from their homes. The Reporter used the fire coverage to drive home the opinion of many locals that the blaze could have been prevented or lessened if underbrush and overgrown trees had been cleared -- a long-running complaint of many residents.