Small Oklahoma Daily Pulls Double Duty on Wildfires

By: Joe Strupp The wildfires burning through Texas and Oklahoma this week have sent newspaper reporters and editors scrambling to cover yet another ever-changing natural disaster. But few dailies have been hit as hard as the Seminole Producer of Seminole, Okla.

The 5,300 daily circulation paper -- with a newsroom staff of four and one part-time photographer -- has basically put all other reporting aside to cover the biggest story in years, according to Managing Editor Karen Anson. Since two major nearby wildfires erupted Tuesday, some 10,000 acres have burned in the afternoon paper's circulation area, leaving at least 50 local families homeless and sparking round-the-clock coverage at the paper.

"Everyone has basically been pulled to cover the fire and all of its angles," said Anson. "It is working us."

The family-owned daily, which publishes Tuesday through Friday and on Sundays, has averaged between 10 and 16 pages this week, a slight increase over most days, with the fire coverage all but replacing sports and events pages. "I have kept at least one page of each of those," Anson said. "But it has been all fire."

With only one part-time photographer, Anson's reporters and editors normally double as photographers anyway. But this week, she said the extra work has been even more vital. The paper has also produced its first-ever color photos, but only for its Web site (www.seminoleproducer.com). Since the paper publishes in black and white, color shots could not be used in print. "That was the first time we used color," she said.

Anson said the paper has not missed an issue and has been able to deliver through its adult carriers, despite major road closures in the area. She said the fire lines at one point were only a block away from the Producer's downtown offices. "The fire department told us that if the wind had not shifted, the whole downtown would have been destroyed, including us," she said, adding that the paper was not evacuated. "We just stood here and hoped and hoped."

Reporter Jennifer Pitts was briefly trapped in her car Tuesday while reporting at the scene of a pasture fire when wind sent flames along a roadway where she was parked. "Within seconds, I couldn't see two feet in front of my face," she said. "It was smoke and ash. My eyes started burning and watering and I was coughing."

Pitts, who suffers from asthma, said a water truck pulled in front of her at the same time, blocking her exit for several minutes. "I started getting scared and wondered if I should run," she recalled. "When the truck moved, I finally got out. My car still smells like smoke."

For Anson, the fire hit home, literally, twice this week when half of her backyard was ablaze. "My husband was there the first time, fighting the flames with my son-in-law. It burned half of my backyard," she said. "Then it rekindled on Thursday, 15 minutes before deadline and my husband was an hour away. I had to go home and help some neighbors who were already hosing it, and then come back and get the paper out."

Editors have not planned any extras or special editions, although Anson believes the Sunday paper, normally out Saturday night, will likely be published earlier in the day. "We are just scrambling, doing the best we can," says Pitts.

For other dailies, the fire has become the obvious major story, although most have been able to handle coverage despite holiday week vacations. "We have been able to handle it with the people we have," said Dianna Hunt, an assistant editor at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, who said at least 40% of her staff was off this week. "We were prepared to bring people in, but we have not had to."

At The Oklahoman in Oklahoma City, where 30 of the paper's 120 newsroom staffers were on vacation, several had to jump back to work when the fires struck, according to Assistant Managing Editor Robby Trammell. He said even City Editor Mark Hutchison, vacationing in nearby Mustang, Okla., ended up interviewing fire victims for a story. "We are making sure people are on call for the weekend," Trammell said, noting more fires are possible. "We are making sure we can cover it."