Letter to readers: Firefighters are all about a quick response time
Trying to reach people for comment, questions or confirmation of something is a daily routine for reporters and can sometimes be frustrating when it’s a deadline day and you just need that one last fact to finish a story.
Often, the reply comes after deadline and publication is delayed – or “held” as we say in the newsroom -- until the next issue; other times you never hear back and pursue other avenues for the information.
Covering the city of McMinnville and Yamhill County government, I’m routinely impressed at response times to News-Register inquiries (specifically from city recorder Claudia Cisneros and county administrator Ken Huffer).
The residents are fortunate to have responsive representatives in local government. I’ve worked in other parts of the country where it was understood important officials just weren’t going to respond to anything. Part of being a reporter is dealing with the fact that, many times, people don’t have to talk to you.
While I’ve never had issues getting information from the McMinnville Fire District, I found noteworthy their response to questions about deploying to the Los Angeles wildfires this week, for both the speed and number of responses. (I guess it probably shouldn’t be shocking emergency responders acted quickly.)
At 10:26 a.m. Monday, I discussed an update on MFD deployments to California with my editor. I emailed assistant chief Scott Law at 10:36 a.m. and received an automatic reply saying he was “deployed to California with a task force for the wildfires in the LA region,” and to reach out to assistant chief of operations Amy Hanifan, so I did so at 10:39.
Before Hanifan answered five minutes later, Law responded with additional information and included Chief Reed Godfrey in our thread. Hanifan’s response indicated I should direct my questions to the Oregon State Fire Marshal, as they are running the statewide assistance operation. I reached out to OSFM’s public affairs at 11:06.
At 11:21, a representative from OSFM got back to me and two minutes later Godfrey sent additional information. At this point I had all the information and confirmation I could ask for and wrote up my story.
To top it off, Law sent another correspondence at 7:55 p.m. about the various task forces made up of firefighters from Yamhill and Polk counties (presumably after his shift fighting an unimaginable wildfire).
In less than an hour, three members of the MFD (including the chief) and an OSFM representative had responded comprehensively, and each informed me to reach out if I had additional questions. That is impressive response time.
Godspeed to the brave men and women deployed to the wildfires. And thanks for keeping the community informed.
Comments