A gay story: Good Afternoon Ch. 10 “This has been a special report for channel 13, Eye on the News”
The camera man widened his shot as the reporter finished her closing line. Flames and smoke billowed from what appeared to be a huge pile of debris half a block away behind the reporter. The red flashing lights of fire trucks, ambulances and police vehicles strobed the camera lense with their rotating light. He got the cue from the director through his head phones, so he pressed the record button again to end the recording, then took the camera off his shoulder and turned around to head back to the news truck.
“I’m gonna go see if I can get any more information on what happened and if there are any survivors.” She handed him her microphone and ear piece, “I’ll be right back.” Once freed of her mic and ear piece, she turned around and walked down the middle of the street towards the emergency response command center. The air was thick with smoke which occasionally changed directions as the wind circled the fire. The orange and yellow flames occasionally leaped into the night sky doing their fire dance. She had to watch her step as she walked, she nearly stepped on a partially burnt doll head that must have belonged to some young girl who resided in that building. It startled her for a moment because the only light was that coming from the fire, so the image of the head on the ground wasn’t at first clear what it actually was. The impact and explosion had been thrown more than a block away. The windows of all the buildings she passed were shattered, the pieces of glass on the ground acted like little mirrors each with the dancing flames reflected in them. There were other pieces of debris she stepped over and around before she finally arrived at the command center. She didn’t want to look too closely for fear of what she might see.
The command center consisted of a Emergency Response Mobile Unit manned by both the fire department and the police department. They where giving instructions through walkie talkies, cell phones and police radios as she approached as well as getting updates and information on casualties and the extent of the damage.
“This is a restricted area,” The police officer, blocked her path as she neared the mobile unit. “You’ll have to leave.”
“I’m Brenda Chase from Channel 13 Eye on the News, can I speak to someone about what has happened here?” She looked over his shoulder towards an overweight older man wearing a fire cheif’s uniform. She took another step to approach the fire chief, but the officer blocked her progress. “Look, I’m only trying to do my job, let me talk to someone for 5 minutes, then I’ll be on my way.
The red flashing lights lite up the left side of his face as he held his ground. He had a microphone clipped to his shoulder which he activated, “Chief, a reporter from Channel 13 news is here, she wants to speak to someone for 5 minutes.”
She didn’t hear the reply because the officer had an ear piece similar to the one she used wedged into this right ear. “You got 5 minutes.” He turned to his left and pointed to an open door on the mobile unit, “The information liaison is in there, he can fill you in on what we know so far.” He stepped aside and let her proceed to the mobile unit.
She entered the unit to find several people seated before a bank of computer screens, phones and radios, they were all engrossed in their specific jobs. Some wore head phones while other had spiral wired ear pieces in their ears. As she stepped into the unit, a tall thin man spun his chair around and almost leaped out of his chair towards here. “Brenda Chase! I watch you on the news all the time.” He extended his hand in anticipation of a hand shake. He smiled as she took his hand. Her grip was very firm for a beautiful young woman which sort of surprised him. “I understand you want an update on the situation here?”
“Yes, that’s right.” She returned his smile, “I know you are very busy, so I won’t take much of your time.” She pulled a tablet and pen from her shoulder bag to take notes with, “Can you give me a brief overview of what happened, the extent of the damage and a casualty count?”
“Sure,” He pulled out his chair and offered it to her so she could sit while taking notes, “Would you like to sit down?”
She sat in the chair, placed her shoulder bag on her lap as a sort of table where she place the tablet and looked up at him awaiting the information she’d come there for.
“At about 3:07 a.m. the fire department received a call from the airport control tower indicating a commercial cargo plane was having engine difficulties as well as some problem with navigation and control surfaces. They indicated the plane was quickly losing altitude and substantially off course. They projected that the plane would crash somewhere in this vicinity in about 10 to 15 minutes. Most of the people in this area probably didn’t get the warning notice, so they probably didn’t know what hit them.” He paused for a moment.
“We dispatched the alert immediately, notified the police and emergency response teams.” The plane apparently nearly fell out of the sky as the impact crater took out several apartment complexes rather than blocks of them. As far as we can tell, several of the apartment buildings on the block of East Street at Second Street were totally destroyed upon impact. The apartment buildings as well as businesses in the surrounding area have also sustained damage from the explosion, fire and flying debris. We don’t have a fatality count yet, but we expect the number to be between 200 to 300 people.” He paused again with a lump in his throat at the thought of all the dead and suffering people.
“Right now, our primary objective is to put the fire out and keep it from spreading.” He apparently heard something in his ear piece, “If you have no further questions, I have work to do here.”
“I have a lot of questions, but this might not be the time to ask them.” She stood up, put the tablet and pen into her bag which she then hung from her shoulder, “Thank you very much for your time.” With that, she turned around and left.
– – –
The front page of the local news paper had a large picture taken during the early morning light the following morning of the aftermath showing a huge blackened hole with scattered debris everywhere. Several days later, another news paper article included a list of known casualties, amongst them where Cindy Justice and her son Justin Justice. The closing line to that article was a quote from a John Lennon song, “Life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans.”