FIRE BLAZES AT 3623 INDIA STREET

I awoke this morning to the sound of fire engine sirens at about 5:30 AM today. I got dressed and walked down India Street to see what was going on. As soon as I reached India I could see there was a huge fire burning a couple of blocks away. There were about five or six fire trucks at the scene by this time, however they must have just arrived as I could see flames leaping from the building as I walked closer. There was also a huge amount of black smoke which meant that the firemen had not gotten much water on it. The fire originated in an office space just above the Route 44 Skateboard Shop at 3623 India Street and before firefighters were able to put it out both businesses were total losses.

I talked to a guy that had a $3,500.00 Sony DV camera mounted on a nice tripod who was taping various scenes of the fire and I learned that he will sell his footage to one of the local television stations to be broadcast on their news. He didn't want to answer my question of how much he would be paid for it, so I assume that it is rather lucrative. He probably listens to police and fire department scanners and when he hears of something substantial going down, he goes to the scene of the incident and tapes it. He probably knows several of the news producers at the six local television stations that broadcast local news and arranges to sell his footage to them. He said it didn't matter if he had 20 seconds or 20 minutes of tape because he sold it to them at a flat rate.