Author: simon
Why Is The County Press Obsessed with Small Fires?
Thursday, 16th July, 2009 at 1:20 pm, Isle of Wight
OK … we’ve tried to hold off on this one for a long time … but we’ve just gotta say something before we burst (into flames?).
Have you noticed the County Press’ obsession with reporting small fires?
It appears that the good old CP are totally obsessed with them. The smaller the better.
Here’s a selection of the fires that they’ve reported in less than half of a month …
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Bus tyre on fire…
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Wheelie bin fire at caravan park…
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Grass fire near KFC site…
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Hedge on fire…
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Rubbish alight…
The ‘coverage’ normally consists of a couple of lines of text – not exactly setting the world alight (ha ha).
Here’s an example of the coverage from the ‘Grass fire near KFC story.’
STAFF at a fast food restaurant extinguished a small grass fire near Kentucky Fried Chicken, Newport, last night (Thursday).
Firefighters were called to the scene but the fire was out on arrival.
What IS it all about CP? Is there really nothing else of importance to write about?
It’s the firemen we feel sorry for having to go along to these incidents.
image: hermanturnip
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Hold hard – you’ve missed one of the best. A true classic, this one is on my pinboard:
‘BOX OF PAPER ON FIRE IN TOWN’ a box containing paper on fire in Regent St, Shanklin, was put out by firefighters on Tues. It happened at around 2.15 am.
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My theory is that News Biscuit have had a ’sleeper’ at the CP for years.
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I guess they have a mole at fire brigade HQ who helpfully provides details of all callouts. Easy stories that make it look like the CP is out and about …
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News is news! Unfortunately, the Isle of Wight is not always full of newsworth events, so there always needs to be a bit of padding.
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O please don’t stop reporting the lovely fires, even the small ones. I love to imagine the smoke and the heat amd the flames and the big shiney fire engines that come with their sirens blaring. It is so exciting. But my therapist says this is perfectly normal ..and my imaginery friend agrees
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Mr Sonist – this made me laugh a lot – Thanks.
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It’s standard local newspaper practice: Ring up the press officer of the local fire brigade/police/ambulance brigade once a week and get a list of the call outs. It fills space and is, within reason, newsworthy.
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I remember years ago showing my friend from London a typical IWCP fire story about firefighters being called to a flat in Ryde after smoke was reported, only to find that a pair of curling tongs had singed the carpet.
My friend was appalled. She lived in Tottenham and said someone had been stabbed there recently and it didn’t make the evening paper.
But you know what they say – if it isn’t in the County Press, it didn’t happen. I don’t read it any more, I subscribe to The Onion instead – http://www.theonion.com/content/node/49212 (audio).
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I remember a similar experience on the West coast of the US.
First a trip to Carmel saw the local sheet with a police report full of things like ‘a dog barking too loud.’
Next was Los Angeles, with the police report overflowing with shootings.
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Perhaps it’s no bad thing to live in a place where misfortune is so rare the local paper has to infill with the ‘hamsters dying in mysterious circumstances’ type of story.Auntie P’s friend should be appalled by the stabbing,not our peaceable existance.
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