By Miles Layton
Having covered many fires, I always felt bad for the folks who lost everything and couldn’t go home.
Since I’ve lived much of my life around college campuses, particularly in Athens, Ohio, I’ve seen universities help students in times of need when tragedy struck.
For example, a story that always stuck with me — after a fire displaced several students at a duplex on West State Street a couple of years ago in Athens, a reliable rumor had it that the landlord offered homeless residents token, low-dollar gift cards to a big-box store — laughable. Thank God that Ohio University reached out to assist those students in their time of need.
Remembering that, I contacted Ohio University to find a silver lining in last weekend’s fires and touched base with my alma mater, East Carolina University.
After the story, I share my thoughts about fire coverage and journalistic responsibility.
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ECU, Ohio University Serve as a Safety Net
First, the Pirates — located in Eastern NC, ECU has around 28,000 students, the majority of whom live in off-campus housing. Some students live in nice, new apartments, while others live in homes, perhaps built in the early 1900s. That said, fire doesn’t discriminate — it’s an equal opportunity destroyer no matter where you live.
If a fire displaces students, what is next?
“Our Campus Living office will try to assist students if space is available. Our Dean of Students office is also available to work with students who find themselves in challenging situations to help meet their needs and to provide resources,” said Steven Grandy, Public Communications Specialist at ECU News Services.
Meanwhile, in Athens, Ohio University has around 25,000 students, most of whom live in off-campus housing surrounding the university. In some cases, the housing they live in is old because OU, founded in 1804, was the first university in the Northwest Territory — graveyards on West State and Union streets testify to that history. Anyway, much like Greenville, there are some older homes in town, including the ones that caught fire around a week ago, displacing eight people, including OU students.
University officials say they are providing housing and support services to students displaced by two off-campus fires that occurred last weekend in Athens.
“Ohio University is aware of two off-campus fires that occurred last weekend, including one on Friday evening (1/30) and another early Saturday morning (1/31),” said Dan Pittman, Senior Director of Communications for Ohio University. “Our Division of Student Affairs has been in contact with each of the eight affected students, and many of the parents and families of those who were impacted, to offer emergency housing assistance, community resources and available emotional and well-being support services.”
Pittman said the university was relieved that no one was injured and expressed appreciation for local emergency responders.
“We’re deeply relieved that no injuries were reported, and we remain grateful for the quick response of the Athens Fire Department and other local first responders who work tirelessly to help keep our community safe,” he said.
Moreover, there are a few GoFundMe pages initiated by folks affected by the fires – they’ll raise more money than those folks from my story about the gift cards.
Flashback – Firefighters battled two structure fires in frigid temperatures Friday evening and into Saturday morning, displacing eight residents and prompting responses from multiple emergency agencies – Albemarle Observer was the first news outlet to report on the fire.
Our Response After Reading Athens County Independent’s Letter: What is journalism’s role in covering breaking tragedy?
After reading Athens County Independent Editor Corinne Colbert’s Letter to the Editor (herself?), I felt compelled to write a response.
Yes, I agree with her on some points about reporters working long hours, perhaps unpaid, to cover breaking news.
In November of 2023, there was a fatal house fire on Thanksgiving on Rainbow Lake Road outside Athens that resulted in the loss of five lives. The only reason I found out about the fire was that former Athens News Editor Terry Smith texted me with that news tip on Thanksgiving Day. I didn’t have much information about what happened, and details were slow to come in because of the holiday.
That said, after I started making some calls, we soon discovered that it was the deadliest fire in decades in Athens County, maybe even in Southeast Ohio. My wife and I drove out to the site of the tragedy soon after sunrise that Friday morning to get pictures of the smoky remains of the home – you could still smell the smoke in the air.
After the Thanksgiving fire – I didn’t complain. I didn’t make excuses. Instead, my wife (Athens Messenger editor) and I (Region editor) did our jobs because that’s what journalists do.
Let’s start from the beginning about last weekend’s fire – the Albemarle Observer broke the story – a coastal Carolina news site. Let that sink in.
I didn’t want to write the story – I waited and waited, but I didn’t see anything posted to the web by the corporate media or any news outlet in Athens in the aftermath of the fire, so I wrote a basic fire story, nothing expansive.
Because we’re based in coastal Carolina, I didn’t write the story for the clicks; I wrote it because I thought people in Athens needed to know there were two fires and that their fire department, along with other first responders, were quite busy Friday night/Saturday morning. Firefighters deserve a gold star for their service to the community.
Though no one died or was injured in those fires, I knew then that the story about people being displaced was important to the community, which may have had questions about what happened. I still have lots of friends in Southeast Ohio who text or call when they want the news.
That said, I think everyone would agree that not every fire needs or deserves news coverage – it depends on the severity and property damage. Do I miss stories from time to time, yes – all journalists do.
However, when something is not posted to the web in Athens, I’ve always wondered if other news outlets based in other cities have noticed the same thing about Athens-area news events and thought, “Why isn’t there a story on the web? That’s weird.” Remember the explosion at the Austin Powder plant in Vinton County — I think the Columbus Dispatch may have been the first to break that story, even though it’s in Athens’ backyard.
Did you know that two people died in a fire on Friday near Athens County’s border with Meigs County, probably not because there’s nothing posted in the local print media. And we’re not talking about a fire deep in the heart of the country, but one that’s maybe a 15-minute drive away from the Athens Messenger. Trust me, the story has ties to Athens County.
Seeing nothing posted, I sent a few texts, including one to the Meigs County Sheriff, to confirm what had happened – I have friends from that end of the world who wanted to know what happened. I waited to see if anyone in Athens had the story — but there was nothing for hours until WOUB picked it up.
And then there’s the letter’s remark about how the nature of news is changing because of the advent of social media. True, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a job to do.
Corinne, I get it – I do. I respect what you folks are doing at the Athens County Independent. I remember times when people (I’m sure you know some of these folks) were unfairly critical of Nicole and me — why didn’t we cover this or that? However, there’s only so much you can do — I understand what it’s like to manage a small staff.
And I understand that reporters need a life and time to break away from the job.
Despite our pleas, we were so understaffed at the Messenger that Nicole was in tears some days because there was no help in sight. To give her some relief, I had to do double duty with the Circleville and Athens newspapers. Even when we were on “vacation” we were still writing and managing the copy flow because we were so understaffed. We never had time for family unless our kids were at an event that we were covering. We were saving the company money, so nobody noticed, nobody cared.
As my father lay dying next to me – I was still working on a laptop on a table next to him.
Our son, Robert, said to us, “Work is not more important than family.” He’s right.
That said, media outlets have a duty to gather news, even when events don’t seem that important or happen on the weekends, because these stories always affect someone and serve as a working draft of local history.
Last thing – I may be covering happenings in Athens from time to time because I want to stay connected to the people and places in that area, and perhaps to add a voice to those places in rural America who need their stories told.
