I don’t know for sure, but this seems rare — that a photojournalist for a TV news station would come forward to explain the context of a high-profile story.

In this video, WKTV’s Tim Fisher walks viewers through a deadly fire in West Utica, New York this week. Family members apparently accused the fire department of not doing enough to save those inside. A mother and her three children died in the fire. Fisher defends the firemen at the scene, recounting what he saw, heard and felt that day.

I am a photojournalist. I am obviously not a firefighter. But I have to present the narrative that I feel is accurate and true, the more so because one that I perceive to be clouded with emotion and grief has already been told, demanding another perspective.

. . .

I believe it is important, especially at this moment in our country’s history when public servants are being resented for what they earn or bargain for to see them at work as they truly are. Folks just like all of us, doing a hard days work. In this case it was a very intense job in which they faced “a clear and present danger”. Still, they did it and then went back to their firehouse to await the next call. We don’t even know their names.

Source: WKTV