Pulling back the curtain: Covering major spot news as it unfolds requires a team effort

The text alert was ominous.

"(ILL) Hampshire, IL| W/F| 300 Industrial Dr.| C-1401 o/s explosion in building P, now a structure fire, multiple victims req EMS, C-1401 is IC| 10:55"

Loosely translated, there was an explosion and fire in a building in an industrial area in Hampshire with multiple victims.

Director of Photography Jeff Knox had received the text from Incident Paging Network, a service we use to monitor breaking police and fire department calls. He forwarded it to City Editor Robert Sanchez at 11:03 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 21.

Reporter Susan Sarkauskas and I got calls to head to the scene at the W.R. Meadows Inc. facility on Industrial Drive. Sarkauskas was in Batavia. I was in Elgin.

At 11:37, Knox sent us another note after receiving this text:

"(ILL) Hampshire, IL| W/F| 300 Industrial Dr.| U/D: Chief 1401 advising CPR was in progress on 2nd victim, now pronounced deceased, helo canceled| 11:36"

"This is a fatal now," Knox wrote.

I was the first media member on the scene at 11:49 a.m. Unfortunately for me as a photojournalist, it was a scene without much to see. It was a sprawling, fenced complex with one way in. And that entrance was blocked by the Hampshire police chief. He told me the building in question was in a place that would be pretty much impossible to see from the ground. That being said, I walked part of the perimeter anyway. He was right.

I took some pictures of fire engines entering and leaving and uploaded the images to our system by around noon. I called Sarkauskas and told her there was nothing to see, but she was close and made the decision to come anyway. She verified that the Kane County Coroner's office was on their way.

At 12:11 p.m., we found out the Hampshire fire chief was going to brief reporters in about half an hour. The media contingent had swelled to several local television stations and another newspaper reporter and photographer.

While Sarkauskas and I tried to learn what we could at the scene, reporter Katlyn Smith reached out to the Hampshire village manager by phone, and he was able to share some details. By 12:26 p.m., we posted our first version of the story with a photo from the ground.

Knox called ABC 7 and got aerial photos taken from their helicopter showing the side of a building blown out. We republished the story with the new photographs at 12:49 p.m.

The promised news conference happened at about 1:25 p.m. It lasted about a minute and a half, and the chief didn't take questions. But he confirmed that one person was killed and another was in serious condition after a chemical explosion.

I hustled back to the car and relayed the info, then got to work editing the video. Once I uploaded it, Smith watched it to get direct quotes from the chief for the story.

By 1:49 p.m. the story was updated with the new details, video and more pictures.

We continued to update the story as details trickled in throughout the afternoon and after reviewing the company's OSHA violation history. Around 5:30 p.m. the coroner's office told us the name of the man killed in the explosion. Reporter Chris Placek updated the story.

The story received one last update at around 8:30 p.m. when W.R. Meadows company President Matthew Price called Sarkauskas to let her know the company had released a statement.

It was yet another example of how it takes a team effort to cover breaking news.