John Strickler was working Saturday morning as the photographer on duty for the weekend when he heard a police dispatch for fire in a storeroom at the rear of 261 High St. Grabbing his camera and his video recording equipment, he ran down the steps and into the alley behind The Mercury. When he saw the black smoke rising near Lastick Furniture, he picked up the pace.
Strickler ran down the alley behind the burning building at the same time as the first police getting to the scene and seconds before the first fire truck rounded the corner. As firemen worked to get to the flames, Strickler was at work taking photos for the print edition with one camera, then video for the web site with another.
Racing to the front of the building, he shot the flames as they burst through the Dollar Beauty store.
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Business editor Michelle Karas spent Saturday morning at Midas Muffler getting the exhaust system in her car repaired after hitting a deer carcass the night before on Route 422.
As she left to return home, fire trucks came racing past her. "I looked up, saw the smoke over High Street, and pulled over," she said. Karas grabbed a notebook and went to the scene, writing down details for a story she knew another reporter would write later that day.
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Borough hall reporter Evan Brandt was washing dishes in the kitchen of his home across town when his wife spotted the smoke spiraling into the sky. "I think St. Al's is on fire," she said, referring to St. Aloysius Church several blocks from their home. Brandt thought it might be coming from the Pottstown School District administration building at Penn and Walnut streets.
A phone call to a neighbor confirmed that the fire was downtown.
"You're going in to work, aren't you?" said Brandt's wife with a sigh.
He spent the rest of the day on High Street talking to firemen and onlookers for a front-page story.
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Police reporter Brandie Kessler was at a family luncheon celebrating her sister's college graduation in Bethlehem when she got a call from Karas to alert her to the fire. Although not due in to work until 2 p.m., Kessler hustled her family through their meal so she could get on the road.
Upset that she had missed the start of the action, she made up for lost time interviewing people evacuated from their apartments, fire officials and business owners.
After writing her story for the next day's editions, she went back to the smoky scene at night looking for more detail to report.
Kessler was headed out of town the next day for a cruise to the Caribbean with friends, but was she gloating? No, she was lamenting the "follow stories" that she would miss the chance to write.
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Sunday editor Chuck Pitchford was at home when I called him around 12:30 to alert him about the news of the day. He knew the page configuration for Sunday's paper by memory, so we could determine if there was enough space for color photos.
Pitchford came into the office a little later to discover the power was out and computers down because of the fire. His plans to get off to an early start were waylaid. But by 5 p.m., he was placing photos on pages, writing headlines and packaging the four pages of coverage.
About 7 p.m., a computer glitch caused another delay in page layout, and the atmosphere in the newsroom got a bit testy. But pulling together and helping each other through a crisis is what we do best.
By 9 p.m., Pitchford was down to the fine-tuning of the presentation our readers saw the next day: "FIRE DESTROYS HALF A BLOCK."
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Bob Morris learned about the fire in a phone call from his son and hustled into town to "protect" the building. Morris is The Mercury facilities manager, and through rain, sleet or smoke, he takes care of this corner. Morris quickly shut down the heating system so that the smoke filtering up the alley and into the building through a freight elevator opening would not permeate through the vents. It was smoky in here, but it would have been much worse.
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Publisher Tom Abbott made the drive from Delaware County to make sure we were okay. Circulation director Rich Miller was on the phones, raising the press run numbers for Sunday. We remembered to post a story and photo to the Web, then updated with video. Circulation crews hit the streets Sunday morning, replacing papers in boxes as quickly as they sold out. A record number of people visited our Web site to view the video.
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This was how we report on a fire in Pottstown. Morning, afternoon, and evening, seven days a week, the news doesn't stop.
Neither do the fine people who bring you The Mercury and pottsmerc.com