Senseless

I never really understood the Beavis and Butthead series on MTV, but I do remember hearing them say, "fire, fire, hehehehe." Maybe that's what was on the minds of some Clemmons teens accused of 135 counts of various lawless acts. They're charged with blowing up mailboxes, burning port-a-jons, breaking into churches and spraying cars and people with fire extinguishers, among other things. They'll have plenty of time to think about what they've done as the felony counts against them will stay with them the rest of their lives.

Brent and I must've been placed on arson duty this week as we broke this story Wednesday night, followed up on it Thursday and then today...

I found myself gettin' down and dirty in some burned out houses and barns. It seems Stokes and Forsyth counties are working together to find some arsonists. A person, or persons, is going around setting abandoned houses and outbuildings on fire. Why anyone would find pleasure in something so juvenile is beyond me. I don't know if someone's out there watching the fire department come and put out the fires but if that's the case, I'm sure the volunteers could use some help. Maybe this person could do some good and help out.

After Brent and I interviewed the Stokes County Fire Marshal we headed to one more house that had been torched. It used to be a big old country farm house. All that remained were the two tall chimneys soaring above the ruins.

As I started shooting, something jumped out at Brent and I. What was that noise? Ding, ding, ding. The old tin roof was banging against itself in the breeze. If there's one thing that gets television journalists fired up it's nat sound. You know, the little breaks in the story where you just hear something coming from the background and all of a sudden it jumps out and grabs you. That's a nat sound break. Here's how we captured this one...


I had to lean out there and put the mic up close to the sound because it just wasn't quite loud enough for the nat mic on my camera to pick it up. Ahhh, the things we go through to bring the story home.