Chicago firefighters killed: Reporting on news and history
Covering the Wednesday fire that killed Corey Ankum and Edward Stringer was an all-hands-on-deck enterprise from the Chicago Tribune. Reporters Joel Hood, Annie Sweeney and Stacy St. Clair got the bylines on the story, but look at the "shirttail" bylines at the end of the story:
Tribune reporters Serena Maria Daniels, William Lee, Carlos Sadovi, Cynthia Dizikes, Steve Schmadeke, Antonio Olivo, Erika Slife, Andrew L. Wang, Kristen Schorsch, Becky Schlikerman and Jeremy Gorner, and Pat Curry of WGN-TV contributed to this report.
Even that list fails to account for the brilliant photo work done by E. Jason Wambsgans and Chris Walker at the scene; Zbigniew Bzdak at Christ Hospital; Terrence Antonio James at the fire station and Corey Ankum's home, followed by Mayor Daley's tearful press conference; Heather Charles also at the firehouses; Phil Velasquez at Edward Stringer's house; William DeShazer at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Alex Garcia at the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.
In the newsroom
Tracy Van Moorlehem on the morning Metro desk and Breaking News editor Dan Haar were directing resources toward the developing story -- and taking feeds from reporters who just went. Deputy Metro editor Mark Jacob and others rushed in early. Charlie Meyerson, the news director at WGN Radio, was working with Jim Gudas, Judy Pielach, Ed Curran, Stephanie Esposito, Steve Bertrand, Andrea Darlas, Don Norton, Nicholas Thompson and Melissa Cadena -- all of whom were coordinating with the Breaking News desk. Laura Moran and Darcell Rockett gave the story dominant play on chicagotribune.com.
Jemal Brinson and Ryan Marx did this graphic for the newspaper. And Scott Stantis drew the cartoon at the top of this post. Last week, reporter Becky Schlikerman started working on the 100-year anniversary story for the Chicago Stockyards fire that killed 21 firemen.
Historical front page
Here's a look at how that front page looked, 100 years before history repeated itself.
-- Trib Nation
Join Trib Nation on Facebook for more of the how and why of Tribune journalism.