Slow news week in the Manchester suburb of Timperley where the Sale and Altrincham Messenger reports on a culinary escapade gone wrong.
The real killer is in the last paragraph: “The damage was limited to the food in the saucepan.”
Saucepan fire makes hot news
Published 05 Oct 2012
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If I lived in Timperley, I’d want to know what my tax-funded firefighters were up to in my area, even if it wasn’t as saucy a call-out as you might imagine.
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The paper has really downplayed this. I’d have used a far more jazzed-up headline like “Kitchen blaze in Timperley”!!!
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Obviously not Woodward and Bernstein stuff but an entirely valid local story – as Tim says, part of the role of the local press is reflecting the day to day work of emergency services.
Can also imagine everyone in Deansgate Lane and surrounding area will have been speculating about why two fire engines were in their street – questions they should be able to turn to their local paper to have answered accurately. And so they can.
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On a serious point now, I do agree with the comments of Tim and Steve above.
The problem with web stories is they appear the same, whether it’s a front page splash or a simple two par-nib.
This “saucepan fire” story would have clearly been just a filler in the print edition (still important for locals to know what the fire service was up to, mind), but stick it online using the same template as “Double murder in Timperley” and it’s blown out of all proportion.
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Cut them some slack. Many papers don’t even have any contact with firefighters nowadays so at least they are bypassing the press officers. You can’t tell me people on that road wouldn’t be interested in knowing what happened.
I agree it isn’t a serious story but good on them for managing to find the time to upload even small stories on the website when they no doubt have suffered from cutbacks in recent years.
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The best one I ever had on the fire voicebank was 100 per cent damage to a toilet roll…
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Obviously there’s not been much to report in Timperley since the death of Frank Sidebottom.
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