LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - A veteran Los Angeles TV reporter wept on air Tuesday, moments after a firefighter rescued him from flames that engulfed his news van as he covered the California wildfires.
During a report charged with emotion, Chuck Henry of NBC-owned KNBC credited a single firefighter with saving him from thick smoke and flames that raged around him and his cameraman, Christopher Li, in the Lake Arrowhead area northeast of L.A. Both Henry and Li escaped injury, though the station's mobile broadcast unit was destroyed.
The rescue, which served to dramatically illustrate the very real dangers faced by reporters covering the fires, happened around 3 p.m. in the Skyforest area of Lake Arrowhead.
Henry's boss, KNBC vp-news director Bob Long, said Henry had been attempting to move the van from encroaching flames when the incident happened. "The engine would not start, and the smoke made it difficult to move in any direction." At that point, flames roared down on the van.
"A fireman called Chuck's name and hauled him out of the truck," Long said.
The TV van already was on fire when Henry was pulled out. A KNBC spokeswoman added: "(Henry and Li) saw a wall of flame and then heard a fireman calling Chuck's name. And the fireman came into the smoky area and got Chuck and Christopher and put them into a fire truck."
Long stressed that Henry and Li were among several TV news crews on the scene at the time. "Chuck knows what he's doing; he's been there before," he said. "It's not like he was all alone; he was with colleagues and firefighters. Fires are very dangerous things."
Henry went live on air immediately after the dramatic rescue to deliver a tense account of his narrow escape and credited the fireman with saving his life. Fellow KNBC reporter Kyung Lah, with photographer Joel Cooke, assisted Henry in relaying his report as Henry's broadcast unit went up in flames close by.
Commenting on Henry's riveting live report immediately after his rescue, Long said: "Yes, it was emotional. It's what it is. You are emotional, or you are not. I think he was very grateful that he was pulled out of a bad situation, and the impression I had was that he was feeling real sorrow for people losing homes when all he lost was a truck. I think he was trying to reassure us that in the scheme of things, his inconvenience was minor compared to the cost (incurred by) thousands of people that he had been reporting on. He was trying to put things in perspective and that was what he was crying about -- not having his coif singed or losing a microwave truck.
"Everything (Henry) did today was to his credit, and he was not sad for himself but for the destruction -- and that makes him human," Long said.
A KNBC spokeswoman added, "We are glad that they are safe and very thankful to the firefighter who assisted Chuck and Chris."
Henry was not immediately available to comment on his close call.
