A meteorologist has been hailed a “legend” after continuing to report on live TV despite a fire breaking out in the studio.
Noah Simmons, a weather reporter at CBS affiliate KFSM-TV, was covering tornado threats in Arkansas on June 6 when the newsroom started to fill with smoke.
In footage shared on social media, Simmons is shown pulling his shirt over his face and continuing his work regardless.
“So we just had a fire in the studio, but we got two tornado warnings, so we gotta keep tracking this and covering this live,” he said.
His story made it to the CBS evening news, with the network posting a video about his reporting in an Instagram clip captioned “He kept his composure even as the smoke started to get thicker.”
One of the comments under the video said: “He wanted to make sure people were informed so they would be safe, what a legend.”
Another added: “A hero but next time get a wet cloth to put over your face.”
Simmons later took to a Facebook livestream to explain what happened, adding: “There was a lot of behind the scenes stuff that you guys couldn’t see.”
He explained that during the report he “noticed that some lights started flickering in the studio and I figured that is not a normal thing to happen…about five ten seconds later I start to smell a bit of smoke.
“That’s not normal…then about five seconds later I noticed the light in the studio actually caught on fire.”
The reporter clarified that in the video of the incident he used the word “lamp” but what he meant was a studio light in the ceiling which had caught fire. He added that he was the only person in the studio at the time.
Simmons also stressed that he wasn’t breathing in smoke from the fire. The smoke seen engulfing him on TV was from a fire extinguisher.
His producer Trevor used the extinguisher and “put the fire out in a great way, in a very efficient way.”
The reporter said he made a snap second decision that he felt safe enough to keep covering the tornado warning due to the public importance of spreading tornado news.
The storms were rated as EF1 which means they could cause moderate damage, including roofs surfaces being peeled off and mobile homes potentially being overturned.
More details here...
