Fire, 24-Hour News & the Scourge of Speculation

Yesterday’s shocking incidents in Boston where two explosions killed three people and injured at least 140 were shocking and deplorable.

But it was in the immediate aftermath that the problem of 24-hour news coverage reared its ugly head once more. When a news story as significant as this is developing, broadcasters push all other news aside (including the deaths of 31 people in a series of 23 coordinated bombings across Iraq in a single morning) and, with little information initially available, are forced to pick for scraps and clues, endlessly speculating on possible causes, consequences, and perpetrators.

In amongst the chaos and panic of the aftermath of this terrible incident — now being described as a ‘potential terrorist inquiry’ by the FBI — a third ‘bombing’ was also reported in another part of the city, at JFK Library. Possibly an explosion, this was now part of the developing narrative.

A confusing picture and series of events was emerging. We knew there were two, almost simultaneous, explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, and newswires were reporting controlled explosions being carried out across the city, as well as an incident at the library.

Now there was a fire in the library, but was this the result of a controlled explosion?

Police then came out in a press conference, just before 10:00 p.m. in the UK, and confirmed that they were treating the incident at the library as connected to the other two explosions.

Now things were more confusing.

What we do know
Police Commissioner, Edward F. Davis said in the press conference:

At this point in time we have determined there has been a third incident that has occurred. There was an explosion that occurred at the JFK Library, so this is very much an ongoing event at this time. We are not certain that these events are related, but we are treating them as if they are.

Since then, Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis has said:

The preliminary investigation indicates that the incident at the JFK may not have been an explosion. It may have been a fire.

The confusion about this is testament to the confusion that can occur in an ongoing and complex incident. The fire broke out at around 3:00 p.m., Eastern time, just 10 minutes after the two explosions in central Boston. It is the nature of an event as high-profile as this that confusion abounds and incidents that may or may not be linked, become inseparable.

Reports from the Boston Globe now suggest that the fire at the library was in the HVAC system. Evacuation of the building was calm and orderly, and no one was injured or killed in the blaze.

Those who kept their heads, at a moment when they would likely have been hearing about the explosions at the marathon, should be praised for staying calm and rational in this situation.

The same cannot also be said for the news networks, where the confusion of contradictory stories can have a devastating effect on the panic levels in people directly affected by this incident.

Click here to view Figure 1.

This screenshot from Google News shows the fast-changing picture on the Daily Mail. The first headline confirming a ‘THIRD’ explosion, the second confirming the fire is ‘UNRELATED’ — both link to the same story.

In this case, the misinformation was fed in part by the police chief, who clearly had good reason to suspect the incidents were linked. But one thing this does show is that one must be wary of jumping to conclusions on the cause of any fire.

This incident is suspected now to be an electrical fault, but investigations are, of course, continuing.

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