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Watch police race against time to save 60 animals from a shelter

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Watch police race against time to save 60 animals from a shelter
News

News

Watch police race against time to save 60 animals from a shelter

2018-08-14 15:44 Last Updated At:15:44

The Nelson wildfire in California was threatening to burn the Solano County SPCA center.

Police took part in the rescue of 60 animals from a shelter under threat from a fire in California on Saturday.

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Online Photo

In body camera footage released by Vacaville Police Department, officers can be seen running to and from the Solano County SPCA building, collecting animals from their cages.

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Online Photo

Smoke from the fire looms in the background as the fire threatens to set the shelter on fire.

Luckily all 60 cats and dogs were saved by volunteers and police and taken into the care of generous locals. More people provided crates to move the animals and boxes of food to feed them.

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Online Photo

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Online Photo

The California fire service said the Nelson fire has been brought under control after burning through more than 2,000 acres of land and destroying one property. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Thanks to the efforts of the local fire department, the wildfire did not damage the shelter in the end, and volunteers are in the process of cleaning up and preparing for the animals to move back in.

NEW YORK (AP) — Video cameras stationed outside the Manhattan courthouse where former President Donald Trump is on trial caught the gruesome scene Friday of a man who lit himself on fire and the aftermath as authorities tried to rescue him.

CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC were all on the air with reporters talking about the seating of a jury when the incident happened and other news agencies, including The Associated Press, were livestreaming from outside the courthouse. The man, who distributed pamphlets before dousing himself in an accelerant and setting himself on fire, was taken to a hospital where he later died.

The incident tested how quickly the networks could react, and how they decided what would be too disturbing for their viewers to see.

With narration from Laura Coates, CNN had the most extensive view of the scene. Coates, who at first incorrectly said it was a shooting situation, then narrated as the man was visible onscreen, enveloped in flames.

“You can smell burning flesh,” Coates, an anchor and CNN's chief legal analyst, said as she stood at the scene with reporter Evan Perez.

The camera switched back and forth between Coates and what was happening in the park. Five minutes after the incident started, CNN posted the onscreen message “Warning: Graphic Content.”

Coates later said she couldn’t “overstate the emotional response of watching a human being engulfed in flames and to watch his body be lifted into a gurney.” She described it as an “emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment here.”

Fox's cameras caught the scene briefly as reporter Eric Shawn talked, then the network switched to a courtroom sketch of Trump on trial.

“We deeply apologize for what has happened,” Shawn said.

On MSNBC, reporter Yasmin Vossoughian narrated the scene. The network showed smoke in the park, but no picture where the body was visible.

“I could see the outline of his body inside the flames,” Vossoughian said, “which was so terrifying to see. As he went to the ground his knees hit the ground first.”

The AP had a camera with an unnarrated live shot stationed outside the courthouse, shown on YouTube and APNews.com. The cameras caught an extensive view, with the man lighting himself afire and later writhing on the ground before a police officer tried to douse the flames with a jacket.

The AP later removed its live feed from its YouTube channel and replaced it with a new one because of the graphic nature of the content.

The news agency distributed carefully edited clips to its video clients — not showing the moment the man lit himself on fire, for example, said executive producer Tom Williams.

Julien Gorbach, a University of Hawaii at Manoa associate professor of journalism, said news organizations didn't face much of a dilemma about whether to show the footage because there was little for the public to gain by seeing images of a man lighting himself on fire.

The episode highlights how fast information travels and the importance of critical thinking, Gorbach said.

“It outpaces our ability to a) sort out the facts, and b) do the kind of methodical, critical thinking that we need to do so that we understand the truth of what actually this incident was all about,” Gorbach said.

The location of the incident may have prompted some to think the self-immolation was related to the trial.

Gorbach, who was listening to MSNBC on satellite radio when it happened, said the coverage he heard was careful to question whether there was any connection to the trial. It also raised the possibility the man may have wanted to get media attention.

News organizations can't suppress the news just so the public doesn't get confused, he said. Word would get out regardless as non-journalists post accounts online.

“So it’s really a test of us as a public,” he said.

Associated Press writer Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed to this report.

In this image taken from video, bystanders react after witnessing a man who lit himself on fire was extinguished, Friday, April 19, 2024, in a park outside Manhattan criminal court in New York. Emergency crews rushed away a person on a stretcher after the fire was extinguished outside the courthouse where jury selection was taking place in former President Donald Trump's hush money criminal case. (AP Photo)

In this image taken from video, bystanders react after witnessing a man who lit himself on fire was extinguished, Friday, April 19, 2024, in a park outside Manhattan criminal court in New York. Emergency crews rushed away a person on a stretcher after the fire was extinguished outside the courthouse where jury selection was taking place in former President Donald Trump's hush money criminal case. (AP Photo)

New York Police officers inspect a backpack left at the scene where a man lit himself on fire in a park outside Manhattan criminal court, Friday, April 19, 2024, in New York. Emergency crews rushed away a person on a stretcher after fire was extinguished outside the Manhattan courthouse where jury selection was taking place in former President Donald Trump's hush money criminal case. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

New York Police officers inspect a backpack left at the scene where a man lit himself on fire in a park outside Manhattan criminal court, Friday, April 19, 2024, in New York. Emergency crews rushed away a person on a stretcher after fire was extinguished outside the Manhattan courthouse where jury selection was taking place in former President Donald Trump's hush money criminal case. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

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