A late-night phone call never brings good news.
Every time the phone goes off at that hour, that softball-size knot that seems to have taken up permanent residence in my stomach gets a little bigger.
That was no different last night, when the phone ran about 20 after 11. It was my ace photographer Pete Bannan, who gave me the news of the devastating fire at the Barclay Friends assisted living center in West Chester.
That started a combination of events that resulted in tearing up a perfectly good front page of the Daily Local News in West Chester to get in news of the fire.
I usually spend a lot of time cursing technology, but I have to admit that when it comes to breaking news, I am glad we're still not operating in this dinosaur days of the newspaper racket.
Of course, that does not mean we ignored print. We had just enough time to get a short story and photos in the print edition.
Then we went to work updating the story online in the overnight hours.
The fire was devastating, sending elderly residents out into the cold, many of them still being wheeled out in their beds and wheelchairs.
You can get the update here.
At this point, officials are saying about 20 people were injured. Another 100-plus were evacuated.
One of the great things that happened is how the community rallied.
Neighbors who live in the area where the Barclay is located showed up with blanket, water, and coffee.
These are people they consider neighbors.
We'll be updating the story today and through the weekend.
But as awful as it looked, it also showed a community that rallies together in the worst of circumstances.
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