California’s Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office has threatened criminal action against a TV news crew for bringing a civilian into the McKinney Fire evacuation zone in their news van and stepping onto private property within the burn area where a deceased individual was found. The agency also accused the news crew of “televising the information prior to law enforcement properly processing the scene and notifying the family.”
“This is unacceptable and disrespectful to fire victims and their families and will NOT be tolerated,” the sheriff’s office wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, ABC News aired a news clip showing chief national correspondent Matt Gutman in the back of a news van with a Siskiyou County resident and walking around the charred remains of a home that she says was her uncle’s property.
“My uncle was sitting right there in that chair, I think, that is no longer there,” she says.
“Have you heard from your uncle?” Gutman asks.
“No, he died, he had to have died. He lived right there,” she says, pointing to the rubble. Although the broadcast clip does not show it, both the sheriff’s office and an ABC News spokesperson confirmed that a body was found at the site.
Riverfront property in the community of Klamath River left in ruins after it burned in the McKinney Fire in the Klamath National Forest, Calif., on Aug. 1, 2022.
DAVID MCNEW/AFP via Getty ImagesWhile the sheriff’s office didn’t name the news agency being criticized in its Facebook post, sources told SFGATE it was the ABC News crew. In addition, several professional wildfire photographers called out the news agency on social media. Kent Porter, a photographer for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat who regularly covers wildfires, posted the video taken by ABC News on Twitter and accused the news crew of creating “their own news.” In a separate Tweet, he wrote, “@ABC news, you should question the crew you sent in to the fire zone.”
In a statement to SFGATE, an ABC News spokesperson said that the crew had permission to visit the areas. “Officials gave ABC News permission to cross the fire line,” he said. “A resident gave us permission to be on the property where the house had burned down. … As soon as the residents discovered the body, our team notified law enforcement.”
The McKinney Fire ignited near the California-Oregon border on July 29, quickly exploding into a raging monster that has killed four people and destroyed more than 100 homes as it’s torn through 58,668 acres, according to the US Forest Service.
In the Facebook post, the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office wrote that the impacted area is being treated as a crime scene, because the fire’s “cause and origin are still under investigation.” While California law allows press access to disaster scenes, active crime scenes are excluded.
The sheriff’s office also said that the home had not yet been processed by investigators and search teams when the media crew visited; when officials did access the area, according to the post, they found a deceased person on the property that “media had disturbed.”
“Since we are actively checking structures and properties for deceased individuals, and conducting various law enforcement investigations, it is imperative media respect the necessary restrictions on private property and stay on public property that has been cleared for media access,” the sheriff’s office said.
Amy Travis, a spokesperson for the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office and the Office of Emergency Services, told SFGATE that the incident is still under investigation and the agency isn’t naming the media crew involved. Travis said media crews can receive permission to access roadways through burn areas, but they’re not allowed to walk into crime scenes or bring civilians into these areas.
“We haven’t determined whether we’re going to press charges,” Travis said.