News can be absolutely gut wrenching at times and freakishly stressful under extremely tight deadlines. The fact is we all have multiple personalities… we do. We are all crazy. In one moment we can be in tears, intense emotional pain over the horror we just witnessed and will somehow report… in the next minute… someone in the crew will crack a joke that’s so funny, you belly-laugh until your whole body cramps and tears run down your face.

Video on Demand

Watch the prank

And let me tell you, if you didn’t laugh from time to time, you’d cry. You’d cry day in and day out until there was nothing left. So, a wicked sense of humor goes a long long way. When I was in Journalism School in Boston, a professor promised our class, “Once you are out there, in the field working and you get to know senators, governors, and other important people. If you are given the choice to attend a dinner party with those folks or attend a dinner party with a group of reporters, you’ll pick the reporters. They are a lot more fun!”

And with all due respect to any elected official who reads this… my professor was right. Most news people are half out of their minds and it shows in some of the twisted comments, thoughts and jokes that inevitably cheer us up every day. I love that. And I’m starting to realize, that we are not alone… that our friends at the Charlotte Fire Department have a pretty good sense of humor, too. And I have evidence! It happened on one of these blistering hot days when I was assigned a story on (guess what?) the heat!

Photojournalist Kevin Ridley and I were LIVE at 11pm in front of Charlotte Fire Station #10. And as soon as we were clear from the air, the firemen came out to visit. That’s when their plan was hatched. At the end of this forever long, hot day, these firefighters were ready to play a practical joke on two of their guys and apparently they needed our help. While I felt slightly guilty…. for a second or two… I agreed. Our role was to conduct a mock interview with two of the fire fighters about working in the heat. While we conducted the interview, the rest of the fire house would load up a bucket of water, carry it to the roof and dump it on them (see, it’s a refreshing prank, too! – we really are thoughtful!) Once the interview began, it seemed to take forever. I was running out of questions. There is only so far you can go when grilling someone about the heat. I was trying not to laugh and was fighting off the guilt…. the more I talked to them, the worse I felt… but then I got the sign, to back up and back up fast. We jumped out of the way… as the water poured down on them. We captured the whole thing on tape and even took a class photo! Take a look! And a note to my bosses, the equipment didn’t get wet and as a bonus I did not charge you overtime! See, I really am throughtful!

Stay Cool. I’ll get back to more serious blogging when temperatures cool. And thanks to Charlotte Fire for making us laugh!

Send me an e-mail, story idea, news tip, or thoughts on what I should blog about next to acrowley@wcnc.com

These are the key CFD players who played the prank!

FF David Lambert target 1 (aka, FOB "fall out boy")

FF Ryan Creed target 2
FF Chris Blackburn Thunder (roof top water bucket tech)
FF Steve Pritchard Lighting (roof top water bucket tech)
FF Deany Phillips target locator and Intel Analyst
Engineer Denise Petraske ground level flood control and extinguisher tech
Captain Kenny Currran The unsuspecting supervisor who never condones such activity…"I told them not to do it"