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Straight news on tire fire is what is essential

During an emergency situation like the one created by the tire fire near Sycamore, people don't want their news to be any worse than warranted.

They also don't want it sugar coated.

The latter appears to have been the case with Environmental Protection Agency reports during and after the tire fire.

For some reason, the bad news about the effects of the fire were downplayed.

Despite writings in the government's own documents about the poisons that are introduced into the air and water during a tire fire, those dangers went unmentioned during reports to the public. Emphasized were monitoring reports that the concentrations detected did not pose a health threat.

Although it is good that the concentration of toxins in the air dissipated by the time monitoring started, the airborne poisons were released. They found their way somewhere.

Reports on the effects of liquids escaping the fire scene also were downplayed. Now, it appears that the arrival of those liquids in streams caused the death of thousands of fish instead of just a few.

There also is the matter of precautions instituted for firefighters and others working at the fire scene. It appears that the recommendations about how such workers should be protected &emdash; as spelled out in government documents &emdash; were not followed or communicated.

Again, we're not suggesting that the dangers should have been made to sound a bit worse than they were.

They should, however, have been portrayed to be as bad as they were ... and are.

Instead, what we have been seeing is the acknowledgment of the severity of the dangers, piecemeal as the days pass and those dangers are pointed out by others.

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