Where should reporters draw the line in covering wildfires?

When covering wildfires, reporters juggle a desire to give audiences up-to-the minute information and a need to respect residents’ and first responders’ boundaries. What is the media’s responsibility in such fast-moving situations?

Just days after fire sparked in Northern California’s Klamath National Forest in late July, search and rescue workers arrived to sift through piles of ash where homes once stood. The fire had exploded with disconcerting speed to become the state’s largest of the year at that point, killing two people and scorching more than 100 buildings in the rural region.

Investigators...