Quick on the draw

A Navy fire engine ran off the road into a Virginia Beach ditch at about 9:15 a.m. Friday morning, injuring four firefighters.

Cindy Clayton jumped on the story and reported initial details that were posted online precisely at 11.17 a.m.

Of the three local news Web sites -- wvec.com, wtkr.com and wavy.com -- only WAVY reported the story earlier. That site doesn't time-stamp news, so I can't tell when the story was posted there, but they couldn't have beaten us by much.

Cindy's quick response to this breaking news story shows why the other local media -- who tend to think they "own" breaking news, especially in the morning -- have started to look over their shoulders to see The Pilot is gaining on them.

Afternoon update: Our friends at WVEC finally posted a story about the accident at 12:37 p.m. As of 2 p.m., WTKR was still a no-show.