Citizen reporter shoots live video of house fire, claims to solve the crime

Rhoda Young, reporting live!

A woman in Norfolk, Va., saw a house on fire and immediately went into full TV journalist mode on Facebook Live, creating a video that has made her something of a sensation.

“We’re going live,” Young booms as the house burns in the background. “The house fire is in full active duty right now.... The house is fully engorged.”

Be warned, her narration of events is peppered with spicy words.

Young approaches a man sitting on the lawn across the street drinking a can of beer, the rest of a six-pack beside him.

“Red, blue and white ribbon beer,” Young informs her audience. “Oh, PBR.”

It turns out the burning house is that man’s house.

Young later says she has learned that the man was upstairs when the fire started and his hair was burned. She concludes he started the fire.

Shortly, the man is seen being arrested.

“Everybody is mad at me and I don’t know why,” says Young, who implores a local TV station to pick up her volunteer reporting.

The Virginian-Pilot later reported that Donald William Stricker III was charged with arson in the Nov. 27 fire.

This story was originally published December 8, 2017 at 11:01 AM with the headline "Citizen reporter shoots live video of house fire, claims to solve the crime."