Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist swamped out in VBT fire

Among those whose apartments were destroyed by the May 24 fire at The Waverly on the Lake apartments in Van Buren Township was Pultizer Prize winning journalist J. Ross Baughman.
Baughman, 68, lived in apartment 102 in Building 34 and the water to fight the fire in apartment 302 cascaded down carrying ash and ruining many of his rare, signed, first-edition book collection, his collection of uniforms from the Revolutionary War until the present, his life’s archives of negatives and prize-winning photographs, and a collection of Leica cameras in leather cases on the floor.
There was eight inches of water in his apartment when the fire fighting ended.
Baughman won his Pulitzer Prize for his feature portfolio showing the brutal treatment of prisoners by Rhodesian Security Forces in the fall of 1977.
He said he had embedded himself as a journalist in 11 different conflicts throughout the world in his career. He explained that meant dressing in the military uniforms for the battle and accompanying soldiers with his camera and notebook.
Baughman said he went with 10 Palestinian commandos behind Israeli lines in March 1978 in South Lebanon, the first reporter allowed to be embedded with the PLO. There were no lights so he had to take time photos with his camera supported by a rock.
He has a scar on his leg, the result of surgery after stepping on a land mine in El Salvador. Doctors wanted to amputate, but decided to rebuild it using a new technique, which is now in a textbook. He said he was wounded many times during his career.
He saved the hats from each uniform and on Friday was wearing one he fished out of his apartment and washed. It was a Russian hat worn in a battle in Afghanistan.
Using observation skills honed over 50 years of reporting, Baughman described in detail what happened on May 24.
He said at about 6 p.m., there was a fire-chirping alarm in the hallway and the fire department went upstairs and later left.
Baughman said he was working at his computer at about 9 p.m. when the chirpy alarm in the hallway went off again. He said it was a pleasant melody and he went out into the hallway and checked the heat in the door across the hall, but it wasn’t hot. Then he smelled smoke and saw smoke coming down the stairwell.
Then residents were running, knocking on doors and calling, “Fire, fire. You got to get out.”
He said he grabbed his leather case containing key documents, including his passport and COVID immunization card from Meijer. He tried to call 911. He said he picked up the phone, but the line was out. He noted the electricity was still on.
There were no fire engines yet and he went out the door. He said it took about two minutes for him to go outside and he looked up. He said there was glow from the master bedroom two floors up in apartment 302.
He said across from his apartment in the building were apartments 101, 201, and 301. He said there were 11 apartments in Building 34 and at the end of the day they were all uninhabitable.
Baughman said he has no cellphone and he and others who had evacuated stood on the grass in front of the building and stopped cars driving by to ask them to call 911.
He said they had been outside 20 minutes before two fire fighters arrived in a small fire truck, he believes from the city of Belleville, but they were unable to access water at first. He said their hose was short and once it had water it couldn’t reach the blaze on the third floor.
At 9:40 p.m., one more truck arrived and then within the next 10 minutes, 15 fire vehicles were on the scene. He said once the ladder trucks with floodlights arrived, fire fighters were able to hose water down from above and at about 9:55 p.m., the stream “blows the roof off the place.” He said the building was well-dampened but the fire was not out.
He said he saw major beams and shingles falling down. Baughman said there were from 35 to 50 fire fighters at the scene, with some going inside and coming out and kneeling on the ground. He said the rooftop was gone.
He said he asked a police sergeant on the scene when they would be able to get inside again to get medicines and other necessities and one said 48 hours and another said four weeks.
“You’ve all got a sunroof now,” the fire marshal joked, Baughman said.
Baughman said the third floor was completely intact, but there was a lot of water damage and soon the place was being boarded up. He said he was dismayed the eight inches of water wasn’t pumped out before the boards went up. Since his was the lower apartment, five steps down, just opening the sliding door would have allowed the water to escape to the drain on his porch.
He said when he vacated his apartment he left his apartment door ajar for the smoke to escape and somebody closed his ajar door.
Since Baughman had no cell phone, a manager from the Waverly called Baughman’s sister, Mary Ann Bittner on North Liberty Street, to alert her that her brother was all right and would be coming to stay with her.
First thing in the morning, he visited his Progressive insurance agent at Clement Insurance on Main Street in Belleville. Then he took a nap. Since then he has dealt with his adjuster, the apartment ownership, and others to try to get his life back on track.
Baughman said his file cabinet was full of diaries that he had written since 1976 with comments in excruciating detail. He said his apartment also held a million negatives from his career from 1973 to 2021.
He said he remembered going to hear Doug Brown speak at the library before it moved to the new building last year. Brown was photographer for President Harry Truman and he and Baughman had a good conversation. He said those at the library heard them talking and the one in charge of programs invited Baughman to speak at the library.
“I am the guest speaker who never was,” Baughman said, noting as soon as the new library opened, COVID closed it down.
He said he is a teacher on ethics and has been on the staffs or visiting professor at University of Missouri Journalism School, New School for Social Research, New York University, Dartmouth, Rutgers, Yale, and others.
Baughman also is a fine artist and does drawings, paintings, and sculpture. He has his journalistic work in the Smithsonian and is the author of several books. He is working on a book having to do with paganism and Christianity.
Baughman said he also had a collection of sets of the 50 Life magazine covers holding his pictures, the layouts, and negatives. He liked to write deep-cover stories on controversial subjects and copies of his stories on the KKK, Hispanic gangs, gay rights, three strikes sentencing, and AIDs were in his apartment. He said his was the first story on AIDs in 1982.
According to the VBT Fire Department report on the fire at 48500 Denton Rd., there was $1 million property loss, $200,000 contents loss, and no casualties. Two Van Buren and two Belleville fire fighters suffered heat exhaustion and needed extended rehab.
Ignition was accidental and was in the bathroom off the master bedroom in apartment 301. The only heat source in this area is an electrical conductor. Pictures taken pre-fire show the conductor running to the bathroom fan.
Baughman said The Waverly is providing a new apartment for him. He has assembled a file containing detailed notes on the incident, a Freedom of Information Act response from the VBT Fire Department, insurance papers, businesses cards from everyone contacted during the event, and a copy of the Independent’s story on the fire.