Fox TV Reporter Aids in Effort to Revive Fire Victims : Television: Christina Gonzalez abandoned role as an observer to help rescuers in Westlake, then reported on the fatal scene for KTTV-TV Channel 11 news.

As a reporter, Christina Gonzalez says it is always in the back of her mind that she is not supposed to get involved in the stories she covers. But when the KTTV-TV Channel 11 newswoman arrived at the scene of an apartment fire in Westlake on Monday and saw all the bodies on the ground, she dropped her notebook and joined the rescue effort.

Gonzalez, a former medical student who once worked in the emergency room of a Miami hospital, was asked by a firefighter to help. She began administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation on one man and two children who had been carried unconscious from the burning building. The firefighter and Gonzalez were able to get a heartbeat on the man and one of the children.

Although she was able to pull and suck a good deal of ash and debris from the other little girl’s body, she was unable to get a heartbeat before an ambulance took the child away.

Tom Capra, general manager of Fox-owned KTTV, said Tuesday that the child had died, but he praised Gonzalez for her humanitarian efforts. So did news director Jose Rios.

“She responded as you hope any human being would respond,” Rios said. “She tried to save a life.”

Shaken and near tears during a phone interview Tuesday, Gonzalez said she would do the same thing all over again.

“My only hesitation was, ‘Do I know what I’m doing?’ ” she said. “Then the fireman near me said, ‘Concentrate,’ and then it was just trying to save the little girl. I was conscious of my camera in case he needed me. I asked the camera not to roll on me because I didn’t want to become part of the story. It’s not the right thing to do.”

KTTV producers asked her to talk about her experience during her live stand-up from the scene on the 10 p.m. news, but Gonzalez declined.

“I could see the concern of having people misinterpret her actions,” Rios said. “If you are a reporter, there already is a certain celebrity that goes with that, and somebody could think you’re just doing it to be a star. That wasn’t the case.”

Rios initially balked when he saw his reporter performing CPR on the scene Monday afternoon via a live helicopter shot on another station. He immediately had Gonzalez beeped, telling her to “get out of there.” Gonzalez ignored the message and continued her efforts to resuscitate the child.

“I couldn’t stop,” Gonzalez said. “I’m still seeing that child’s face.”

Sources at the station said that Gonzalez, who was covered with dirt and vomit and had to borrow a jacket to do her report, was upset with the order when she returned to the station.

Tuesday, she was back at work, completing a report on Americans dying in Mexican prisons. She said that no one reprimanded her for disobeying the order.

Rios explained that he had beeped her because he did not know if the reporter had been trained in CPR nor if fire officials had requested her help.

“When you have a tragedy of that scope, you feel hopeless, and if you’re not trained for it, you may do more harm than good,” Rios said. “I just wanted to make sure that she had the proper training and that the firemen wanted her to assist.”