Visible crew/equipment: When Brian is coming up the lawn to the back door to visit Helen, you can see Ron Howard and the film crew clearly reflected on the back door window.
Visible crew/equipment: When the fire-fighter is wrestling with the arsonist in the house (the arsonist gets a electrical outlet outline burned into his shoulder blade), they get blown off the front porch onto the lawn. In the cinema you could see a blue crash pad for the stuntman to the extreme left of the shot, but in the widescreen video you can't really see it, so they could have edited it out.
Visible crew/equipment: When Jennifer Jason Leigh goes into her boss's office you can clearly see an 'X' of duct tape on the floor in front of his desk to mark where she is supposed to stand for that scene.
Answer: Local photographer could have been monitoring emergency calls. A fire is a big visual, and the photo sold to a wire service or Life directly.