24 hour news channels

I'm not sure about the way the television news channels handle "breaking news" stories. Turned on the TV this morning to hear about the oil depot explosion in Hemel Hempstead. Obviously of great importance to those in the immediate area, and of interest to the rest of the country, but it soon became clear that little was known other than that the explosion had happened and that the police were treating it as an accident. So then we had hours of waffle, phone interviews with anyone they could get hold of - none of whom could add anymore factual information - and commentary from a correspondent about a mile away who had nothing to report on other than what he could see, which was what we could all see on the screen. This was obviously an important story, but there must have been other news, and surely the better way of handling it was to keep going back to it on a regular basis, but otherwise continue with the other news. As I write, it is still the only story being reported on - and this five hours after the event. Sense of proportion required I think.