Since yesterday I can see at least 3 or 4 new twitter feeds dedicated to the fire, one of which is from the LA Times. Because twitter is something that can happen totally by text messaging, it lends itself well to on the scene disaster reporting. Because twitterers can also track info via their text messaging on thier phones, they can also access the aid information going out without even going on the Internet.
I really appreciated your point about Wikipedia as a news outlet in itself. Is this called wikijournalism, wikireporting, hmmm?