I’m putting this here, because I don’t think that there’s a definite answer to it. I was watching news coverage of the most recent bombings in Iraq, and the shot I saw was taken from a rooftop, overlooking part of Baghdad. You could see the plume of smoke from the first explosion rising when the reporter narrating the piece said, “Just 40 seconds later a second bomb went off.” At this point, the second bomb goes off. Okay, so how did they have a camera up on the roof in time to cover the blasts? Do they have cameras set up on rooftops just waiting to record blasts? Was it just luck? Or what?
Often, yes, they just get lucky. (If being close to an explosion is lucky.) If reporters are staying in a hotel, they can use their balcony as a vantage point, and quite possibly leave cameras set up and running, particularly if there’s any hint of trouble outside. And with the sheer number of cameras that must be in Baghdad, some of them will catch something.
In the first Gulf War, there was one case of a camera crew getting clear shots of cruise missiles flying overhead, at an altitude of a few hundred feet. Now that is lucky!