Your local paper: We're here when the fire's burning, and we're here when it's out

I couldn’t figure out the time stamp on Jenny Espino’s news update.

I had been sifting through Redding.com archives last December to find everything Record Searchlight journalists produced during the Carr Fire as I assembled a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize. It was the first time in my career that I’d been part of an effort I believed deserved consideration.

Jenny is the local editor for the R-S, but I knew she had also been in the field, working alongside her reporters.

That wasn’t the surprise. 

It was the time she posted her update: 2 a.m. on Thursday, July 26.

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By that evening, the fire would be blasting into Redding, igniting the very air around it in a hellish tornado not even the most committed and well-equipped firefighters could hope to confront. To remain in its path meant death.

But that morning there was still time. It was a luxury our neighbors in Paradise never had, a chance to save ourselves and our families, if not our homes.

At J’s Market in Shasta, Jenny found Shasta County Sheriff's Sgt. Rob Sandbloom.

"It's important to take these evacuation notices seriously,” he told her. His message to residents: “Get out of the area. There are very heavy winds right now. The fire is being fanned. The fire is moving."

I’d been so caught up in the fog of coverage, and evacuating my own family, that I hadn’t even noticed that that update was made in the wee morning hours. But Jenny had taken her watch as a solemn duty, without ever being asked. She never mentioned it, never asked for credit for working through that night, the next, and most of the one after.

I don’t have space to tell you the rest of the team’s stories. And I’m a little self-conscious about them anyway. I don’t mean to compare what we do to the men and women who stand face-to-face with the flames to protect us, or who race into burning neighborhoods to save those who didn’t get out in time.

But there’s so much changing in our business that I want you, our readers, to know that this is still a job that is driven by a sense of service and mission.

In my job now, I work with five USA TODAY Network newsrooms in three states. I’m constantly recruiting new journalists for those teams, and I always ask them the same question: When did you know you wanted to be a journalist?

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It’s a make-or-break question for me. I will never ask the people I work with to share the load with someone who hasn’t fallen ridiculously in love with the craft of reporting and telling stories. I think it’s the best work in the world and some of the most important.

At times like the Carr Fire when the community needs life-saving information quickly, we make it free to everyone. The rest of the time, we ask you to subscribe. A subscription — whether to the daily paper and digital access or just digital — is an acknowledgment of that value.

I have to admit, despite trying to keep a thick skin about it, I feel a little hurt when I see my friends and neighbors on Facebook reposting our stories in their entirety or saying they “can’t see” a story if it isn’t free. Many of these folks, I know, would never ask Dutch Bros. to give them a large iced mocha for free.

Coffee is what Dutch Bros. does for a living. Journalism is what we do for a living.

And our commitment goes far beyond the urgent moment of crisis.

Carr Fire recovery, 1 year later:Why hundreds of homes haven't been rebuilt

This week, even as we remember what happened one year ago, we’ll publish the results of an investigation Mike Chapman has been working on for most of that year. It shows first that plans were already on the books for several years to clear and fire-prep dangerous vegetation across vast swaths of the area that the Carr Fire ended up burning. But bureaucracy blocked that life-saving work.

And then it uses a first-ever analysis, conducted in partnership with the local firm ENPLAN, of the dangerous vegetation throughout Redding — and who owns these tracts that could potentially spread fire into neighborhoods nearby. There will be maps to explore, so you can check on your own neighborhood.

This is the kind of work I ask you to support with your subscription.

In communities across the U.S., local newspapers have dried up and gone away. We’re still going strong and plan to be here for a long time, with your support.

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Support local journalism not because it’s perfect — it isn’t. We make honest mistakes. We have our off days. There will always be something (maybe a lot of things) in the paper that offends your political sensibilities.

But when it comes down to it, we will always be here for you. That’s worth supporting. Here’s the link: www.redding.com/subscribe.

Silas Lyons is executive editor for USA TODAY Network newsrooms in Northern California, Nevada, and Utah. He supports dedicated teams of reporters who investigate wrongdoing, swarm breaking news and tell stories of triumph and human kindness. If you believe in this work, please consider a subscription.