A Pulitzer Brings Bittersweet Pride to Santa Rosa

Ted Appel was in his pajamas when the firestorm struck.

It was 10 p.m. on Oct. 9 and what would become the most destructive wildfire in the history of California was bearing down on the city of Santa Rosa. Appel, the managing editor of the local newspaper, The Press Democrat, had to act fast.

“I pulled reporters out of bed,” Appel said, thankful that he’d been alerted to the inferno by veteran photographer Kent Porter. “We posted our first story at 12:35 and updated it 18 times by 6 a.m.”

The PD, as the daily is known, quickly had 14 reporters and four photographers in the field.

“Our people,” he said, “were in the teeth of it.”

The firestorm lasted 30 days, killing 40 people and destroying more than 6,100 homes. Appel recalls an exhausting grind — part war zone, part marathon — that engulfed every member of his staff. The line between duty and safety soon blurred: Evacuated reporters slept in the newsroom; dogs and children ran between the desks.

“This wasn’t just a big news story for us,” Appel said. “This happened to people we knew; it happened to our town.”

For its “lucid and tenacious coverage” of the wildfires, the staff of The Press Democrat was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting. It beat out The Houston Chronicle, for its coverage of Hurricane Harvey, and The New York Times, for its reporting of the mass shooting in Las Vegas.

Since the announcement this week, pride in the locally owned, 121-year-old newspaper has swelled.

“It’s been a shot in the arm for everybody,” Mayor Chris Coursey said.

The executive editor, Cathy Barnett, started at The Press Democrat as an intern 40 years ago.

“I’ve never seen our staff do this kind of work, nor have I seen our community respond like this,” she said by phone Wednesday. “There was sincere gratitude that we were relentless in those first days, especially in our digital report, letting people know the danger and devastation.”

The city is still rebuilding, and the process has been painful.

“We deserve to celebrate, but we are always mindful of the loss and destruction here,” Barnett said. “We didn’t just blow into town to win a Pulitzer. We were part of it.”