Twenty-five years ago this week, those who picked up copies of The Newtown Bee were face-to-face with the sight of a burning vehicle on I-84.

The fact that Bee Publisher R. Scudder Smith was able to get to the highway while that vehicle was still burning shows tremendous speed in his response, second only to the state troopers and firefighters who were already on the scene, as evidenced by Scudder’s front page photo.

The photo ran in the prime location of that week’s paper. It was front and center, above the fold — and at five columns wide, it took up a lot of prime real estate.

But the editorial staff that week presented that photo — and two equally strong images in the paper’s inside pages, showing the aftereffect of the fire and the crumpled remains of a second vehicle that had been crashed into — not to horrify readers. The presentation of those images illustrated even better than any of the words written to accompany them just how horrific a wrong-way crash on the interstate one early Saturday morning was.

A Honda coupe that was traveling west in the eastbound lanes near Schoolhouse Hill Road crashed into a westbound Oldsmobile sedan. Two men were killed, and three seriously injured, that morning.

We are occasionally asked why we continue to print photographs showing fires, crashes, and other emergencies. Our answers today are still in line with what was stated in an editorial 25 year ago: The photos serve as graphic illustration of what it looks like when bad things happen.

Most of the photos, especially those of motor vehicle crashes, show what happens when someone involved either directly or indirectly, is not paying attention.

Typically, police reports produced following crashes cite drivers for driving while under the influence of something, or being distracted — phone, radio, someone else in the vehicle, or something else that pulls the operator’s attention away from safely operating their vehicle, the road in front of them, even signage that would tell drivers they are entering highways via off ramps instead of on-ramps.

We do not offer these images to sensationalize the loss and pain of others. And while we are careful in most cases to not include the faces of those affected by disaster, many of those photos of disasters often include first responders. If not their faces, then their vehicles and/or uniforms can be seen.

The photos in question show readers those who respond to disaster. The men and women who train for emergencies, who are always ready to run toward catastrophe while others are taking cover, also appear within these images of disaster. They don’t pose for photos at those times, but they are there, working, saving lives and protecting property, often appearing within our frames without even knowing they’re there.

While they do their jobs, we — by capturing them and the wreckage they are working within — are doing ours while at the same time paying tribute to their selflessness and caring volunteerism.

The Newtown Bee has long prided itself as being your very own hometown newspaper. For 145-plus years, we have given readers more coverage than any other outlet of the good and the bad that happens in the 57.66 square miles approximately 27,000 people call home.

We fill pages with photos and stories following every Labor Day Parade, Holiday Festival, Halloween, and June graduations. Announcements of births and weddings are also accompanied by photos joyfully illustrating some of the happiest days of our lives.

We do not run images in our paper to sensationalize or to sell papers. We leave that to other publications. As purveyors of community journalism, however, sometimes along with all the good happening in Newtown, the bad also needs to be illustrated.