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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018 • SANTA ROSA, CALIFORNIA • PRESSDEMOCRAT.COM

OCTOBER FIRESTORM | 1 YEAR LATER

Lasting Damage
Of Historic Disaster

PHOTOS BY KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

A SIGN OF HOPE: The Kappes family erected a sign at the front of their now vacant lot on Bellagio Court in Santa Rosa’s Fountaingrove neighborhood, which was hard hit last October in the Tubbs fire.

12 months after devastating wildfire, scale

of destruction remains in league of its own
By J.D. MORRIS SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018 • SECTION H

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Rebuild

O
FOUNTAINGROVE NORTH BAY

ne year ago, Crown Hill Drive

was filled with green trees,
green bushes and green
lawns surrounding upscale
homes lining a picturesque road curving
through Santa Rosa’s northeastern hills.
KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
One year after the devastating Tubbs fire swept through Coffey Park in Santa Rosa, new houses have been steadily rising across the scarred neighborhood.

FOCUS ON HOW THE FIRES CHANGED US

L
ast October, an inconceivable siege decisions and worries confront anyone able
of wildfire laid waste to our region and willing to rebuild. Insured losses across

Today, the lots along this street are

overnight, destroying in the end
more than 6,200 homes and claiming
40 lives. Seen from above just days
into the disaster, the devastation was warlike.
Now, nearly one year later, a snapshot of the
region’s uneven recovery also emerges from
the air. The landscape is a patchwork of barren
lots and rebuilding projects, with roughly 1,000
new homes rising in burn zones across Sono-
the region continue to climb and may reach up
to $15 billion. And such figures do not account
for the ongoing strain of job losses, the scram-
ble to find rental housing and the pain of fam-
ilies torn apart. For those who lost loved ones,
as one survivor put it, “there’s no rebuilding.”
Yet stories of resilience and generosity con-
tinue to shine through, a heartening reminder
to all, regardless of circumstance, that much

brown and barren, much of the remain-

ma County — just a fifth of the total lost here. good can come from a firestorm born on our
The slow progress is no surprise. Ceaseless darkest night.

INSIDE

ing vegetation charred, the premises RECOVERY A MIX OF HIGHS,

LOWS IN SONOMA VALLEY
Progress has been painstaking,
but resilient residents helping
neighbors all along the way.
3 PATHS FORGED IN FIRE
AT CROSSROADS
Developer from New York and two
families find their lives forever
defined as before, after inferno.
REFLECTING ON LIFE
1 YEAR AFTER FIRESTORM
Santa Rosa residents affected by
October’s wildfires share their
views of life in the aftermath.
ARTIST FINDS BEAUTY
IN PAIN AFTER BLAZES
Rachel Forbis still vividly recalls
the night of the firestorm, which
is now influencing her artwork.

otherwise nearly devoid of life. “THERE’S NOBODY AROUND THERE”: Judy Coffey and her husband, Harry, survey their Crown
Page H9 Page H17 Page H27 Page H29

Hill Drive homesite Friday, which burned down in the Tubbs fire. “It just looks desolate,” she says.
A ferocious wildfire destroyed most
MORE
Hard lessons leading to better
homes here, along with nearly
1,600 others in the greater Fountain- INSIDE
emergency preparedness
SONOMA LIFE: Readers
grove area. The sounds of construction share how their lives
resound on nearby streets and birdsong have been forever
occasionally rings through the area. Oth- changed by fires / D1
erwise, silence prevails. BUSINESS: Stores and

I
By JULIE JOHNSON on Mountain Home Ranch Road in
restaurants damaged THE PRESS DEMOCRAT the foothills of the Mayacamas Moun-
“There’s nobody around there,” said Judy Coffey, or destroyed by blazes tains. Propane tanks were exploding.
whose Crown Hill Drive home of 13 years burned down struggle to rebound / E1 t was 11:19 p.m. on The neighborhood needed a fire
last year in the Tubbs fire. “It just looks desolate.” REBUILD NORTH BAY: Oct. 8, and a panicked engine “an hour ago,” she said.
Inside Santa Rosa, Fountaingrove absorbed the Stories of resilience and “How big is the fire? Huge,” she
heaviest blow in the historic wind-driven inferno, generosity overflow as caller to Sonoma Coun- said. “Acres. Hundreds of acres.
which consumed an acre of ground — roughly one homes slowly rise / H1 ty’s 911 dispatch center Nobody’s been warned about this.”
football field — per minute as it made its deadly People would die, she feared.
12-mile run from Calistoga to Santa Rosa late Oct. 8
was incredulous the opera- Less than two hours earlier, a
and early Oct. 9. COMING tor wasn’t aware her world wildfire had erupted off Tubbs Lane
Today, this neighborhood is beset by challenges that had exploded in flames. outside Calistoga. Hot, dry Diablo
have slowed its recovery, which lags far behind Coffey MONDAY winds drove the fire west, up and over
Park, where fewer homes were lost but hundreds more Anniversary coverage: “What’s on fire?” the 911 dispatcher the mountains that border Sonoma
are underway. In greater Fountaingrove, construction A look at a number of asked. County and down into a landscape of
the laws enacted in light Everything, the caller said. The
TURN TO DISASTER » PAGE A11 of October wildfires trees, the houses, anything standing TURN TO LESSONS » PAGE A14

ONLINE Explore more anniversary coverage at pressdemocrat.com/fireanniversary and past stories, photos and videos on the October firestorm at pressdemocrat.com

Business E1 Crossword T7 Movies D6 Sonoma Life D1 SERIAL RAPIST VICTIM SPEAKS OUT: “It all SANTA ROSA ©2018
Classified E5 Forum B11 Nevius C1 Smith A3 came back in that split second” says Petaluma High 73, Low 51 The Press
Democrat
Community B10 Lotto A2 Obituaries B4 LeBaron T1 woman who confronted suspect in court / A3 THE WEATHER, C8
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018 A11

OCTOBER FIRESTORM | 1 YEAR LATER

KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

RESTORED SKYLINE VIEW: Santa Rosa residents Ruby Higgins, left, and David Young look at a photograph they took while surveying the Santa Rosa skyline from the Fountaingrove neighborhood Wednesday.
The couple stand in the driveway of a burned home, taking in a view opened up by last October’s destructive Tubbs fire.

DAMAGE was looking forward to

CONTINUED FROM A1
has begun on just 170 lots.
Hilly, uneven acreage,
high construction costs,
complications with debris
cleanup and a partially
contaminated water sys-
tem are all to blame.
The dearth of rebuilt
homes in Fountaingrove is
just one illustration of the
still unfolding fallout from
last year’s wildfires as the
anniversary of the historic
disaster approaches.
“The way that grief and
trauma works over time,
people are feeling it per-
haps a lot more now than
they did in the first couple
of months when they were
in shock,” said Sonoma
County Supervisor Shirlee
Zane, who represents
Fountaingrove. “I think
the long, tedious, challeng-
ing road to rebuilding and
recovery is a harsh reality
right now for so many
people.”
California has endured
several other significant
wildfires since the smoke
cleared in Sonoma County
last year. They include the
two largest conflagrations
in state history — the
Ranch fire near Clear Lake
and the Thomas fire in
spending the coming years
relaxing with Zella, his pet
Labrador.
The fires changed all
that, forcing him into a
fifth-wheel camper on
River Road outside Santa
Rosa. His current living
space is 250 square feet at
most, about a third the size
of his mobile home.
Morrow is trying to find
some place to relocate that
home but his plans are still
in flux.
“I feel like I’m not set-
tled like I was in my home
in Journey’s End,” Mor-
row said. “I don’t know
what’s gonna happen.”
The disaster’s wake has
weighed heavily on him.
One day, he felt so despon-
dent he didn’t want to get
out of bed. And so, except
for a few strolls with Zella,
he didn’t.
NEIGHBORHOOD EXPOSED: Houses are under construction in the nearly barren Coffey Park neighborhood of Santa Rosa on Monday.
“That was a bad day,”
intensity that it actually seeking building permits house for Halloween. To were destroyed. he said.
could penetrate an urban or recently received them. take stock of her “fabu- Forty-four homes in the But the search for a new
neighborhood like it did,” “Fountaingrove just lous” display, she snapped park are still standing, property is gives him hope.
said Scott Stephens, a UC isn’t going anywhere,” photos of her home’s en- but they’re uninhabitable If he can get help with the
Berkeley fire science pro- said Coffey, 69, one of the tire interior, which helped because the infrastructure financing, it just might
fessor. “This has happened region’s top health care when she had to itemize burned up around them. work out.
in Southern California for executives as manager what she lost. Steve Morrow owns “That’s what keeps me
decades. They’ve had fires for Kaiser Permanente’s But some things she can one of the 44 surviving going, the fact that if I
down there that have hit operations in Marin and never get back. homes. A 70-year-old Navy work hard and I’m diligent
neighborhoods and actu- Sonoma counties. Two of Coffey’s chil- veteran and retired tech- about this and use all my
ally done real damage. But She lost almost ev- dren died when they were nical support engineer, resources to the max, then
in Northern California, we erything she owns last young, one due to an in- he lived in Journey’s End
just haven’t seen it.” October. fection at 4 weeks old and for almost two years and TURN TO DAMAGE » PAGE A12
As wildfires continue to She and her husband, another at age 17 because

Southern California — as
well as the deadly Carr
fire, which destroyed more
than 1,000 homes in the
Redding area this summer.
Yet the scale of devasta-
tion wrought by the 2017
fire siege in Sonoma Coun-
ty remains in a league of
its own. More than 5,300
homes were destroyed in
the county, most by the
Tubbs fire. It remains by
far the most destructive
wildfire on record in Cali-
fornia.
“We have never really
seen a fire in the wild-
lands move with such
YUZU
ravage the state, Sonoma Harry, had no warning of a congenital heart con-
County and its largest city — no time to gather their dition. The fire burned all
are still reeling from the belongings, and barely the mementos she and her
devastation last fall. enough time to pick up husband have from those
Of the 23 Santa Rosa their 83-year-old neighbor, years.
homes rebuilt since the who could not escape her “As devastating as it
firestorm, only two are motorized garage because was to lose the house We have fat, awesome, prime King’s quality citrus
located in Fountaingrove, the electricity was out. and memories, you lose a coming out the Yuzu! Juicy Meyer lemons - finger
according to data from the “We took the clothes on child, that’s in my opinion
city. On Crown Hill Drive, our backs, a purse and a worse,” she said. “The limes - mandarins - grapefruit + tons more. Yes, even
the slow progress is evi- wallet,” Coffey said. “That house was just a thing.” Yuzu limes. Fun - easy - check ‘em out.
dent. Most of the burned was it. That’s all we had.” After the Tubbs fire
lots there are vacant. Coffey has had some stormed into Fountain- King’s Nursery • Corner 13th & Stewart • 542-4782
City data indicates three luck in discussions with grove, the flames contin- KingsFlowerNursery.com Stuff you don’t see anywhere else
properties have moved her insurance company. ued westward down the
into the construction At about 7:30 p.m. Oct. 8, hill and into the Jour-
phase — though little two hours before the ney’s End mobile home
visible progress — and the Tubbs fire broke out, she park, where 117 homes
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A12
WALKING THEIR LOT: Harry and Judy Coffey survey their Crown Hill homesite that was destroyed by October’s Tubbs fire. The couple are considering whether to rebuild their Santa Rosa home.
DAMAGE
CONTINUED FROM A11
I’ll get a piece of property and
I’ll get my house on it,” he said.
“I haven’t had a bad day for
quite a while because that’s been
in the works in my head.”
Brightest burn zone
Zane, the three-term county
supervisor, won’t ever forget
the first time she saw the Tubbs
fire’s impact on Coffey Park.
It was the afternoon of Oct. 9,
less than 24 hours after the
firestorm began, and she was
surveying the damage in the
Sonoma County Sheriff’s heli-
copter with Rep. Mike Thomp-
son.
Inside as the aircraft passed
over the neighborhood — once
a densely packed cluster of
single-family homes on Santa
Rosa’s northwestern out-
skirts — Zane was struck by
what she saw when she looked
down. Turning to Thompson, a
Vietnam War veteran, Zane said
“It looks like a war zone down
there, Mike.”
“He looked at me and he said
‘Yeah, that’s what it looks like,
but this is worse,’” Zane re-
counted.
The neighborhood lost
1,473 homes after the firestorm
jumped six lanes of Highway
101. Aerial images of Coffey
Park became a jarring symbol of
the fires’ devastation for all the
world to see.
Now, the neighborhood is the
brightest spot in Sonoma Coun-
ty’s rebuilding effort.
Twenty-one homes have been
completed and 520 are under
construction, according to city
data. Another 101 properties
have been issued building
permits and 145 are seeking
permits.
It hasn’t been a smooth road
for everyone.
Ben Hernandez and his wife
are planning to rebuild. They
liked living in Coffey Park, with
its friendly neighbors and con-
venient location not far from his
mother in south Santa Rosa. But
it’s taken him much longer than
he expected to get a building
permit from the city.
Hernandez, who works for a
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018
OCTOBER FIRESTORM | 1 YEAR LATER
ENGULFED BY FLAMES: A home in Fountaingrove burns on the
night of Oct. 9, as the Tubbs fire stormed the neighborhood.
VACANT LOTS: Few houses remain in the Crown Hill neighborhood
of Fountaingrove on Monday in Santa Rosa.
PHOTOS BY KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
some of the most recent were
not. Shortly before the fires,
the firm began transitioning to
new computers that no longer
communicated with the backup
drive. And like everything else
in the building, those computers
were lost.
Bartley estimates his employ-
ees spent up to a third of their
time focusing on fire-related
impacts to the business through
the end of last year. They’re
still in a temporary office in
downtown Santa Rosa, hoping
to move into a new office in No-
vember, just after the insurance
payments are set to run out.
Future in limbo
Uncertainty about the future
abounds across Sonoma Coun-
ty’s burn zones, even for the
most well-off and driven fire
survivors.
Coffey, the local Kaiser chief,
is still unsure whether she will
rebuild her home in Fountain-
grove.
On a return trip to the proper-
ty a few weeks ago, she noticed
A VIEW FROM ABOVE: Houses dot the Brighton Drive area of Larkfield on Monday. The Larkfield-Wikiup area, a vast something unusual — and per-
community north of the city, took a devastating hit before the Tubbs fire roared into parts of Santa Rosa. haps fortuitous.
In what used to be her back-
The largest single group of yard, Coffey had planted five
“Maybe that’s a sign. Maybe it’s homes, 1,729, burned down naked lady flower bulbs sever-
just telling us, ‘OK, it’s gonna be OK. there, and the pace of rebuilding
is playing out in a mix of daily
al years ago. They had never
shown much, but on the recent
You can rebuild.’” gains and setbacks for home-
owners.
trip she was surprised to see
them all in full bloom.
JUDY COFFEY, Santa Rosa resident who lost her home in the Tubbs fire The Larkfield lowlands “Maybe that’s a sign,” Coffey
around Old Redwood Highway said. “Maybe it’s just telling us,
Sebastopol-based construction the mortgage payments on their are filled with construction ac- ‘OK, it’s gonna be OK. You can
and maintenance company, Coffey Park house. Their insurer tivity. But higher up along Mark rebuild. It’s just trying to figure
said he drives to the property is paying the bill — for now. West Springs Road, progress is out dollars and cents.’”
off Hopper Avenue two or three Hernandez hopes that will moving slower. The project may not pencil out
times a week and parks there. last for another year. But with Fire survivors who lost a for Coffey and her husband, but
“It’s hard seeing all the houses their construction in Coffey home or business there, as in with Santa Rosa poised to soon
going up and nothing’s happen- Park yet to get underway, he’s the other fire-impacted commu- lift their neighborhood’s water
ing,” said Hernandez, 45. “I kind not sure what will happen if that nities in the county, continue restrictions, which stemmed
of lose hope, I don’t know ... I’m next year comes and goes and to grapple with whether to from a pollution problem tied
gonna try to hang in there.” his family faces having to make rebuild and how, what they can to the fires, they’re seriously
After the Tubbs fire burned mortgage and rent payments at replace and what they can’t. exploring the option.
their home and everything the same time. One of them is Scott Bartley, a About one thing, Coffey is
inside — wedding photos, baby “I guess we’ll be living in our former Santa Rosa mayor whose certain: She does not want her
pictures and a cache of 49ers car,” he said. architecture firm stood on Old family to be alone if and when
and San Francisco Giants mem- Redwood Highway for decades. they return to Crown Hill Drive.
orabilia — Hernandez, his wife Life’s work gone When the fire destroyed his “Do I want to be the first on
and their two children had a Even before the Tubbs office, it took 35 years of original the hill rebuilt? Probably not,”
series of short-term motel stays fire roared into Santa Rosa, drawings along with it. Coffey said. “I wish I knew other
in Napa, Sebastopol and Santa it began laying waste to the “The fire probably burned people were gonna be rebuilding
Rosa covered by their insurance greater Mark West Springs and really well, because there was a up there. ... We’re gonna have to
company. Larkfield-Wikiup area, a vast whole lot of paper in that build- wait and see.”
Ultimately, the family settled unincorporated community ing,” Bartley said, sounding a
into a three-bedroom home in north of the city that stretches sardonic note. You can reach Staff Writer J.D.
Rohnert Park. The monthly rent east into the foothills of the Many of his firm’s drawings Morris at 707-521-5337 or jd.mor-
there is about $1,000 more than Mayacamas Mountains. are backed up digitally, but ris@pressdemocrat.com.
A14 THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018

OCTOBER FIRESTORM | 1 YEAR LATER

KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

CONSIDERING FUTURE DISASTERS: “If this happened tomorrow, we would not have the lives lost like we did,” says retired Rincon Valley-Windsor Fire Chief Jack Piccinini, who pauses April 5 on the edge of Santa
Rosa’s Fountaingrove neighborhood where the Tubbs fire crested at Foothill Ranch and Cresta Ridge, background, last October. “But would we have the same property loss? We might.”

LESSONS budget to bolster the mutual aid

firefighting network, which did
not deliver the resources needed
avalanche of real-time reports
of fires and aid requests from
residents and first responders
CONTINUED FROM A1 to quickly help in the October into an early and clear sense of
fires. what was unfolding.
ranches and rural subdivisions “The size and scope of Sonoma County Sheriff Rob
on the eastern outskirts of Santa wildland fires in California are Giordano remembers hearing a
Rosa. getting worse,” said state Sen. deputy’s voice coming over the
The Tubbs fire, California’s Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg. radio plainly announcing his
worst wildfire on record, would He helped write a new law that dire situation to the dispatcher:
arrive in the city around 1 a.m., will require statewide standards Deputy Mark Aldridge and more
but already it had people run- for public emergency warnings than 30 others were surrounded
ning for their lives. Across the and has called for an overhauled by fire near Mark West Springs
region, a half-dozen other major approach to the way Califor- Lodge, and they were trying to
blazes were burning, trapping nia fights fire, starting with wait out the blaze in a parking
residents on Nuns Canyon Road improved forest management. lot.
above Sonoma Valley, near Atlas ALVIN JORNADA / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT A measure authored by As- Alarmed by what he heard,
Peak in Napa County and in VISITING THE FIRE ZONE: Gov. Jerry Brown, joined by Sens. Kamala Harris, left, semblyman Jim Wood, D-Santa Giordano stepped outside into
Redwood Valley in Mendocino and Dianne Feinstein addresses the media Oct. 14 before a town hall meeting Rosa, and signed into law this the back parking lot of the Sher-
County. on the North Bay fires in Santa Rosa. month by Gov. Jerry Brown will iff’s Office in Santa Rosa and he
At 11:40 p.m., two hours after provide up to $1 billion in forest encountered a deputy covered in
the Tubbs fire ignited, Sonoma would go days wondering about use of those messages last year, management funding over five ash with bloodshot eyes and in
County’s inundated 911 dispatch her fate. Her body was found by including Lake County in Oc- years to reduce fire risk. a state of shock after returning
center received the first call a deputy down the embankment tober and Southern California “We are in the age of mega from the fire line.
from the county’s emergency near the burned car. counties in December during an fires, and we have to invest in “He said, ‘I’m sorry, they’re all
services division. The youngest victims, a outbreak of flames that included the resources to keep communi- dead. Thousands of people are
The caller, Sam Wallis, an teenage brother and sister from the giant Thomas fire. ties safe,” McGuire said. “That dead,’” Giordano recalled.
on-duty emergency coordinator, Mendocino County, died days Sonoma County officials, means accurate, timely informa-
greeted the operator with “Good apart from burns they suffered including County Administrator tion when disaster strikes.” Heroes filled the void
morning,” and asked what while trying to escape with their Sheryl Bratton, have acknowl- Last October, weather fore- Over the next several weeks,
he should do. The dispatcher parents, who survived. edged they weren’t prepared. casters had predicted extreme the death toll reached 44 people
seemed taken aback by his ques- Most of those in the fires’ path State emergency officials and an fire danger three days before across Northern California,
tion. He could come into the call in Sonoma County received no internal county review reached the fires erupted. But Sonoma including the 24 people killed in
center, she said. official warning to evacuate. similar conclusions, the latter County’s plans in place at the Sonoma County, nine in Men-
“We have lots going on,” she “We should have woken up the report describing a workforce time to warn people in emergen- docino County, seven in Napa
added. world,” Board of Supervisors that was ill-equipped and under- cies were based on an outdated and four in Yuba County.
On another line, a separate Chairman James Gore would trained for the type of catastro- understanding of technology, That tally doesn’t include an
operator was urgently asking later say in the fires’ wake. phe that erupted last year. the state determined, and didn’t uncounted number of peo-
Mendocino County officials to California’s most destructive “We need to do more on every take into account how relatively ple who lost their lives in the
send help. But authorities there siege of wildfire dragged on for level,” Bratton said in an inter- few people still have landline immediate aftermath, including
were already taxed with a big 23 days before the flames were view months after the fires. telephones or had signed up for an elderly Santa Rosa woman
wildfire of their own she was contained in Sonoma County, Gore, the Board of Supervi- voluntary notification systems who collapsed after going door
told, according to a Press Dem- where the toll was heaviest, with sors chairman, said the county such as Nixle or SoCoAlert. to door alerting people in her
ocrat review of calls to Sonoma more than 5,300 homes lost and had missed the “wake-up call” Of all the fire officials, dis- building and a 27-year-old Santa
County’s 911 calls that night. 24 people killed. Across North- that came with ferocious fires in patchers and law enforcement Rosa man who died after an
Wallis, the on-duty emergency ern California, insured losses Lake County in recent years. commanders working that night, asthma attack at a time when
staffer, wasn’t clear what to do from the October fires could “I want to shake everybody none had been given the tools by the air quality was the worst
next. climb to $15 billion. Images of in my position around the state emergency services staff to issue ever recorded in the Bay Area.
“I’m not sure how much help staggering loss — entire neigh- and say, ‘Wake up, and learn the widespread warnings to the pub- That first night in the parking
I’ll be,” he said to the dispatcher borhoods reduced to ash and lesson,’” Gore said in a recent lic in times of emergencies. That lot of the Mark West Springs
on his call. “I’m with the emer- debris — captured national and interview. Thousands of acres authority was held by a pair Lodge, Aldridge, the sheriff’s
gency management section for international media attention of drought-stricken, forestlands of top emergency officials who deputy, kept people calm as fire
fire and emergency services. So for weeks. remain a tinderbox, he said. were out of town when the fires burned around them for hours
I’m not a fireman or something.” In the earliest days, evacu- “The complacency that exist- broke out. Even if they had been until they were able to escape.
The chaos, speed and destruc- ees began asking why Sonoma ed in our community prior to in town, one of those officials, To this day, Alice Eurotas
tive power of the October 2017 County had failed to warn peo- this cannot (continue),” he said. Christopher Helgren, the coun- doesn’t know how a strang-
firestorm exposed deep short- ple about the fast-moving fires ty’s emergency manager, had er — Mark Allen of Sebasto-
comings and outright failures burning into populated areas. No plan for ‘mega fires’ ruled out such forced cellphone pol — came to her rescue at
in emergency preparedness. The communication break- County and state officials say alerts, The Press Democrat first 2:30 a.m. Oct. 9 before her home
A year later, local officials and down triggered a backlash that they have learned other cru- reported last year. at Oakmont of Villa Capri, a
public safety leaders say they persists to this day, underpin- cial and potentially lifesaving Helgren was reassigned after Santa Rosa assisted care facility,
learned painful lessons from ning perhaps the county’s most lessons from the October 2017 the fires and subsequently re- burned to the ground. Allen had
the disaster. They have made significant single change in fires. They will evacuate popu- tired. Helgren said his decision rushed to the Fountaingrove
critical changes to the ways the fires’ aftermath: When the lated areas earlier. Dispatchers to rule out wider alerts was facility to retrieve his mother,
people are warned of emergen- next disaster hits, authorities now know how to coach people driven by a concern they would but when he arrived, he found
cies and directed to safety, fires have vowed to immediately and trapped by wildfire. PG&E will cause mass panic and traffic dozens of other elders without
are detected and attacked, and widely broadcast emergency shut off power lines during dan- jams that would hamper the means to escape, according to
power grids are operated during messages in as many ways possi- gerous weather events. Crews emergency response. court documents from a lawsuit
dangerous conditions. ble, including Amber Alert-style are installing fire-detection Separately, emergency dis- against the facility’s manage-
messages pushed onto cell- cameras on local hilltops and patchers for the Sheriff’s Office ment company.
Failure on warnings phones, a tool the county’s top stations are putting extra fire- and REDCOM, the county’s fire By that time, the Tubbs fire
Tens of thousands of people emergency manager sidelined fighters on duty when wildfire and medical 911 call center, were had been burning more than
were sleeping that night last before the October fires. risk is high. State lawmakers overwhelmed that night. They four hours. A northern branch
year when fierce winds whipped Other counties made effective added $25 million to the current had no system to convert an of the fire had shot across
flames into firestorms across six lanes of Highway 101 in
Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino and northern Santa Rosa and was
Lake counties, overwhelming throwing embers onto roofs in
every aspect of emergency the Coffey Park neighborhood
response from public warnings as traffic from fleeing people
and firefighting resources to clogged the streets.
water, electricity, cellphone and Allen barged in to Eurotas’
911 systems. room yelling “Fire!” and then
It was not even a firefight in helped her slip into sandals,
those pre-dawn hours. People grab her walker and make the
fled on foot, they hid in pools slow march down the stairs, illu-
or drove white-knuckled into minating the darkness with the
unsettling traffic jams caused light of his cellphone. In the first
by so many trying to escape at floor lobby, Eurotas got her first
once. Firefighters and other look at the calamity unfolding
first responders did little else in outside.
those first critical hours than “Every shrub and every tree
get people out of danger. Not — everything outdoors was in
everyone was saved. flames,” Eurotas said. “I was
Forty people died in the North thinking to myself, ‘Where the
Bay fires. Some suffocated from hell are the firemen?’”
heat and smoke in their homes, The local firefighting force
others died inside their garages, was out in record numbers
trapped by motorized doors they that night, with many grabbing
could not open without power. turnouts and jumping into
One woman fleeing in her car trucks before being called to
missed a sharp turn in the road KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT duty. They joined neighbors, law
not far from home. Her husband WILDFIRE SAFETY OPERATIONS CENTER: Evermary Hickey, PG&E’s director of emergency preparedness and response, back
drove by minutes later and left, and supervisor Diana Herr look at a monitor displaying weather information May 8 at the utility’s new facility in San Francisco. TURN TO LESSONS » PAGE A15
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018 A15

OCTOBER FIRESTORM | 1 YEAR LATER

LESSONS swept through Northern Califor-

nia last October.
Sonoma County is allocating
CONTINUED FROM A14 $8 million to improve emergen-
cy preparedness, installing fire
enforcement officers and others detection cameras at high eleva-
pounding on doors, breaking tions across the county, boosting
through gates, heaving open brush clearance programs and
electric garage doors and strain- requiring all staff members
ing their voices to jar people out spend at least 20 hours each year
of bed, into their cars and out of on disaster training.
danger. “We need to accept these
On the hilltop streets of Foun- kinds of fires may be part of the
taingrove, where more than regular future,” said Christo-
1,400 homes were lost, firefight- pher Godley, the county’s inter-
ers encountered weak water im emergency manager.
pressure at crucial moments If a major disaster struck
in the firefight. Crews spent in Sonoma County today, a
precious time driving down the network of emergency workers
hill to refill water tenders and with the county, Santa Rosa
engines in other neighborhoods. and other jurisdictions are now
The neighborhood’s massive connected to each other in ways
green water tanks were at their that didn’t exist in 2017. A year
lowest levels of the day, two of ago, a “bunker mentality” — a
the area’s 10 tanks were out of term used by Supervisor David
commission, water pumps failed Rabbitt — hampered commu-
and backup generators were not nication, delayed evacuation
working. BETH SCHLANKER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT notices and created inefficient
A city-funded examination of coordination among agencies
TRAINING TO RESPOND: KT McNulty, a supervising dispatcher, oversees a call during a training session at the REDCOM
the water pressure problems that trying to respond to an unprece-
dispatch office Feb, 14 in Santa Rosa. The agency has helped to develop a script to help people trapped by wildfires.
night concluded unrestricted dented disaster.
gushing of water from sprinkler They were, in fact, headed to billboards along the highways. have been forwarded to district Godley said emergency staff
systems, garden hoses and other Napa. Next month, dispatchers from attorneys to review for criminal are drawing up plans for re-
water spouts as the fire burned Reflecting back on that night, about 500 agencies across the negligence. sponse to bigger worst-case-sce-
quickly drained the system, crip- Piccinini, a veteran fire official, globe will receive a new script Investigators have not yet said narios than previously anticipat-
pling the firefight. said that’s when he threw out developed by REDCOM and what caused the Tubbs fire. ed — the Russian River flooding
the playbook and fire command- honed by experts to help people Faced with hundreds of at higher levels and in new
Seeking help, safety ers started calling nearby juris- trapped by wildfires. lawsuits from burned-out fire locations, for example — and
At the county’s 911 call cen- dictions directly instead of going In response to the October survivors as well as local gov- they are not waiting for scientif-
ters, where dispatchers were through the regular channels, fires, state lawmakers pushed ernments, PG&E has taken its ic modeling to prepare for those
coughing on smoke as they asking them to send strike teams through scores of bills to own steps to stem wildfire risks possibilities.
fielded a record number of calls, and any help available. strengthen the capacity of linked to its operations. The “These fires as well as recent
operators found themselves If the same kind of firestorm people and government to pre- company put in motion a plan events like hurricanes have in-
without a script for how to help hit the region again, Piccinini pare for and survive an era of to shut down power lines and dicated climate change impacts
people trapped by fire make life- believes firefighters, law enforce- increasingly volatile fires. remotely deactivate devices that are here,” said Godley. “We
and-death decisions. ment and emergency profession- Backup batteries will be send repeat charges of electric- didn’t expect to see these effects
Dispatchers repeatedly told als as well as residents would be required for all new electric ga- ity when power is cut — safety until 2030.”
callers a deputy would come better prepared, though he cau- rage doors so people can escape measures a San Diego utility has Giordano, who became an out-
to their door if they needed to tioned that the sheer power and when the power is out. Cal Fire used for years. It’s spending as spoken and reassuring authority
evacuate. For many that night, it number of fires that broke out has been authorized to collab- much as $700,000 on high-defini- figure during weeks of chaos
was a false promise. one year ago would still initially, orate with private landowners tion cameras to monitor poten- and fear as the fires continued
Local firefighters requested at least, overwhelm the fastest on controlled burns to reduce tial wildfires across the North to burn, said that one of the
more than 300 engines to assist deployment of firefighters. wildfire fuels. And utilities are Bay and an undisclosed amount greatest lessons for government
in the firefight, but only 130 were “If this happened tomorrow, now mandated each year to pre- on a new 24/7 command center was the need to tell the public
sent in the first 12 hours, accord- we would not have the lives lost pare a wildfire mitigation plan, at its San Francisco headquar- what you know when you know
ing to data from the state Office like we did,” Piccinini said. “But including all known fire risks in ters to monitor its entire service it, even if the picture isn’t yet
of Emergency Services. would we have the same proper- their service areas and how they area for wildfires and other complete.
At 12:06 a.m. Oct. 9, Jack Pic- ty loss? We might.” will address those risks. major events. “Give them more informa-
cinini, fire chief for the Windsor Authorities say they are State investigators have so tion,” Giordano said. “Just ex-
and Rincon Valley districts better equipped to direct people far determined 16 significant Training for next disaster plain to them where it’s coming
where 1,700 homes were lost — out of harm’s way in the next fires across Northern Califor- The state, in turn, is spending from and why so they have the
put on a 911 dispatcher’s headset life-threatening disaster. Santa nia last October were ignited by millions of dollars to improve all same context and the same view
to ask Cal Fire when additional Rosa police and fire officials as PG&E power lines and equip- manner of emergency response that you have. Because that’s all
firefighting resources would well as dispatchers and sheriff’s ment. In 11 of those instances, from firefighting to the 911 they’re asking — to understand.”
arrive. The operator said plenty deputies can now send alerts the state found the utility system, including a one-time in-
were on the way, and Piccinini through opt-in systems like company to be in violation of fusion of $25 million to help local You can reach Staff Writer Julie
double checked to make sure Nixle or SoCoAlert and push state regulations, mostly for agencies deploy extra firefighting Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.
they were heading to Sonoma messages out onto cellphones, failing to keep vegetation away crews during times of extreme johnson@pressdemocrat.com.
County. television, radio and electronic from its equipment. The cases fire risk — like the weather that On Twitter @jjpressdem.

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 SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018 • SECTION H

Rebuild NORTH BAY

KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

One year after the devastating Tubbs fire swept through Coffey Park in Santa Rosa, new houses have been steadily rising across the scarred neighborhood.

FOCUS ON HOW THE FIRES CHANGED US

L
ast October, an inconceivable siege
of wildfire laid waste to our region
overnight, destroying in the end
more than 6,200 homes and claiming
40 lives. Seen from above just days
into the disaster, the devastation was warlike.
Now, nearly one year later, a snapshot of the
region’s uneven recovery also emerges from
the air. The landscape is a patchwork of barren
lots and rebuilding projects, with roughly 1,000
new homes rising in burn zones across Sono-
ma County — just a fifth of the total lost here.
The slow progress is no surprise. Ceaseless
decisions and worries confront anyone able
and willing to rebuild. Insured losses across
the region continue to climb and may reach up
to $15 billion. And such figures do not account
for the ongoing strain of job losses, the scram-
ble to find rental housing and the pain of fam-
ilies torn apart. For those who lost loved ones,
as one survivor put it, “there’s no rebuilding.”
Yet stories of resilience and generosity con-
tinue to shine through, a heartening reminder
to all, regardless of circumstance, that much
good can come from a firestorm born on our
darkest night.

INSIDE

RECOVERY A MIX OF HIGHS,
LOWS IN SONOMA VALLEY
Progress has been painstaking,
but resilient residents helping
neighbors all along the way.
Page H9
3 PATHS FORGED IN FIRE
AT CROSSROADS
Developer from New York and two
families find their lives forever
defined as before, after inferno.
Page H17
REFLECTING ON LIFE
1 YEAR AFTER FIRESTORM
Santa Rosa residents affected by
October’s wildfires share their
views of life in the aftermath.
Page H27
ARTIST FINDS BEAUTY
IN PAIN AFTER BLAZES
Rachel Forbis still vividly recalls
the night of the firestorm, which
is now influencing her artwork.
Page H29

PARTICIPATING SPONSORS
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018 H3

COFFEY PARK IN SANTA ROSA »

As northwest neighborhood leads the way with home construction,
Coffey Strong group undergoes transition while helping others cope after fires

Changing of guard
in rebuild epicenter

KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Lani Jolliff, left and Diane Northcroft toast the evening as Coffey Park residents gather Sept. 26 for “Whine Wednesday” in Santa Rosa. The community gathering in the neighborhood
draws some who lost their homes to October’s Tubbs fire and others who didn’t to a cul-de-sac off Hopper Drive.

A
By ROBERT DIGITALE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

year later, the recovery

of Coffey Park can be
measured in homes un-
der construction, in reg-
ular gatherings of residents and
in the work of a neighborhood
group that didn’t exist before the
historic Tubbs fire.
The northwest Santa Rosa
neighborhood remains the center
of the fire rebuild efforts in Sono-
ma County.
As the first anniversary of the
North Bay wildfires draws near,
nearly six in 10 property owners
have formally stepped forward
to replace the 1,321 single-family
homes lost in Coffey Park.
Twenty-one homes have been
completed and 520 remain under
construction, according to city
planners. Another 101 property
owners have received permits
and are expected to break ground
in the coming weeks. Finally,
145 more owners are awaiting
city approval, a total that ac-
counts for 787 properties.
Here is a recap of Coffey Park
news from September:
Coffey Strong gets new president
A year ago, Coffey Park
resident Jeff Okrepkie
put together a meeting for
neighbors then reeling from
the devastation of the most
destructive wildfires in state
history. That gathering,
which focused on the first
steps to recovery, became
Pamela
the genesis of the Coffey
Van Halsema
Strong neighborhood group.
New president
“I was just a guy who had
for neighborhood
a little bit of information,”
group Coffey
Okrepkie recalled.
Strong
Soon Okrepkie joined
forces with other residents and they put
together a November meeting attended by
500 people at the Burbank Center. That night
Coffey Park residents organized into five ar-
eas, with block captains as points of contact
for the flow of needed information.
A year later, Coffey Strong is its own reg-
istered nonprofit group. And Okrepkie, 39, is
about to step down as the group’s president
CHRISTOPHER CHUNG / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Jeff Okrepkie traveled to Redding in early September to speak with survivors of the Carr fire and
local officials about lessons learned by residents of Coffey Park.
“We couldn’t have done what we
did with the rebuild center without
Coffey Strong coming together.”
DAVID GUHIN, assistant city manager for Santa Rosa about the neighborhood
group’s role in helping city planners understand the issues faced by fire survivors
and allow another neighbor to take on the was a renter and is the national president for
leadership role. Even so, he will remain the Active 20-30 Club, for his focus on finding
active with the group. solutions that would benefit fire survivors.
Coffey Strong has been credited with “Jeff has been leading that charge,” said
helping residents work through the debris City Councilman Tom Schwedhelm, who
cleanup process and with the daunting tasks lives in Coffey Park. He called Okrepkie “a
of finding a builder and deciding on plans valuable asset to this community.”
for their new homes. Coffey Strong’s new president, Pamela
But the group also is working on such Van Halsema, agreed that Okrepkie’s work
joint projects as the design and rebuilding in bringing the neighborhood together was
of the neighborhood park, the landscaping “hugely valuable.” But she said neighbors
of a community entryway at Coffey Lane also want to take care of one another and
and Hopper Avenue and the replacement Okrepkie is due for a chance to spend more
of 2,900 linear feet of burned walls along time with his wife, Stephanie, and their
Hopper. The last project is expected to cost 2-year-old son and newborn daughter.
roughly $650,000 in cash and donated contri- She said they assured him, “We love what
butions and is a joint effort by Coffey Strong, you’ve done, Jeff, but we’ve got this.”
the nonprofit Rebuild North Bay Founda- As a result of the disaster, Okrepkie said,
tion and Florida debris removal company his neighbors have forged bonds that will
AshBritt Environmental. last. In the years ahead, he foresees plenty of
Assistant City Manager David Guhin said occasions when residents will join together to
the neighborhood group also played a key role “celebrate the resiliency of our neighborhood
in helping city planners understand a multi- and celebrate who we are as Coffey Park.”
tude of issues that fire survivors would need
addressed in order to restore what was lost.
“We couldn’t have done what we did with Paying it forward to Redding
the rebuild center without Coffey Strong com- When the Carr fire destroyed 1,600 homes
ing together,” Guhin said. The resulting city in Redding this summer, many Sonoma
programs didn’t just aid Coffey Park residents County residents felt themselves taken back
but “helped everybody affected by the fires.”
Other city leaders credit Okrepkie, who TURN TO COFFEY PARK » PAGE H4
H4 THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018

KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Rabbi Mendel Wolvovsky of Chabad Jewish Center blows a shofar to help bless the rebuilding of a home for Barbara Winestock, second from right, and her
son, Dylan Chadwick, 19, on Aug. 27 in Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park neighborhood. Congregation member Joseph Wand, right, joined the ceremony for Winestock.

COFFEY PARK Sean McGlynn.

“I can’t tell you how beneficial that was
for us to learn from you in Santa Rosa,”
the owners prepared to break ground for a
new home.
The gatherings remind neighbors that
CONTINUED FROM H3 McElvain said. they aren’t going through the recovery
alone. Many said the occasions have rein-
to the flames that ravaged northern Santa forced the strong sense of community that
Rosa and its environs. Many gatherings in neighborhood has been built after the fires.
In response, Coffey Strong leader Okrep- Coffey Park residents will gather Oct. 9 to “That’s the silver lining that came out
kie and Kunal Nagpal of Emerge Rebuild mark the first anniversary of the disaster of this,” said Tricia Woods, a Coffey Park
traveled last August to the city at the north that struck their neighborhood. resident who organized Whine Wednesday.
end of the Sacra- The 7 p.m. gath-
mento Valley to ering at Hopper
PG&E on track with new systems
tell fire survivors
there what to ex-
pect in the coming
“That’s the silver lining Avenue and Cof-
fey Lane is poised
to be unlike any
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has completed
digging the entire 17 miles of trenching
months.
“They were
that came out of this.” that has occurred
there since the
needed to install a new underground utility
system in Coffey Park.
very much like TRICIA WOODS, Coffey Park resident who organized fires. But it will The utility is on track to finish the instal-
us a month after Whine Wednesday, one of many social gatherings still be just one of lation of a new electrical and gas system
the fire,” recalled that have sprouted after the fires many occasions by the end of October. PG&E spokeswoman
Okrepkie. “They bringing people Deanna Contreras said the new gas sys-
didn’t know what they needed to know.” together there. tem already is pressurized throughout the
Okrepkie urged the Redding fire survi- This summer the neighbors regularly got neighborhood and ready for each new home
vors to band together for a stronger recov- together for weekly “Whine Wednesday” there to be connected during the rebuilding
ery. evening gatherings and for a monthly walk process.
Adam McElvain, a Redding city council- through Coffey Park. Groups of neighbors
man, said his community gained important also have marked the start of rebuilding You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at
insights both from Okrepkie and from an on their streets and at least one burned lot 521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.
earlier visit by Santa Rosa City Manager received the blessing of a Jewish rabbi as com. On Twitter @rdigit.
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018 H5

FOUNTAINGROVE IN SANTA ROSA »

As 77-year-old resident takes possession of first newly completed house,
neighborhood slowly clearing hurdles on multiple fronts

Heartfelt triumphs
with building gains

JOHN BURGESS / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Tom Francois, center, talks with Eric, left, and Dave Keith of Sonoma County Builders in front of his new home, the first to be rebuilt in Fountaingrove, on Sonterra Court in Santa Rosa.

W
By HANNAH BEAUSANG
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

hen Tom Francois

celebrated the com-
pletion of his Foun-
taingrove home
earlier this month surrounded
by hundreds of friends, former
neighbors and strangers, it felt
like “winning the lottery.”
The 77-year-old property
owner was the first in the hill-
side neighborhood of northeast
Santa Rosa to have a home re-
built and ready for occupancy.
It marks a personal triumph for
Francois and a milestone for
Fountaingrove, where rebuilding
activity has lagged behind Cof-
fey Park, the other Santa Rosa
neighborhood leveled by the
Tubbs fire.
“It was pure exhilaration,”
Francois said of a Sept. 15 rib-
bon cutting ceremony and open
house. “The best part was the
people came up and the hugs that
went around. It was a bit of a love
fest … that made me very, very
happy. But my heart aches for the
people who are not in (homes).
But they will be.”
Francois, whose right leg was
amputated below the knee in
2001 after complications with
blood clots, rebuilt the home
as a tribute to his beloved wife
of five decades, Carol. She died
in 2014 after a battle with lung
cancer. His new home has special
touches such as crown molding,
French doors and granite count-
er tops, he said, because Carol
would have loved them.
It was constructed by Sonoma County
Builders, a general contracting company
Wooden beams are put into place for a home rebuild Monday in the Fir Ridge area of Fountaingrove.
More homes are in the pipeline for the neighborhood, with 343 permit applications submitted.
that began building homes after October’s
fires and is now building 12 homes in Foun-
taingrove, said Chief Operating Officer Eric
Keith.
Francois plans to sleep in his new home
for the first time Oct. 9 — a year to the day
his home was leveled by the Tubbs fire.
Homebuilding gains momentum
Francois’ home is only one of two Foun-
taingrove houses that have been completed
in the area almost a year after October’s
fires destroyed more than 1,400 homes here.
That stands in stark contrast to the Coffey
Park neighborhood to the west, where
20 houses have been finished and hundreds
more are underway.
Complications stemming from the fire —
including debris removal, the hilly terrain
and water contamination issues — have
slowed rebuilding in Fountaingrove. In total,
165 homes are now under construction in
the area, while 200 permits have been issued.
There are more homes in the pipeline for
Fountaingrove, with 343 permit applications
submitted, just under a third of the pending
rebuild permits citywide.
“We are starting to see a lot of movement
in Fountaingrove,” said David Guhin, the
city’s director of planning and economic
development.
KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Water advisories soon may end
Officials are hoping to lift next month
advisory orders warning residents against
bathing in or drinking the water in a 184-
acre section of Fountaingrove, according to
Jennifer Burke, the city’s deputy director of
water and engineering resources.
The Tubbs fire melted water pipes in
Fountaingrove and contaminated portions
of the region’s water system with ben-
zene, a cancer-causing chemical. Crews
have replaced more than 440 water lines
and changed out three water mains and
eight fire hydrants. Troublesome levels of
benzene also were found in some areas as
far out as Coffey Park, prompting additional
attention and work.
Recent tests showed only trace amounts of
the chemical that registered at levels under
state-mandated safety limits. Testing will
continue for at least a year, Burke said.
The overall effort was previously estimated
to cost $43 million and take at least two years
to complete. The city chose to first replace
the water lines and other components at a
cost of $8 million, costs the city hopes will be
reimbursed by FEMA.
“This has been and continues to be the top
TURN TO FOUNTAINGROVE » PAGE H6

“It was pure exhilaration ... But my heart aches for the people
who are not in (homes). But they will be.”
TOM FRANCOIS, 77-year-old property owner who celebrated the completion of his Fountaingrove home earlier this month
H6 THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018

FOUNTAINGROVE
CONTINUED FROM H5
priority for us,” Burke said. “We have been
able to really follow the data … and come
to a resolution that not only restores water
quality, but does so in a way that’s a bit faster
than initially anticipated.”

Water system overwhelmed in fire

Separately, an outside consultant’s report
commissioned to examine the performance
of the city’s water system concluded that it
was solidly designed, but was overwhelmed
during the Tubbs fire. Sharp drops in water
pressure throughout the area impeded fire-
fighting efforts and factored in the contami-
nation problems, the report found.
But the system’s deficits — tanks being
empty or not completely full, pumps failing
and backup generators not performing —
did not play a significant role in the pressure
drop, the city consultant determined. To
blame was the enormous outpouring of
water from sprinkler systems, garden hoses PHOTOS BY CHRISTOPHER CHUNG / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT, 2017
and showerheads in more than 3,000 struc-
tures as they burned, the report found. Excavators
It offered several recommendations to im- remove debris,
prove the system’s performance in disasters, above, from the
including transitioning backup generators property where
to diesel, looking into automatic shut-off Santa Rosa
valves, and installing redundant communi- Fire Station
cations systems. 5 once stood
The city last week issued a request for on Newgate
proposals for an independent consultant to Court, off of
complete an “in-depth analysis” of those Fountaingrove
recommendations and determine what’s Parkway. The
feasible, according to Burke and city spokes- fire station,
woman Elise Howard. Consultants have left, was gutted
about three weeks to submit proposals, and by the Tubbs
the final cost of the contract will be deter- fire on Oct. 9.
mined based on the most qualified bidder,
Howard said.

Effort to replace fire station

Local officials and civic leaders headed
to Washington, D.C., for a lobbying trip this
month, where federal officials announced a
tentative decision to pay nearly $4 million
toward replacing the 2-year-old Fountain-
grove fire station destroyed by the fire.
“I honestly feel like we’ve been beating
our heads against a brick wall, and on this
trip, we started to see cracks in the wall,”
Santa Rosa Mayor Chris Coursey said.
“We’re getting to know our way around and
people are getting to know us. People are
hearing what we have to say.”
FEMA officials said they had more than
doubled their initial $1.9 million estimate
for the station’s reconstruction, boosting
it to $3.9 million, said Adriane Mertens, a
Santa Rosa spokeswoman. Those funds and
an insurance payment of about $5 million,
will likely make it possible to replace the
station.
City officials estimate it would cost
$4.5 million to replace the station at New-
gate Court and Fountaingrove Parkway. It’s
now exploring other sites along the park-
way west of Newgate, ratcheting the cost to
about $8 million, Mertens said.
Meanwhile, the city is placing a tempo-
rary fire station at 3480 Parker Hill Road,
the site of a vacant station also destroyed
by the fire. Work to repair fire damage, con-
nect the buildings to utilities, and provide
ADA access to the station began in July and
is expected to wrap up this fall, Mertens
said.
You can reach Staff Writer Hannah Beaus-
ang at 707-521-5214 or hannah.beausang@
pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @hannah-
beausang.

“I honestly feel like we’ve been beating our heads against

a brick wall, and on this trip, we started to see cracks in the wall.”
CHRIS COURSEY, Santa Rosa mayor on the efforts to secure funding to replace the 2-year-old fire station destroyed by the Tubbs fire

We are.
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018
LARKFIELD-WIKIUP AND MARK WEST SPRINGS »
Bridge replacement, geologic studies and the permitting process have delayed
rebuilding, but signs of progress are everywhere a year after the fires
Rural residents:
‘We’re getting there’
Construction has begun on one of the houses that was destroyed on Janet Leisen’s 8.5-acre Wikiup Bridge Way property in the Mark West area northeast of Santa Rosa. Leisen lost two
homes and three barns in October’s Tubbs fire. Wikiup Bridge Way was among the last Sonoma County neighborhoods to have fire debris fully cleared.
L
By J.D. MORRIS
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
ike nearly every other per-
son who owns property on
Wikiup Bridge Way, Janet
Leisen’s rebuilding costs
extend far beyond her home that
was destroyed by the Tubbs fire
nearly one year ago.
Earlier this year, she had to help
pay to replace the privately-owned
bridge connecting her neighbor-
hood to Mark West Springs Road.
The total price tag for the project
was more than $317,000.
Next, she will likely have to con-
tribute for a new retaining wall
in a landslide area. That replace-
ment cost is currently estimated
at between $144,000 and $175,000,
Leisen said.
Eventually, Leisen thinks most of those who
own property on the private Wikiup Bridge
Way will also collectively pay at least $300,000
to replace culverts and repave the road.
“I didn’t sign up for this,” she said, some-
what lightheartedly. “These extra expenses
and extra stresses aren’t helpful. There are
days that I wish I was in Coffey Park, where
all I was dealing with was the rebuild.”
Last year, before the fires, 27 homes stood
along Wikiup Bridge Way, by Leisen’s count,
including two south of the bridge between it
and Mark West Springs Road.
Now, with the disaster’s first anniversary
fast approaching, just three homes — includ-
ing one on the other side of the bridge — are
under construction, county figures show.
Leisen, who lost both the home she and her
husband lived in and a neighboring rental,
accounts for one of them. Her daughter and
son-in-law account for another.
Wikiup Bridge Way was among the last
Sonoma County neighborhoods to have its
debris fully cleared this spring. Subcontrac-
tors had difficulty figuring out how to get
their equipment in and out of the area due to
the loss of the old bridge, which was replaced
about six months ago with a new concrete
and steel structure.
The cleanup delay postponed the rebuild
for property owners on the rural private
street. Recently, Leisen has been able to make
significant progress on reconstructing the
rental, where she plans to live first before
moving into the main house.
Walls are up on the first house, and Lesien
expects the structure to be fully enclosed
in November, with completion targeted for
sometime in March.
“It’s all the peripheral stuff that just com-
pounds the stress of trying to deal with what
The bridge over Mark West Creek on Wikiup
Bridge Way has been rebuilt. The former bridge
was destroyed in the Tubbs fire.
is already kind of traumatic,” Leisen said.
Still, she said, “we’re getting there.”
Geologic studies bar the way
Some Wikiup area property owners faced
another expensive complication they only
recently overcame with help from the Board
of Supervisors.
County officials told owners of 56 fire-
ravaged properties earlier this year they had
to complete geologic studies before rebuilding
due to their proximity to the Rodgers Creek
Fault. The studies cost about $15,000 each,
according to county estimates, although some
fire survivors said they were quoted much
higher figures.
“It more than doubled our engineering
costs, just to put it in perspective,” said Fer-
nando Mora, a Wikiup Bridge Way property
owner whose rebuild came to a standstill be-
cause of the earthquake study requirement.
The county’s requirement had its roots in a
1972 state law called the Alquist-Priolo Earth-
quake Fault Zoning Act, which was designed
to prevent new construction on top of active
faults. While the state exempted single-family
homes from the geologic study requirement,
Sonoma County supervisors decided to lift that
exemption as part of an update to the county’s
general plan in 1989. County officials wrote the
change into their zoning rules in 1993.
On Sept. 18, however, the current supervisors
voted unanimously to devise a way for fire sur-
vivors to rebuild without completing a costly
geologic study. County staff members will study
their options for the three to four months.
For Mora, the vote finally gave his family the
necessary certainty to finally move forward.
“Since that day, I jumped on the whole
process. We’re in hyperdrive,” he said. “We’re
truly like kids in a candy store now.”
H7
PHOTOS BY CHRISTOPHER CHUNG / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
More progress in the area
Throughout the greater Larkfield-Wikiup
and Mark West Springs area, 245 homes are
currently under construction and eight have
been completed, including mobile homes,
according to county planning data.
The Tubbs fire wiped out more than 1,700
homes in the vast unincorporated region,
which starts north of Santa Rosa and runs
east into the Mayacamas Mountains.
In the Larkfield lowlands, two group
rebuilding efforts have continued to make
steady progress around Mark West Springs
Road and Old Redwood Highway. Orange
County-based Stonefield Cos., which has
manged three other group rebuilds after ear-
lier fires in California, is rebuilding 78 homes
in the devastated Mark West Estates subdivi-
sion. Many are in active construction.
The company announced last week it has
now secured county permits to rebuild 15
homes in Larkfield Estates, located oppo-
site Mark West Springs Road from the other
subdivision. Stonefield anticipates pouring
its first foundations in Larkfield Estates on
Wednesday, with completion targeted for both
communities by the end of summer next year,
weather depending. The first move-ins in Mark
West Estates could happen as early as January.
Another group rebuilder, Fairfield-based
Silvermark Construction Services, also con-
tinues to make progress on rebuilding a crop
of homes in Larkfield-Wikiup. A home the
company constructed on Willow Green Place
became the first rebuilt home finished in the
unincorporated county in June.
Elsewhere in Larkfield-Wikiup, members of
the family behind the Kendall-Jackson wine
empire have decided to scale down a proposed
housing development at the former Wikiup
Golf Course, which they bought in 2015. The
total number of homes envisioned for the
project, known as Wikiup Commons, has
been reduced from nearly 100 down to 64 amid
blowback from some people who live nearby.
After hosting a series of community meet-
ings this year, the developer will now need
to seek permits from the county planning
department.
Progress on electric lines
PG&E has now finished about 4 miles of
trenching to replace underground electric
lines the firestorm destroyed in Larkfield
Estates and Mark West Estates, according to
spokeswoman Deanna Contreras.
Contract crews hired by PG&E have also
completed installing underground utility
boxes to store transformers, switches and
telecommunications equipment, Contreras
said in an email.
Crews are done pulling the electric conduc-
tor through the conduit in Larkfield Estates
but still need to finish that work in Mark
West Estates. Workers will continue repaving
and replacing concrete on curbs where they
dug through the end of the year.
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018
SONOMA VALLEY »
Rebuilding progress has been sometimes painstakingly slow, but efforts continue
to move forward with neighbors helping each other all along the way
“Even a month ago, it didn’t seem like much was happening. But a lot is going on now,” says Arthur Dawson, who rests a foot on a tire swing suspended on a tree at his Warm Springs Road
Mix of highs, lows
property. It was one of the few items to escape last October’s Nuns fire.
for many residents
By JANIS MARA
H
SONOMA INDEX-TRIBUNE
ammers were banging,
bulldozers roaring and
houses taking shape up
and down O’Donnell Lane in Glen
Ellen, where the largest number
of Sonoma Valley homes was lost
in the wildfires.
Construction was underway
this month on 22 homes in Glen
Ellen, where 237 homes burned,
and on 20 homes in Kenwood,
where 139 houses were lost. That's
an increase of seven and eight
homes, respectively, in the three
weeks between Aug. 15 and Sept. 5
— a sizable gain for the valley,
which has lagged behind the rest
of the county in rebuilding.
A milestone has been reached
where O’Donnell Lane begins,
near the Glen Ellen Community
Church: A just-completed build-
ing is getting its final touch, a
fresh coat of white paint. It’s the
new garage of resident Rick Dun-
ham, whose home was saved from
the flames last October.
“(Construction) is picking up,” said Bryan
Lowney of New Creation Construction as he
pulled on his gloves, preparing to work on
a home nearby on O’Donnell. “Four houses
on this block are coming out of permit at the
same time.”
The progress has been painstaking.
“Even a month ago, it didn’t seem like
much was happening,” said Arthur Daw-
son, whose Glen Ellen home was destroyed
in the Nuns fire. “But a lot is going on
now.”
Further along on O’Donnell, workers were
swarming over the second story of a framed
house that had windows and siding in place.
In a nearby lot, workers were pouring a foun-
dation on a new home.
“The Glen Ellen people did an amazing job during
and after the fire of taking care of their community.”
JENNIFER GRAY THOMPSON, executive director of the Rebuild Northbay Foundation
“I’ve got people coming up to me every
day,” Lowney said.
Many contractors report being completely
booked. The heavy demand has driven up
prices for building projects.
Lowney gauged the range at $300 per
square foot up to $650 per square foot “for a
custom home on a hill.”
The costs stand in stark relief with the
financial hole that many fire survivors find
themselves in.
Emily Rogan of United Policyholders
noted that two-thirds of the 787 fire survivors
who responded to an April survey by her
group said they were underinsured by some
$300,000.
Underinsurance and soaring construc-
tion costs are two of the biggest challenges
for Sonoma Valley homeowners trying to
rebuild. Routine design and building in-
spections also eat up precious time, Lowney
said.
“You have to go through inspection once
you are formed up and steeling. A structur-
al engineer must sign off on forms, the city
must sign off, and while you are pouring
concrete, someone is standing there taking
samples,” Lowney said.
But such procedures are standard and
meant to safeguard the scores of homes be-
ing reconstructed each day across the county,
said Patrick Mullin, ombudsman with Permit
Sonoma, the county planning agency.
“When the engineer wants to make sure
the work complies with their design, the en-
gineer goes there with the building inspector.
That’s not the county’s call.”
“The engineer is saying, ‘I want this mix
with this kind of strength,’” he said.
County officials have received praise for
streamlining the permit process for fire
survivors. “When you call for a building in-
spection, the inspector goes out the next day,”
Mullin noted.
Dawson said the rebuilding experience is
one of highs and lows. “It’s a weird mix. You
go back and forth between frustration and
joy at unexpected gifts,” he said.
Help with over-excavation on lots
One such gift came to Dawson recently.
Over-excavation has been a big concern for
homeowners. In clearing soil covered in ash
after the fires, government contractors in
some cases removed too much soil.
H9
ROBBI PENGELLY / SONOMA INDEX-TRIBUNE
A remediation program was launched ear-
lier this year by state authorities to deal with
the over-excavated lots. Dawson was able to
enroll to get his property fixed.
“In late spring, I saw a story in the paper,
‘This is the last day to call if you think you
have been over-excavated,’” he recounted.
He made the call, and on Sept. 18, at his
home on Warm Springs Road one block over
from O’Donnell Lane, contractors managed
by the state Office of Emergency Services
were hard at work distributing fill on the
property — for free. Similar efforts are ongo-
ing throughout the valley.
Temporary home in trailers
Another unexpected gift came from the
Dawsons’ neighbors.
“Margie and Ritch Foster — their name
says it all,” Dawson said. When his home
burned, the Fosters called within days, offer-
ing him and his wife, Jill, a trailer the Fosters
purchased and set up on their property.
The Fosters also set up two others, one
for the Dawsons’ 17-year-old son and one for
another neighbor.
“The only rent we pay is the monthly pay-
ment on the trailers,” Dawson said.
Trailers are common at burn sites in the
valley. Permits for trailers and RVs soared
after the wildfires.
“Initially, people were in hotels, and once
they got their wits about them, they ordered
a trailer and moved onto their land,” said
Jennifer Gray Thompson, executive director
of the Rebuild Northbay Foundation.
Two permits for trailers or RVs were issued
by the county in November 2017 for the burn
area in Supervisor Susan Gorin’s district,
which includes the valley.
Eight were issued in December 2017,
jumping to 15 in January 2018, 13 in Febru-
ary, 16 in March, 17 in April, 10 in May and
six in June. The numbers dropped to three in
August and two as of Sept. 11.
In comparison, in the same time period
a year earlier, only six temporary trailer
permits were issued for the entire district
between November 2016 and September 2017.
No RV permits were issued.
“The Glen Ellen people did an amazing
job during and after the fire of taking care
of their community,” Thompson said. “They
re-housed most of the people in their commu-
nity by themselves.”
H10 THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018

The long rebuilding process, combined with a construction shortfall before

the fires, has sent rents and home prices soaring, crimping economic growth

PHOTOS BY KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Cleared homesites are visible on both sides of Fountaingrove Parkway on Monday in Santa Rosa. With wildfire damage compounding the slow pace of home construction prior to the

Housing shortage
October disaster, city and county officials have proposed ways to spur new residential construction that includes affordable housing.

creating ripples
By ROBERT DIGITALE

S
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

tephen Thomas loved his two-story

Cape Cod home in Coffey Park. But
after it burned in the wildfire a year
ago, he wasn’t about to build a replica
to replace it.
“That was a closed chapter,” said Thomas,
a retired Santa Rosa police commander.
Instead, Thomas and his wife, Linda, had
a new foundation poured this month for a
factory-built, zero-net-energy house on their
San Sonita Drive property in Santa Rosa.
The two-story, farmhouse-style home with a
loft will be built with sturdy insulated panels
rather than traditional wood framing.
The house, Thomas said, is “all electric and
all its energy comes from solar.”
The Thomases, who in the past year have
lived in three different temporary residences,
find themselves among those Sonoma County
fire survivors rebuilding homes in an area
with a decided lack of housing.
One year after the historic Tubbs fire, the
most destructive in state history, the rebuild-
ing of torched homes in the county is well un-
derway, with about a third in some stage of
the permit or construction process. However,
city and county officials still are struggling
with a second deficit: thousands of houses
never built here following a global recession
and a housing market crash 10 years ago.
The slow pace of new residential construc-
tion in the past decade and last fall’s fiery
destruction of about 5,300 county homes have
combined to create a pronounced shortage
many local elected officials and real estate
experts say led to an affordability crisis.
Apartment rents and single-family home Houses rise on a cul-de-sac off Hopper Avenue at Coffey Lane on Monday in Santa Rosa.
prices have soared since 2012, far outpacing
wage growth and forcing many workers to least initially has opposed it. Also, a recent house gas emissions. Also, her organization
commute longer distances from places with battle over redeveloping the old 82-acre doesn’t agree with the view of some county
less expensive housing. county-owned hospital property on Chanate leaders that up to 25,000 homes should be
Economist and civic leaders say the short- Road in the city’s northeast section shows that built here in the next five years.
age is preventing people from moving to the individual housing development proposals can “But if we don’t develop at all, we’re going
county and places an unwelcome brake on still meet intense neighborhood opposition. to lose our community,” Pistey-Lyhne said.
economic growth. Even though elected officials can’t take “Sonoma County needs to do its part” in
In response, city and county officials credit for spurring new housing develop- providing workforce housing, along with the
have proposed ways to spur new residential ments in the past year, they do point to a rest of the Bay Area, she said. She added she
construction. That includes Santa Rosa City growing consensus more homes are needed personally would welcome the chance to live
Council’s action last week to cut fees charged for working families that are vital to the com- in “a vibrant downtown core” in Santa Rosa
to builders for downtown projects of taller munity and its economy. and the discussion on new housing projects
apartment buildings and more affordable For evidence, look no further than the should move beyond “a fairly suburban
houses. overlapping positions of Sonoma County mindset.”
Also, Santa Rosa voters this November will Conservation Action, one of the prominent “There are still many people who are
decide the fate of a $124 million housing bond local environmental groups, and the North thinking of Santa Rosa as it was,” she said,
offering. Supporters say the bonds could Coast Builders Exchange, a construction “rather than what it could be and should be
provide the local match for state and federal trade group. in the future.”
funds to build upward of 4,000 new afford- Daisy Pistey-Lyhne, Conservation Action’s Keith Woods, CEO of the builders
able, or subsidized, homes. executive director, said new housing projects exchange, said the county will “not build
The housing bond’s passage is far from should meet a number of criteria, such as our way out” of the housing shortage with
assured because it requires a two-thirds avoiding sprawl and generating less effects in
approval and a major union organization at terms of water and energy use and green- TURN TO HOUSING » PAGE H11

“But if we don’t develop at all, we’re going to lose our community.

... Sonoma County needs to do its part.”
DAISY PISTEY-LYHNE, Conservation Action’s executive director on the development of new housing projects
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018 H11

BETH SCHLANKER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Felix Aguilar installs forms made of foam as part of the IntegraSpec building system being used for a new home in Santa Rosa’s Fountaingrove neighborhood.

HOUSING vice president Rick Laws. Of those, about

CONTINUED FROM H10
just new single-family homes. Developers
will need “to build up and not out,” he said,
and residents must accept taller buildings in
downtown Santa Rosa.
Woods predicted a spurt of housing will be
built along the Highway 101 corridor in the next
few years and “the emphasis on multi-family
will be like nothing we’ve seen in decades.”
Santa Rosa and county officials take
credit for making it easier to secure building
permits for those rebuilding homes in fire-
ravaged areas of Coffey Park, Fountaingrove,
Mark West and Sonoma Valley. Property
owners have applied to rebuild more than
1,800 of the burned homes, and more than
1,000 have actually started construction.
However, more than 600 other property
owners have listed their burned lots for sale
since November 2017, according to data pre-
pared by Pacific Union International senior
350 owners have sold. The median price for
the 41 sold lots in August was $245,000.
Santa Rosa Mayor Chris Coursey said the
first year of fire recovery has gone better
than expected. While he credited city staff
for a job well done in expediting construction
permit approvals, he said the resolve of fire
survivors was crucial.
“It mainly has to do with the resilience and
desire of people who lost their homes to stay
here and get their lives back,” Coursey said.
Rarely has progress on the massive rebuild-
ing effort come easily, though. Coffey Park
neighborhood resident Eric Edenfield chose
to replace his Starview Court home, but said
he would have “sold my lot and ran” eight
months ago if he had known what lay ahead.
A federal debris contractor this winter
took an extra foot of soil from his yard
during the cleanup. His city building permit
for the identical floor plan took a month rath-
er than a week to receive. And the contrac-
tor he signed with in January didn’t break
ground until June and still hasn’t finished
framing the house.
“My life has been on hold since the day of
the fire,” Edenfield said. “And it still is.”
With the rebuilding, local officials at least
can point to new foundations poured and
homes rising from the ground. On the new
home development front, there are few proj-
ects elected leaders can say they helped get
started since the Tubbs fire.
“Folks needs to understand that no prog-
ress has been made vis-à-vis units in the
ground,” said Santa Rosa councilman a lead-
er in the effort to approve the city housing
bond offering. “In fact, we’ve got a tremen-
dous deficit.”
New residential development is still
shaking off the effects of the housing crash
a decade ago, when a flood of foreclosures
sank home values. For years, developers
complained they couldn’t sell new houses for
what it would cost to build them.
From 2000 to 2008, builders constructed
nearly 18,000 new houses and apartments in
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H12
Sonoma County Supervisor James Gore takes a selfie with his cousin Steve Rahm, who lost
his home in Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park to the Tubbs fire, at a neighborhood gathering Sept. 26.
HOUSING
CONTINUED FROM H11
the county, according to estimates from
the state Department of Finance. In
the next eight years, that number fell
to about 6,300. Many officials consider
that difference of almost 12,000 homes
as an approximate count of the short-
fall in residential construction since
the downturn.
California Housing Partnership,
a nonprofit formed by the state Leg-
islature in 1988 as an advocate for
affordable housing, this spring esti-
mated Sonoma County needed 14,600
more affordable rental homes to meet
current demand. It concluded a typical
household must earn the equivalent of
$44.23 an hour — more than four times
the state minimum wage — in order
to afford the county’s median monthly
home rental listing of $2,300.
Similarly, the California Association
of Realtors estimates only 1 in 5 county
households could afford the median
priced home of $695,000 in the second
quarter of this year ending June 30.
A year earlier, 1 in 4 households here
could afford to make such a purchase.
A lack of housing statewide is
keeping families in other states from
relocating to California, even though
the economy here is humming, econ-
omist Christopher Thornberg said.
Conversely, there’s been an exodus of
lower-income households.
“When there’s no housing, it’s hard
for people to move here,” said Thorn-
berg, a founding partner of Los Ange-
les-based Beacon Economics.
Looking ahead, business leaders and
a representative for a major property
owner credited the city for last week’s
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018
A LOOK AT THE REBUILD EFFORT IN SONOMA COUNTY
Stay and rebuild, or sell and leave? It is the big question facing thousands of Sonoma County fire
survivors. The first wave of rebuilding accounts for little more than a third of the homes lost in
the county in October. A number of lots have changed hands or been put up for sale.
The big picture on reconstruction in September
31
1,029 Homes
Homes under rebuilt
construction
348
Permits
issued
KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
5,334
Total
homes lost
reduction of fees for certain projects in
and near downtown Santa Rosa.
The financial incentives “can and will
assist in starting development that has
been dormant or too complicated to get
off the ground,” said Efren Carrillo, a
former county supervisor and a consul-
tant for Petaluma-based Cornerstone 407 3,519
Properties. The company’s downtown Permits Homes
Santa Rosa real estate holdings include pending not rebuilt
the Pedersen’s furniture store property
and the building at 427 Mendocino Ave.
that’s home to The Press Democrat.
James Gore, chairman of the Sono-
ma County Board of Supervisors, said Property lots in burn zones listed for sale from Nov. 1 to Aug. 31
he and his colleagues soon will con- LOTS LISTED LOTS SOLD MEDIAN PRICE IN AUGUST
sider what to do with the long-vacant
county hospital site. The county this
year lost a lawsuit filed by neighbors
over environmental concerns tied to
616 351 $245,000
the property’s sale.
Gore, nonetheless, said there needs
to be a sense of urgency in providing
more housing countywide. Homes lost in October wildfires, by neighborhood*
“We’re in a crisis,” Gore said. “And Coffey Park, Fountaingrove, Larkfield and Mark West Springs include surrounding areas.
we still have a lot of people who don’t
want anything built unless it’s perfect 2,000
... I’m about better, not perfect, at this
point.”
Supervisor Shirlee Zane, who rep- 1,500 1,729
resents much of Santa Rosa, said un- 1,586 *28 homes in outlying or
1,473 unidentified areas excluded
less more homes are built “we’ll have from neighborhood counts
failed our most vulnerable residents.” 1,000
That includes seniors who can’t afford
rent increases and immigrant families
living in crowded, “Third World hous- 500
ing conditions.” 518
Local officials have done much to
encourage more home building, Zane 0
said, but “I think we’re finding it’s a lot COFFEY PARK FOUNTAINGROVE LARKFIELD SONOMA
harder than we anticipated.” AND MARK WEST AND BENNETT
SPRINGS VALLEYS
You can reach Staff Writer Robert Dig-
itale at 707-521-5285 or robert.digitale@ Sources: County of Sonoma, City of Santa Rosa, Pacific Union International THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter
@rdigit.
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018 H13

JOHN BURGESS / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Art Barclay, a Mendocino County deputy sheriff who lost his home in the October wildfires, is residing in a trailer parked in the driveway until his new Redwood Valley home is completed.

Recovering
By GLEN MARTIN

W
FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

hen the fire rolled down the mountain

from tragedy
toward Redwood Valley like an incan-
descent tsunami, Emily barely escaped
with her life. She ran into a vineyard
across Tomki Road, the flames literally licking at her
feet. Some neighbors found her days later, but she
was badly burned and in rough shape. She spent a
full month in the hospital.
Today she is sitting outside her trailer, basking in
the early morning sun. Nearby, Art Barclay regards
her with obvious fondness. Emily is a beautiful little

Redwood Valley residents bouncing back as

feline, with silky black fur and enormous yellow eyes.
But the wildfire that destroyed her home — shared

community slowly charts new path after fire TURN TO RECOVERING » PAGE H14

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H14 THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018

JOHN BURGESS / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Nancy and George Borecky, whose former home in Redwood Valley was destroyed on last October’s wildfires, are near completion of a new home. The couple
has chosen to include fire-resistant design and materials both inside and outside the house.

RECOVERING everything they owned to the flames, including

all the family photographs and mementos.
Dealing with insurance, regulators and con-
have a place to live. Our new house will be
finished fairly soon. Our basic needs are met.
So you try to move on. This has been a real
CONTINUED FROM H13 tractors has been trying at times. rough patch, but the one good thing that has
“We had 15 minutes to get out,” said Bar- come out of it is that the neighborhood has
with Barclay, his wife, Denise, and their clay, recalling that night last October when been brought closer together. Before the fire,
13-year-old grandson — marked her in a deep virtually every home on his street, Fisher everyone knew who was who, but now we
and indelible way. The tops of her ears are Lake Drive, burned to the foundations. “A really know — and like — each other.”
twisted and knotted with scar tissue. Her paws neighbor banged on our door, yelling that Just up Tomki Road not far from Fisher Lake
were scorched, and the fur along her toes has we had to leave. I went outside and looked Drive, Nancy and George Borecky also are
grown back white. behind our house. There was this glow that rebuilding their home — and their lives. Their
“Her behavior has changed, too,” mused lit up the whole horizon as the fire came over new house is nearing completion and incorpo-
Barclay, a Mendocino County deputy sheriff the ridge. And I’ll never forget that sound — rates both fire-resistant design and materials.
with mild eyes and a calm, almost avuncular this incredible roar.” “For example, we went with a concrete
demeanor. “She used to be an indoor cat. But The past year has been deeply traumatic porch instead of a wood deck,” said George.
now she’ll only come in to eat, and then she’ll for the Barclays for another reason: their “We looked at videos taken by a surveillance
run right back outside. I think she’s worried son-in-law was murdered in Santa Rosa in camera in a home that burned in a wildfire.
about being trapped.” June. Timothy Gillaspie was attending a The flames got under the decking to some
Emily’s story is a very small element dinner party at a neighbor’s house when the dried leaves and debris. It was a major ignition
in the tragedy of the Redwood Valley fire, home was invaded by Colorado resident Wal- point. All our siding and vents are fire-
which killed nine people and destroyed more ter Ross, who was searching for his estranged resistant, and we installed extensive sprinkler
than 300 homes. But her ordeal and struggle wife; Gillaspie intervened and was killed. systems both inside and outside the house.”
toward recovery are emblematic of the larger Ross also wounded two others at the home, The Boreckys also purchased adjoining lots
narrative that characterizes the event. including a 4-year-old boy. following the fire, which they’ll use to expand
The Barclays lost their home in the blaze, and “He was a hero,” Barclay said of Gillaspie the defensible space around their new home.
currently are living in a trailer on the property. as he sipped coffee outside his trailer. “You There have been a few glitches along the way,
It’s cramped, and the past year has felt like an can’t make sense of it. So basically, this
extended, enforced campout. They lost virtually past year has sucked. But it is what it is. We TURN TO RECOVERING » PAGE H15

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THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018 H15

RECOVERING
CONTINUED FROM H14
George said: most notably overzealous debris exca-
vation by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“That ended up being a $15,000 surprise,” he
said. “But all in all, it’s been fairly smooth. We got
some great coaching from our contractors about
submitting our blueprints and permit applica-
tions early, and that really helped.”
There was never any question of moving out of
Redwood Valley, Nancy said.
“We’ve been here 44 years,” she observed as she
watered some potted plants that will eventually
be used for landscaping the property. “This is our
home.”
George concurred, noting that he and his wife
were optimists by nature. “We weren’t going to
become victims. We weren’t going to let this thing
define us.”
It’s clear, though, that the properties along
upper Tomki Road are at continued risk from
wildfire. The road is narrow and winding, and
the adjacent slopes are steep. The destruction left
by last year’s fires is all too evident. Though new
homes are going up, many lots remain vacant.
There are vast stands of dead and blackened
snags, and much of the land has grown back in
grass and emergent chaparral, now tinder-dry
from the long, hot summer.
George, however, is convinced that the 2017
wildfire was an anomaly, not the new normal.
“I think that was a 500-year event,” George said.
“I’m not really worried. If I have one suggestion,
it’s that the emergency notification system should
be better. Last year, (firefighters) should’ve come
through here with a siren, evacuating everyone.
So some kind of alert system probably is in order.”
Nancy shares that basic perspective, though
she acknowledges the fire has affected her invol-
untary responses.
“I’ve never been afraid of much,” she said. “I’m
just not a very fearful or apprehensive person.
But now, whenever I see a column of smoke, I get
nervous. It makes me edgy.”
It’s clear from all the new homes going up in
the valley that many people — like the Barclays
and Boreckys — have elected to stay. But a
number have left, and it’s not certain if they’re
coming back. That’s apparent from the large
number of lots that remain vacant. And it’s also
obvious at the Redwood Valley Market, the main
gathering spot for the community. The market is
remarkably well-stocked for a rural and sparsely
populated area, with an extensive deli section
and a large meat counter showcasing an impres-
sive array of prime cuts. The vegetables in the
produce section are varied, fresh and crisp, and
a wide selection of local wines and microbrews
are displayed. The interior of the store is cool
and spotless, reflecting the care and dedication of
owners Alex and Anthony Chehada.
“Those first weeks after the fire were really
hard,” said Alex as he worked on his books in the
cramped back office of his store while his daugh-
ter played next to him. “We had to stay closed for
the first week following the fire. You never get
that business back. And it’s still pretty tough.
You can’t lose 300 homes in a community of this
“We could’ve had 5,000 firefighters and 50 engines and we wouldn’t have been able to stop it,” says Don Dale,
chief for Redwood Valley-Calpella Fire District, which covers 60 square miles and has a staff of 23.
size and expect everything to get back to normal
immediately. It takes time. A lot of time.”
Chehada said he didn’t know just how many peo-
ple had moved from the valley, but the downturn
in his business indicates it’s a significant figure.
“A lot of them moved to Ukiah,” he said, “and
when I see them I ask when they’re coming back,
and they say that they’re not. They’ve settled
down, and they’re just going to stay down there.
The good thing is that there’s a real sense of
community in Redwood Valley. People take care
of each other. Even old customers who’ve moved
out of the valley come back here to shop just to
support us.”
The station house for the Redwood Valley-
Calpella Fire District is just across the street from
the market. The district covers 60 square miles and
is served by five paid staffers and 18 volunteers.
That’s a lot of territory for such a small
department to cover, but more firefighters and
more engines wouldn’t have made much difference
on the night of Oct. 8, said Chief Don Dale.
“We could’ve had 5,000 firefighters and 50 en-
gines and we wouldn’t have been able to stop it,”
said Dale. “Under those conditions, you don’t try
to stop a fire. You don’t try to save property. You
just try to save lives, to get everyone out.”
District firefighters learned a lot about extreme
fire behavior that night, said Assistant Chief Pete
Brown — and some of the things they learned
contradicted previous assumptions.
“One thing we found is that vineyards are not
safe zones,” said Brown. “It might seem that they
are, but that night we saw fire blow right through
them, pushed by those incredibly strong winds,
burning everything. The only true safe zones
are large areas completely cleared of vegetation,
right down to bare dirt.”
A big part of any fire department’s mission is
JOHN BURGESS / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
applying lessons learned to future fires. But such
planning is also constrained by the realities of
infrastructure, funding and terrain. For example,
many of Redwood Valley’s roads — especially Tomki
Road, where much of the destruction from the Red-
wood Valley fire occurred — are narrow and steep,
making both evacuation and fire response difficult.
Ongoing fuels management is also a challenge.
“One thing we’re seeing is that the buildup of
light, highly flammable fuels (grass and weeds) on
the vacant lots (where houses burned) are posing
a growing threat to the new homes going up,” said
district Capt. Kerry Robinson. “We need to move
ahead with fuel removal to make sure all the new
construction isn’t threatened.”
Finally, said Brown, last year’s blaze may be
pointing to a new paradigm, one that has been
predicted for sometime by climatologists and
wildfire researchers: more and bigger fires.
“There was a time not too long ago when a
nighttime call on a vegetation fire wasn’t consid-
ered that big of a deal,” said Brown. “Now it’s a
very big deal. You take nothing for granted. You
respond with everything you have.”
More generally, Redwood Valley’s situation
underscores a truism about natural catastrophes:
there is no clear endpoint. Recovery takes more
than months, or even years. Long after the ashes
are cold, the floodwaters recede or the ground
stops shaking, the trauma remains. The wounds
heal slowly; some may never completely mend.
But it’s also true that the human will is indom-
itable, and that people are compelled to reclaim
their lives.
“We’re going to hang on,” said Redwood Valley
Market owner Alex Chehada. “The people in this
valley are helping us pull through. We’re all here
for each other. People will come back. We’re going
to rebuild.”

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THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018
Rebuild NORTH BAY
Sunset Developers owner Ron Ferraro, third from right, chats with construction workers who have joined him from the East Coast to help in Sonoma
Three journeys
County’s rebuilding effort. His company has bought lots, including one on Franz Valley Road, and is building homes to address the housing shortage.
at crossroads
With new lives forged by wildfires,
2 families and developer faced
challenges on path toward recovery
T
By JOHN BECK
FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
he first urge is primal — should I stay or
should I go?
You wake to the smell of smoke or
someone banging on your front door.
Flames engulf your entire field of vision. Adrena-
line kicks in, and you react without thinking.
That was the nightmare-turned-reality as
people awoke in the dead of night on Oct. 8 just
one year ago. There was no warning as the Tubbs
fire screamed down the canyons from Calistoga
to Santa Rosa, where it jumped Highway 101 in a
sea of airborne embers. Spurred by the same dry
Diablo winds, the Nuns fire ignited in Sonoma
Valley, as the Atlas fire spread through Napa.
Over the next week, nearly two dozen fires had
sparked across Sonoma, Napa, Lake, Mendocino
and Solano counties. The blanket of smoke was so
massive it appeared as ghostly plumes in satellite
images taken from space.
When the flames were out a month later, more
than 5,300 homes had burned to the ground in
Sonoma County, leaving chimneys as tombstones
and many victims with little more than what they
H17
PHOTOS BY JOHN BURGESS / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
wore to bed.
A year later, their stories have become our leg-
ends. There are the neighbors who stayed to fight
the flames armed only with garden hoses. Others
fled as fast as they could, leaving pets and valu-
ables behind. But there’s another fight-or-flight
decision that comes many months later: Should I
stay and rebuild after everything was destroyed?
Or cut ties and move away to start all over again
in a new town?
Then there are the newcomers, arriving like
riders on the storm. They see an opportunity
and have moved to a region that many wanted to
escape, hoping to help a community in need.
Around every bend, the challenges are daunt-
ing: finding temporary housing, negotiating
with insurance adjustors, working with a new
builder, navigating the permitting process, in
some cases even paying for earthquake hazard
studies.
Today many are still coming to terms with
those decisions. Here’s a look at two families —
the Sherwoods and the Leetes — and an outside
developer from New York, who chose very differ-
ent paths at a catastrophic crossroads. Their lives
will be forever defined as “before the fire” and “af-
ter the fire.” But how they’ve picked themselves
up and charted a new course that may prove the
most impactful decision of their lives.
TURN TO CROSSROADS » PAGE H18
Brad Sherwood walks his wife, Brandy, and their children, Grant
and June, along with their dog, Henry. The family hopes to rebuild
their Larkfield home early next year.
H18
“There was never any question of if we would rebuild, it was just
how. We were dead set on not letting the fire get the best of us.”
BRAD SHERWOOD, resident in Santa Rosa’s Larkfield Estates neighborhood whose family lost their home to the Tubbs fire
Brad Sherwood watches as crews cut down a burned walnut tree March 23 on his leveled, Larkfield Estates homesite. He and other homeowners lost their houses to the Tubbs fire.
CROSSROADS
CONTINUED FROM H17
BRAD
SHERWOOD
S
tanding where he stood in
awe more than nine months
ago, Brad Sherwood holds
up his cellphone to show the fiery
image he snapped just before the
Tubbs fire roared through his
Larkfield Estates neighborhood
after midnight.
A hellish orange glow silhou-
ettes the trees in his neighbor’s
yard across the street. Several
minutes later, his neighbor’s
house would catch fire as he and
his family sped away from their
home for the last time.
Sherwood flips back a few pho-
tos on his phone, and there he is
with his wife, Brandy, 8-year-old
son, Grant, and 6-year-old daugh-
ter, June, picking out pumpkins at
Punky’s earlier in the evening of
Oct. 8. The electric orange jack-
o’-lantern T-shirt he’s wearing is
the same one his neighbors would
wake up to as he raced from house
to house banging on doors in the
dark while propane tanks explod-
ed in the distance.
There’s a photo of his kids putting up Hal-
loween decorations, hanging a giant spider
in the walnut tree in the front yard. On the
lawn, one of the kids chases Henry, the gol-
dendoodle who would later beg for a walk to
relieve himself around 11 p.m., alerting Brad
to the first smell of smoke.
Today, so much in these images is gone
— the 120-year-old walnut tree and the
house they moved into five years ago, half
of it crumbling into their backyard pool,
pushed over by tornado-force southwesterly
winds and flames. But the dead silence they
returned to only days later has been replaced
by the sweet sound of bulldozers and nail
guns. All around the neighborhood, the
rebuild is in full swing. New houses are being
framed. Temporary PG&E lines are in place.
Where once there were septic tanks, a new
sewer line will be dug.
“There was never any question of if we
would rebuild, it was just how,” Sherwood
said. “We were dead set on not letting the fire
get the best of us.”
Traumatized by the total loss, the Sher-
woods nevertheless wanted to stay in Lark-
field Estates because “this is the community
we fell in love with,” Sherwood said.
It’s where they walked the kids five min-
utes to school at Riebli Elementary. Brad and
Brandy both commuted five minutes to work.
Grant learned to ride his bike on the track
at nearby Cardinal Newman High School.
Every Friday night, they could hear the foot-
ball crowd cheering from their house. When
the circus comes to the Luther Burbank
Center every year, they can hear the big-top
music and applause. Brad coaches soccer
and baseball on nearby fields at Mark West
Elementary.
“My wife and I used to joke that we never
escaped this 5-mile bubble,” Sherwood said.
Tubbs fire survivors Brad Sherwood of Larkfield, second right, listens as Phil Demery of Fountaingrove
speaks out against possible legislative changes to utility liability law during a press conference July 11
in front of Sherwood’s empty lot in the Larkfield Estates neighborhood of Santa Rosa.
“Everything we needed has always been
here.”
A neighbor across the street often brought
over apple pies she baked from fruit harvest-
ed from a Gravenstein tree in her backyard
(which didn’t survive the fire). Another
neighbor often left bags of vine-ripe tomatoes
from her garden on their doorstep. There was
the neighbor who would warn them of any
suspicious activity. And another who kept
beehives in their yard.
“Even without the houses, you can’t take
away the people,” Sherwood said.
When the Sherwoods host-
ed “the first annual Larkfield
Estates Rebuild Barbecue”
at their lot on a Thursday in “We haven’t
early August, more than 100
neighbors showed up, along
slowed down at
with the Rincon Valley Fire
District crew that responded
all since the fire.
the night of Oct. 8.
If permitting goes to plan,
I think part of
their new foundation will
be poured in a few weeks.
that is a coping
But getting to this point has mechanism just
been a daily grind, forcing
Brad and Brandy to take on to keep busy.”
roles they’ve never played:
BRAD SHERWOOD,
negotiators, block captains,
Tubbs fire survivor who is
homebuilders and trauma working to rebuild his home
psychologists.
After more than six
months of contentious,
drawn-out negotiations with their insurance
adjustors, all that remains is compiling the
final contents list.
“We were definitely underinsured,” says
Brad, who works as a spokesman for the
Sonoma County Water Agency. “We were so
loud and vocal that they had a full customer
crisis team come meet with us. I always had
them meet us at our lot. They asked us to
come to their tent (a temporary site at the
Airport Business Center), and I said, ‘No,
you’re coming to our lot.’ I wanted them to
see the damage firsthand every time.”
They quickly learned the importance of
keeping a paper trail and a written record of
interactions with insurance agents.
“I’ve been telling all my neighbors to
write letters, write emails. Don’t talk on the
phone. Don’t communicate verbally. Put it in
writing. Because the more you write it down,
there’s more of a trail of evidence showing
their lack of response, and they don’t like
that.”
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018
KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
BETH SCHLANKER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
In the end, they got full dwelling coverage
and 20 percent overage for the rebuild.
After helping reunite their neighborhood
under the banner “Larkfield Strong,” the
Sherwoods teamed up with 14 other neigh-
bors for a discounted group rebuild with
Stonefield Homes, a father-and-son crew out
of Orange County. To get the discount, they
all had to agree on the same floor plan, give
or take a few minor modifications.
When he talks about rebuilding, there
is of course talk of dollars and cents and
floor-plan dimensions, but transcending all
numbers is the rebuilding of
family.
“We haven’t slowed down
at all since the fire,” Sher-
wood said. “I think part of
that is a coping mechanism
just to keep busy. There’s not
a day goes by that the mental
trauma isn’t still there.”
The Sherwoods were lucky
to land a three-bedroom
rental house in Windsor, but
stress and upheaval still lie
just under the surface. Brad
and Brandy don’t sleep well
anymore. If they’re watching
a movie with baby animals,
June will start crying, think-
ing of their chickens Heihei
and Roxy and box turtle Ra-
phael, who were left behind.
The pain of seeing a toy they once owned at
the store is often too much.
Brad still gets choked up as he talks about
how Grant has looked after his younger sister
since the fires. Even though their rental has
three bedrooms, the kids insist on sleeping in
the same room.
In February, the Sherwoods took a sponta-
neous trip to Mexico just to “get away from it
all.” They splurged on things “we probably
never would have paid for,” Sherwood said,
which means they not only swam with the
dolphins, but also bought the video to remind
them.
Along the way, they’ve tried to preserve re-
minders of a time before the fire, mementos
that won’t get lost in the mad dash to rebuild.
The only monuments left standing after
the fire were a wrought-iron gate and the
chimney. The towering walnut tree burned
and had to be cut down — but they saved
TURN TO CROSSROADS » PAGE H19
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018
Ron Ferraro, who moved 40 workers and his company, Sunset Developers, from the East Coast, is helping with Sonoma County’s rebuilding effort.
CROSSROADS
CONTINUED FROM H18
the wood and are working with an artist to
repurpose it as a new dining-room table, a
buffet table and a fireplace mantel.
Brad plans to replant a foot-high walnut
seedling that sprung to life from ashes in the
front yard. And, before the lot was cleared,
he pried loose a piece of concrete, part of a
walkway he built from the driveway to the
backyard a year after they moved in. You can
still see where the kids pressed their hands in
the wet cement.
“I don’t know where yet, but we’ll find a
place for it in the new house,” he said.
For now it’s in a storage unit, along with
boxes of photo albums and a bird cage they
crammed in the car before escaping the fire.
Nearby are several dirty buckets filled with
charred jewelry, Grant’s rock collection and
the barrel of Brad’s grandfather’s 12-gauge
shotgun — all treasures they found while
sifting through the ruins. Brad hasn’t told
the kids their handprints survived. But just
knowing they did gives him hope. It will be a
surprise to present once they move in, hope-
fully by spring of 2019.
“It’s so crappy that something horrible
like this had to happen to us, but man does
humanity win in the end. We’re going to take
advantage of this horrible situation to make
something good out of it.”
“I saw what happened
with Sandy and I saw
how the community
came together ... That’s
the same thing happening
here now, and I want
to be a part of it.”
RON FERRARO, founder of Sunset Developers
RON FERRARO
R
on Ferraro still remembers the insurance scam artists who
moved in weeks after Hurricane Sandy nearly destroyed his Long
Island home in 2012. Unaware that he was a local developer, they
tried to talk him into signing quick contracts to elevate his house and
prevent future flooding.
“They wanted to see my insurance policy and see how much I was cov-
ered for,” he remembered. “I said, ‘Goodbye, there’s the door.’ ”
Armed with a thick New York accent and
rapid-fire delivery, he knows that’s exactly
how he would come across if he went from
neighborhood to neighborhood chatting up
families looking to rebuild after the Sonoma
County fires.
“That’s why I’m not going out there solicit-
ing business,” Ferraro said. “You hear about
these contractors going out and signing
up 100 people to rebuild. I can see it now —
who’s this guy from New York coming in here
trying to take our money?”
It’s an age-old scenario: Opportunists seiz-
ing the moment after catastrophic events, from
the carpetbaggers heading south after the Civil
War to the outside contractors looking to profit
after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
Instead of going door to door, Ferraro’s
plan is to buy lots, build from the ground up,
and put them on the market. So far, he’s pur-
chased seven lots in Fountaingrove, ranging
from around $250,000 to $300,000. He just got
his first building permit, and will start build-
ing at 1912 Fountainview Circle. While he’s
waiting on permitting for the rest of the lots,
he’s finishing a rebuild on Franz Valley Road,
just east of Safari West.
When he first arrived in Sonoma County
in 2015, Ferraro was looking to invest in the
emerging cannabis market. Renting a house
on South Fitch Mountain Road in Healdsburg,
he commuted from coast to coast, typically
staying about two weeks in Sonoma County
and then three or four weeks back in Long Is-
land, where his fiancée lives. A year later, he
founded Banger Distribution, which invested
in local farmers, helping them build four mar-
ijuana gardens and grow facilities in Sonoma
County. In return, Ferraro distributes their
product to dispensaries around the state.
It was a challenging new business model
for a guy who started out in the Long Island
granite business in his early 20s and began
buying up foreclosed houses on the cheap in
2012 and flipping them. After about 40 flips,
H19
JOHN BURGESS / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
he moved on to building new houses under
his company, Sunset Developers.
On Oct. 8, the night of the Tubbs fire,
Ferraro found himself racing to one of the
marijuana farms to rescue workers in his
van. Soon after the wrenching events of that
week, he began to formulate a plan to move
Sunset Developers to the West Coast and see
how he could help rebuild Sonoma County.
“I saw what happened with Sandy and I
saw how the community came together,” he
said. “Everyone helped each other out. And
that’s the same thing happening here now,
and I want to be a part of it. I think I have
something to add to it.”
Since then, he’s relocated nearly 40 work-
ers from Long Island. Some he puts up in
rental housing. Others live in temporary
work-site housing he imported from China.
He’s paid to move his right-hand man and
general contractor and his family to the
region. His foundation guy is relocating once
they get through the first round of permit-
ting.
“I was looking at the insurance thing (the
idea of approaching victims with insurance
claim settlements). But I said, ‘We’re not doing
that.’ We’re gonna build. We’ll take the clients
through afterward. I want to have four different
houses. In every one I’m gonna do a different
kitchen, so I can show the homeowners — you
want this cabinet? You want that cabinet?”
The way Ferraro explains it comes across
with all the confidence and personality of an
HGTV show host (think “Flip or Flop: Long
Island”). A natural-born networker, he said
he’s always been driven to look for the next
business venture. If his plans work out, he’s
hoping to put down roots as he builds dozens
of homes over the next five years.
“I’m injecting a lot of money into this
community because I believe in it,” he said.
“I love this place — it’s where I want to live.”
TURN TO CROSSROADS » PAGE H20
H20 THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018

CROSSROADS ment in order to streamline rebuilding efforts.

“It really was arbitrary, and from a geolog-
ical standpoint a number of geologists will
CONTINUED FROM H19 tell you it’s not even applicable to that area.
It’s not the kind of (earthquake) faulting
they’re even talking about.”
Earlier this month, the Board of Supervisors
GARY LEETE

L
agreed to come up with a way for fire survivors
to rebuild without the expensive studies. But it
ong before the Tubbs fire last year, one of Gary Leete’s darkest came too late for the Leetes. After going round
memories was of “walking point” in the Vietnam War. It involved and round with the county, the Leetes began
walking out in front of a combat patrol in the jungle with a scout to realize it might be at least three years before
they could move into a new home.
dog, exposed, looking for booby traps and landmines. “The real frustrating part is you keep hear-
“Well, this fire hit me harder than my Vietnam experience,” Leete ing ‘Sonoma Strong,’ ‘Sonoma Strong.’ But at
said. “One thing is fear, the other is total loss. The loss of refuge to me some point you just get into these mindless
platitudes, and it kind of drives me crazy. I
was the biggest thing.” was at the point of referring to the county,
His sanctuary for more than 30 years was perched on a Wikiup hill- and the permitting people, and this geologi-
side, where he and his wife, Brooks, raised their two sons. In recent cal survey as ‘Sonoma Wrong’ because it was
ticking me off so much.”
years, Brooks had fully remodeled the house, totally refurbishing the That’s when the Leetes began to think
kitchen, adding an art studio, and redecorating with her family’s heir- about moving. Before the fires, they’d enter-
loom antique furniture. tained the idea, as recent retirees with grown
children. They even thought about relocating
They lost it all in the fire. as far away as Edinburgh, Scotland. But
after weighing the logistics of relocating to a
Afterward, the Leetes were able to stay at foreign country, they dropped that idea.
a friend’s summer vacation house outside On vacation in late March, in Leete’s home
Calistoga. Months passed before Gary Leete state of Montana, they rented a cabin near
felt ready to consider their options and plan Red Lodge and began looking at the local real
for the future. estate market. Five days later, they put in an
“It took a while to regain confidence and offer on a secluded house at the end of a long,
start making decisions and moving forward,” winding driveway, surrounded by cotton-
said Leete, 72, who retired several years ago wood, birch and aspen trees. They looked at a
as deputy director of the California Depart- half-dozen other houses from the outside, but
ment of Rehabilitation. this was this only one they entered.
The night of the Tubbs fire on Oct. 8, they “It was really a leap of faith,” Leete said.
knew nothing about its origins in Calistoga. By May 1, they were moving to the
“I woke up to a roar,” he said. “We sleep with picturesque mountain town with a population
the French doors open, and I looked out and of 2,237. The house they bought is worth just
saw the orange glow and saw our neighbor’s a little more than the appraised value of their
house behind us on fire.” Wikiup house. In July, they sold their Wikiup
They had just returned from Vancouver, lot, providing full disclosure of county-
British Columbia, that weekend and were required earthquake hazard studies.
able to rescue Lulu, their pit bull mix, Leete’s Now they have a creek running through
briefcase, which contained their passports, their backyard in Montana, where Leete likes
and his wife’s computer bag before they to fly-fish. At an elevation above 5,000 feet,
heard someone on a bullhorn yelling, “Get three of their favorite pastimes — downhill
out! Get out! Get out!” skiing, cross-country skiing, and rafting —
“Our initial response like most people are only minutes away.
was to rebuild,” he said. They even met with But their new home is not without its own
Lindal Homes, a builder of modular cedar set of challenges. A few weeks ago, after
homes. They were drawn to the sleek and JIM ABEL going into town, the couple and Lulu the dog
simple architectural lines, but more impor- Tubbs fire survivor Gary Leete, who examines a returned home to find a mama bear and cub
tantly the short assembly and build time. fly-fishing lure, and his wife decided to let go of ransacking their house. The scavengers took
At first they felt lucky to have updated their lot in Wikiup and relocate to Montana. an apple off the kitchen table and broke into
their insurance four months before the fires. the dog food in the pantry.
But they still had to battle with adjustors, those living in what is known as a Geologic “We’ve definitely learned to shut the win-
going back and forth on numbers before Hazard Combining District, which mandates dows before we leave now,” Leete said, with
eventually settling most of their insurance “specific geological studies before develop- a laugh.
claim five months later. They’re still compil- ment to avoid active fault areas.” In early summer, he was still looking for-
ing the contents list. “We couldn’t even move toward rebuilding ward to catching his first trout in the 1,000 feet
One of the biggest setbacks came in March, until they gave their approval,” Leete said. of creek that run through his backyard.
when they learned the county was requiring “And that’s when we moved to try to battle “I’ve already located a place where I think
earthquake hazard studies before homes this requirement as we learned more about it.” I’ll catch a fish once the water slows down. I
near fault lines, including Leete’s, were Leete and other neighbors met with Sono- fully plan to barbecue it and have a ceremony
rebuilt. In a letter, Permit Sonoma Director ma County Supervisor James Gore’s staff to here with my wife, and we’ll celebrate with
Tennis Wick said the requirement applied to see if the county might suspend the require- some Sonoma wine.”

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H22 THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018

PHOTOS BY KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT, 2017

Community united
Concertgoers fill San Francisco’s AT&T Park in November in support of the Band Together benefit concert, featuring performers like Metallica’s James Hetfield, below, for North Bay fire relief.

All year long,

A
s flames were still raging in Sonoma Coun-
ty last October, community leaders were

charities across launching fundraising efforts that would

within weeks amass tens of millions of dollars from

North Bay step

thousands of donors around the globe.
Some focused on immediate needs: getting fire sur-
vivors and nonprofits the money necessary to push
up to raise funds through another grueling day. Other campaigns
were meant to address the yearslong recovery effort
for recovery following the most destructive siege of wildfire in
California history.

effort, residents In the year after the unprecedented disaster, much

of the money has been invested back into Wine
Country communities still struggling to recover
By HANNAH BEAUSANG from the 23-day onslaught of flames. Across Sono-
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT ma, Napa, Mendocino and Lake counties, more than

TURN TO UNITED » PAGE H23

Member FDIC | NMLS #458732

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018 H23

ALVIN JORNADA / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Sheriff’s Deputy Brandon Jones

KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT talks about evacuating residents WILL BUCQUOY / FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Dave Matthews, right and Tim Reynolds perform Nov. 9 during the Band during the Tubbs fire during Leann Rimes performs during a North Bay wildfire benefit concert on
Together benefit concert for North Bay fire relief in San Francisco. Thicker Than Smoke on Aug. 3. Nov. 4 at the Jam Cellars Ballroom in Napa.

UNITED
CONTINUED FROM H22
6,200 homes were lost and 40 lives taken. In
Sonoma County alone, more than 150 com-
mercial properties were destroyed.
The fires stretched resources for groups
tasked with aiding regular clients and thou-
sands of fire survivors who found themselves
needing help for the first time.
The fundraising made possible thousands
of checks that went directly to those who lost
homes or wages. Other funds have been allo-
cated to nonprofits working with fire victims
or to businesses or schools.
San Francisco-based nonprofit Tipping
Point Community was behind the single larg-
est fundraising effort, collecting almost
$33.9 million through individual donations
and two concerts with headliners Metallica,
the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Dave Matthews.
“The outpouring was immediate and
amazing,” said Karina Moreno, Tipping Point
Community’s chief of staff.
The organization raised $21 million DARRYL BUSH / FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
through its two concerts, with the remaining Bonnie Hunt, left, jokes with Brad Paisley during their performance for Thicker Than Smoke, a fire relief
$12 million coming from 3,310 donors, Moreno benefit show, on Aug. 4 at Sonoma State University’s Green Music Center in Rohnert Park.
said. The money was granted to 48 organiza-
tions working with fire victims, she said. and health, Moreno said. Union’s chief operating officer, said of the
The 61 grants ranged from the $2.5 million The North Bay Fire Relief Fund, a part- outpouring of gratitude from recipients.
to Santa Rosa Community Health to help nership of Redwood Credit Union, The Press “Every day we are hearing stories of survival
replace its Vista Clinic that was destroyed in Democrat and state Sen. Mike McGuire, and thanks for getting me on my feet.”
the fires to a $9,000 allocation to Santa Rosa’s emerged as another fundraising force, gener- Additionally, the fund supported more
Gateway to College program. The funding ating and distributing more than $32 million. than 60 nonprofits with $9.5 million in grants,
came with reporting requirements and The fund provided $20.5 million directly Negri said. Organizations were vetted by
agreements to ensure funds were used for to fire victims, reaching 6,593 people who officials from impacted counties, and grants
programs for fire victims, Moreno said. lost homes or experienced economic hard- came with reporting requirements to ensure
A consultant was brought on board as ship from the fires, 102 first responders and they were used to aid fire victims.
Tipping Point worked with local contacts to 2,253 students who lost homes. The average The disbursements included $1 million for
identify and vet recipients, selecting orga- check size was $1,125, said Redwood Credit 237 fire-impacted businesses in Sonoma, Napa,
nizations that work with low-income resi- Union spokeswoman Tracy Weitzenberg. Lake and Mendocino counties, Weitzenberg
dents with fire-related programs focused on “I honestly have hundreds of letters and
housing, social services economic recovery cards,” Cynthia Negri, Redwood Credit TURN TO UNITED » PAGE H24

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UNITED
CONTINUED FROM H23
said. More than $940,000 was distributed for
fire victims’ health and dental care or replac-
ing lost sporting equipment.
UndocuFund focused on supporting undoc-
umented immigrants, some of whom slept
on beaches to avoid government-run shelters
or who didn’t apply for FEMA aid because of
their citizenship status. It has raised about
$6.5 million from 8,162 individual donors,
organizers said.
It’s provided more than $5.9 million in
checks to 1,824 households, UndocuFund
Coordinator Omar Medina said. Those seek-
ing aid applied to trained,
bilingual volunteers at
clinics across the county,
said Susan Shaw, co-director
of the North Bay Organizing
Project, one of the entities
that created the fund. The
average check size is $3,157,
and the remaining money
Omar will be given to families who
Medina have lost homes by year’s
end, Medina said.
“It hasn’t been enough — the need is so
huge … It’s such a small help for people who
give so much,” Shaw said. “People are so
incredibly grateful.”
While some efforts focused on the short-
term recovery, United Way of the Wine Coun-
try attempted to blend the $8 million it raised
through its disaster relief fund to fill imme-
diate needs and meet the lasting challenge
of recovery. The funding came largely from
grants, with about $1.6 million from more
than 2,200 individual donors and 112 organi-
zations, said Vice President of Community
Benefit Jennifer O’Donnell.
So far, United Way has distributed more
than $5.1 million to 6,024 fire-affected house-
holds, with checks ranging from $250 to $750,
and $1,000 to those who lost homes. The fund
has also provided $750,000 to 11 businesses at
the request of the donor; and to two childcare
centers and Sonoma County Children’s Char-
ities, O’Donnell said.
It has also allocated $600,000 to long-term
relief groups in Sonoma and Mendocino
counties, where case managers work with
fire victims to determine their unmet needs
and how agencies can work together to
fill them. Another $100,000 will be given in
grants to neighborhood groups seeking to
rebuild or to bolster future preparedness.
The organization aims to allocate the
remaining $1.9 million to sustain longer-term
needs by June, O’Donnell said.
“In the first few weeks I was just over-
whelmed by how much concern and support
we were getting and fire survivors and the
community were getting. ... It was so amaz-
ing. I’ve never been through anything like
that before,” she said. “But as time goes on,
people’s attention is turned to other things.
... There are so many hurricanes and fires
Elizabeth Brown, president and CEO, and J. Mullineux, vice president of philanthropic planning, have
helped Community Foundation of Sonoma County’s Resilience Fund raise $14 million for fire relief.
that people may feel like they can’t give to
everyone.”
Other efforts include the Community
Foundation Sonoma County’s Resilience
Fund, which has so far raised $14 million
from more than 7,000 donations. It and
similar efforts are focused solely on mending
the community in years to come, seeking
to address long-term trauma, fund housing
solutions and help individuals.
“Our role is take the long view around the
recovery. It can feel painful for me to say it
and to hear it, but we have funds that we’re
not expending today because we know the
recovery is going to take at least five years,”
said Elizabeth Brown, CEO of Community
Foundation Sonoma County. “We feel it’s the
most effective way for us to make an impact.”
It has allocated another $1.5 million to be
spent by the end of the year on housing solu-
tions and helping a coalition of entities meet
fire victims’ needs.
From its funds, so far $1.8 million has
been spent, including $300,000 in emergency
grants to 11 local nonprofits and $470,000 to
Legal Aid of Sonoma County and United
Policyholders to help fire victims navigate
insurance and legal processes, Brown said.
The most recent round of grants, totaling
$1 million, went to mental health efforts,
including a $750,000 grant to Santa Rosa Com-
munity Health to fund the Sonoma Commu-
nity Resilience Collaborative, which has also
received grants from Tipping Point and the
North Bay Fire Relief Fund.
The collaborative of more than 12 local en-
tities will host three trainings over 24 months
to equip fire victims to deal with trauma.
About 300 residents will receive training
and will in turn teach resilience skills to an
estimated 8,000 people in their own commu-
nities, said Santa Rosa Community Health’s
KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Director of Communication and Grant Devel-
opment Annemarie Brown.
“These grants are helping us support and
implement a model that’s looking at the lon-
ger-term aspect of recovery and the personal
aspect of recovery. It’s not just about having
your house or your job, it’s about how are
you feeling? Are you feeling strong and stable
and connected to the community?” she said.
The Rebuild Northbay Foundation, a non-
profit that aims to unite public and private
sectors in the region’s recovery, has raised
$3.7 million, about half of which came from
about 115 donors. It was founded by Darius
Anderson, a Sonoma developer and lobbyist
who is managing member of Sonoma Media
Investments, which owns The Press Democrat.
Of the total raised, $1.4 million has been
pegged to invest in community projects over
the course of at least five years, with the
remainder reserved for long-term organi-
zational costs and other needs, according to
Jennifer Gray Thompson, the group’s execu-
tive director.
So far, $275,000 has been donated to Lake
County during the Pawnee fire, to create an
online portal of resources and provide
5,000 emergency bags stocked with goods like
universal chargers and flashlights that will
be disseminated this month, Thompson said.
The group also allocated $950,000 to re-
building walls in Coffey Park and fences in
Larkfield Estates and Mark West Estates.
“The recovery and rebuild will take every
single one of us. Whether we’ve lost homes,
we all have a role in rebuilding,” Thompson
said.
You can reach Staff Writer Hannah Beaus-
ang at 707-521-5214 or hannah.beausang@
pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @hannah-
beausang.

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THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018
MEGAN AND
MATT CONDRON
Ages: 38 and 41
Before the fire, our world was simple. Emotionally, the past
year has been a roller coaster. We saw beauty in the human spirit,
generosity and resilience amongst the sadness and loss. And while
I truly value being able to share this tragedy with our friends and
family and feel that our sense of community is stronger than ever,
it is also very tricky to navigate everyone’s emotions and how
each person deals with the event differently.
I am particularly saddened for the youth of Santa Rosa who all
lost a small piece of their innocence that night. Each child was
awoken from their bed, some in a calm fashion, others more fran-
tically. Whether they learned that they lost everything the next
morning or not, the experience of evacuating and the aftermath
of the destruction will remain with them for a long time. The fire
was also a reminder that nothing is guaranteed. Live for today
because you never know what tomorrow will hold.
DR. HEATHER J. FURNAS
Age: 61
When we learned that most of our friends fled their houses
with nothing, some barely escaping with their lives, we felt lucky
to each have a suitcase and a laptop. I look at everything that was
in that suitcase with a certain reverence. They’re all that’s left
from my pre-fire life.
In many ways we are fortunate, but coming to grips with all
that we have lost has still been difficult. Early on, the loss of those
memories was so intense, it felt as if a part of me had died. But I’m
particularly grateful that I didn’t lose a loved one or a pet, and I
never had to experience escaping for my life.
I dearly miss my house, my garden, the breathtaking views,
my walks and my friends. Many of my close group of friends
have scattered north and south like seeds blown by the wind. I
lost not just a home, but a community. We get together much less
frequently now that we live so far from each other, but when we
do, we feel a particularly strong bond.
I find it’s hard to buy things because I don’t really want things.
The things I lost were associated with my life, my travels, my fami-
ly, my memories. I find I drink up the present more, since it’s pain-
ful to look back, and the future is so unknown. I treasure each day
I’m alive, each day I have with my husband, and each day my kids
share their news. These days will become memories themselves,
and someday I know I will pull some pearls from the experience,
but right now I’m adjusting to the grains of sand inside my shell.
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H27
Views on
life 1 year
after
TOM SCHWEDHELM
Age: 58
I still remember that Monday morning walking back in the
neighborhood. I’m coming down Coffey Lane, and I’m seeing
wildfires
that all the houses are gone. I’m walking down with my nephew
and he says, “Uncle Tom, I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
Walking around the corner, seeing my house (which survived), I
just thought: Wow. But then you have the devastation and grief
walking through the neighborhood. I’ve lived in that part of town
30 years. You see friends whose houses are totally gone. Our first
house we bought was gone, and the only way I was able to find it
W
By ASHLEE RUGGELS THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
was by the markings on the street.
Now people have to pick an architect, pick a designer. We are
e asked Santa Rosa trying to rebuild our community. All of that information is over-
residents affected by whelming, while they’re still living with the grief of losing every-
thing that is in that home, so it’s challenging. You’d be amazed at
the October fires to the things that are popping up that we never anticipated popping
share their experiences up. It’ll be a challenge for the next five to 10 years.
of living through the past year. Here
are their first-person accounts, con-
densed from interviews.
CARY ANN RICH
Age: 55
We have yet to grieve our losses, mourn the changes or even
adequately acknowledge the huge tragedy we survived. We lost
JESSIE CAHILL our home and business and have spent the last year trying to get
our business operational at previous capacity. We are still living
Age: 18 in an RV on a friend’s property because all of our energy has been
We have until Dec. 15. That is hopefully the day we’ll be in (our consumed by getting our business back. Although we are on track
rebuilt home). It’s really exciting, but it’s been a long process. I just to complete all provisions, we have lost almost 75 percent of our
want to go home. It’s hard at times. But I realize how important income, which created an enormous hardship on us.
life is now, and I just really enjoy it now. That night me and my Fleeing our home at 1:05 a.m. on the morning of Monday, Oct. 9,
mom almost lost our lives. I didn’t realize how crazy it was that from the Larkfield-Wikiup area will be forever etched in our
night until I watched videos of the flames. I still think: ‘Wow, I minds. Life is not normal for us. I’m not even sure if it ever will
was in that.’ be. Yes, we have some semblance of a routine, but it’s just not the
The low point is how slow this is all going, and we’re going to same. Life was simple, and now? Not so much. We have received
be one of the first to finish rebuilding. It’s another holiday not at tremendous support from our community, and we are truly
home, another birthday for me not at home. It sucks. I’m living in thankful with a grateful heart. Even with the outpouring of love
a trailer, but it’s not really my home. I go by (my house) every day. and support, life goes on and, eventually, for those that were not
There is a lot of progress going on in the neighborhood right now, directly impacted, the trauma fades to the back of the mind. For
so I drive by just to see it. During the summertime, I would go by us, the crisis is not yet over.
more often. I would go in the morning, during my lunch break
and after. I just want to see everything changing. It was so long
not seeing any progress, and, now seeing all of this, it’s a lot more
exciting.
©2018 Ferguson Enterprises, Inc. 0918 990664
F E RGUSON S H OWROOM S .COM
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018 H29

ALVIN JORNADA / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Artist Rachel Forbis designed an elaborate tattoo of sunflowers with the number 222 on her arm to memorialize her twin sons, which she miscarried six months after the Tubbs fire. “My due

Curing pain
date was June 22, and I designed two sunflowers for my sons,” she says. “They’re connected by a stem because they were sharing life, and I did a heart around where the connection is.”

By TERRI HARDESTY

R
FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

achel Forbis still vividly remembers the night

the Tubbs fire came exploding over the hill in

through art
a ball of red and yellow light. “It’s impossible
to get the images out of my head,” the 30-year-
old Santa Rosa artist said.
Her home was located on her parents’ charming
2.5-acre Larkfield estate, a place she describes as a
“childhood paradise, a utopia.” On the night of Oct. 8,
2017, she tucked her 2-year-old toddler, Sofia, into bed.
Soon Forbis was sleeping next to her husband, Jake,
feeling safe and secure.
At 1 a.m., a deafening roar shattered that sense of se-
Rachel Forbis escaped a blaze, but only ink curity. Within minutes, the place she’d lived her entire
life would be devoured by a wall of flames.

and paint could show her a new way forward “Looking back at that night — I’ll try not to get

TURN TO ART » PAGE H30

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H30 THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2018

ART “I knew they didn’t make

CONTINUED FROM H29
emotional — but I don’t
know how we got out. I
really don’t,” she said
recalling their escape.
“It’s a miracle
because we only
had one way out,”
she said. “We
had that road
and that was it.
I was in fight or
flight mode and
in the moment
I could not see Rachel
anything.” Forbis
It took just
20 minutes for the blaze
to rip through her neigh-
borhood, demolishing her
home and her parents’
adjacent home on Angela
Drive. Longtime neighbors
Donna and Leroy Halbur,
who lived in the house
next door, perished in
the firestorm. Both were
80 years old and had just
celebrated their 50th wed-
ding anniversary.
it out that night. Their field
was on fire and we were
driving through the flames,”
Forbis said amid tears.
“Their house was behind
the fields so it already hit
their house at that point.”
After her narrow escape,
Forbis and her
family drove to
her aunt’s house
in Cloverdale. Ten
days later, Forbis
discovered she
was pregnant with
twins.
She was elated
with the news.
“It was like this
double rainbow,”
she said smiling. “I didn’t
think about the fire after I
found out.”
Forbis looking forward
to a bright, happy future,
a new beginning. But six most of her forearm. were sharing life, and I did
months into her pregnan- “I got the tattoo on my a heart around where the
cy, she learned that com- twins’ due date,” she said connection is.
plications would cause her in tears. “My due date was “I also added the ad-
to lose her unborn babies. June 22, and I designed dress 222 to remember my
To memorialize her two sunflowers for my home.”
twins, she created an elab- sons. They’re connected Forbis, a conceptual art-
orate tattoo that covers by a stem because they ist who specializes in cus-
tom paintings, drawings,
murals and other types of
graphics for clients, lost
her desire to make art. She
spent painful days, weeks
and months being in what
she called “a dark place.”
PHOTOS BY ALVIN JORNADA / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Then she realized she had
a choice. She could numb Rachel Forbis painted an image of the Fountaingrove Round
her pain with alcohol or Barn, top, which burned in the Tubbs fire, on a stepping
create a new life filled with stone she salvaged from her Santa Rosa home. She also was
art, love and compassion. commissioned for a rock piece, above, that featured the
The turning point came house number of a client’s Fountaingrove home that burned.
when a family asked her
to create a portrait of their
home, which had also “You think of your life as then
been lost in the fire. Forbis
decided to paint it on a and now. Just everything
stepping stone retrieved
from the rubble of her own
has been washed away, and
burned home.
“I took a piece of a step-
there’s no proof of anything.”
ping stone from my house, RACHEL FORBIS, Santa Rosa artist and Tubbs fire survivor

BUILD NOW · BUILD LOCAL so it had a lot of heart in it.

Not only because I painted
it, but it is a part of my
memories that I am able to
give to them.”
Forbis began collecting
remnants from the fires
— bricks from charred fire-
places, stones from gardens
and pieces of splintered,
burned fencing — to use as
homes,” she said. “On one
of the stones I wrote a
quote that said, ‘You never
know how strong you are
until being strong is the
only thing you have.’
“To see their reaction
and see them cry, it gave
me a purpose. It was really
healing,” Forbis said.
smaller paintings as gifts
to fire survivors; larger
works are sold for a com-
mission. She loves hearing
her customers’ stories and
sharing her own.
“It’s been such a halting
event in my life,” she said.
“You’re forced to just start
over.”

WE ARE SANTA ROSA. canvases for her art.

“I took all that, and I just
started painting like crazy,
Firstinterstatecontractors.com | 707.527.9000 and I started giving rocks
to friends who lost their
Now, on the first anni-
versary of the wildfires,
Forbis can barely keep
up with the demand. She
gives away many of her
“You think of your life
as then and now. Just ev-
erything has been washed
away, and there’s no proof
of anything,” Forbis said.

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