OUTDOORS IN SONOMA LIFE »

FOG CANCELS PART OF

Birdwatchers can have IRONMAN RACE IN SR »
fun trying to identify Triathletes forced to
colorful woodpeckers. D5 skip swimming leg;
2 Aussies end the day
as top finishers. A3

WINNER OF THE 2018 PULITZER PRIZE

SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2018 • SANTA ROSA, CALIFORNIA • PRESSDEMOCRAT.COM

Wildfires threaten Lakeport

MENDOCINO COUNTY »
River, Ranch blazes merge,
push east to Lake County
By JULIE JOHNSON, MARTIN
ESPINOZA AND BILL SWINDELL
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
LAKEPORT — Advancing
flames on the rugged eastern
flank of Cow Mountain glowed
above Lakeport on Saturday
night from one of two fires that
erupted Friday afternoon in
Mendocino County and burned
across 14,000 acres into Lake
County, threatening communi-
ties along Clear Lake’s north-
western shore.
As people there fled their
homes, to the southeast, a 150-
acre wildfire destroyed at least
six structures in a rural com-
munity along Lake Berryessa’s
south shore in Napa County,
drawing significant air support
from California’s firefighting
force, taxed by 14 major fires
burning across the state, includ-
ing a deadly 84,000-acre fire in
Shasta County.
On Saturday night, Gov. Jerry
Brown declared a state of emer-
gency in Lake, Mendocino and
Napa counties.
The River and Ranch fires
ignited 14 miles apart Friday
in Mendocino County near
Hopland and Potter Valley, re-
spectively, and each pushed
eastward into Lake County on
Saturday, displacing about 3,000
people across the two coun-
ties. The evacuations included
blocks within Lakeport city lim-
its and the outskirts of the coun-
ty seat. Sutter Lakeside Hospital
in Lakeport evacuated its 13 pa-
tients to other facilities.
Overnight, wildland firefight-
ers hoped to gain a foothold
around the blazes, each just 5
percent contained. They burned
through rugged terrain with
thick, dry brush. Some of the af-
fected areas had not burned for
years.
Lake County Sheriff Bri-
an Martin said the River and
Ranch fires — which Cal Fire is ALVIN JORNADA / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Flames of the River fire descend a ridgeline while a firetruck drives
TURN TO LAKEPORT » PAGE A13 below it between the trees Saturday outside Hopland.

OCTOBER WILDFIRES » PSYCHOLOGICAL SCARS 3 more

For survivors, whiff of dead in
relentless
smoke brings it back Carr fire
REDDING » Missing kids,
great-grandmother killed;
winds hinder firefighting
By JONATHAN J. COOPER
AND BRIAN MELLEY
ASSOCIATED PRESS

REDDING — The death

count from a rapidly growing
Shasta County wildfire rose
to five Saturday after two
young children and their
great-grandmother who had
been unaccounted for were
confirmed dead.
“My babies are dead,” Sherry
Bledsoe said through tears after
she and family members met
with Shasta County sheriff’s
deputies.
Bledsoe’s two children, James
Roberts, 5, and Emily Rob-
erts, 4, were stranded with her
grandmother Melody Bledsoe,
70, when walls of flames swept
through the family’s rural prop-
erty Thursday on the outskirts
of Redding.
The three were among more
than a dozen people report-
ed missing after the furious
wind-driven blaze took resi-
dents by surprise and leveled
several neighborhoods.
KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Shasta County Sheriff Tom
TRAUMATIZED BY TUBBS FIRE: “Now, with the littlest, smallest amount of smoke my heart races — I’m sure I’m not the only one,” says Sherinne Wilson, who lost Bosenko said he expects to find
her Pine Meadow Place home in Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park to the Tubbs fire in October and plans to rebuild it. Months after the disaster, she feels the effects of PTSD.
TURN TO REDDING » PAGE A2

Months after devastating inferno, families still grappling with trauma INSIDE
“Now, with the littlest, smallest amount of
COUNTY WILDLIFE AT RISK:
By MARTIN ESPINOZA Revision to Endangered
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT smoke my heart races — I’m sure I’m not the only 29, 2018 • SECTI
ON H

Species Act seeks to remove

O Rebuild
SUNDAY, JULY

one,” said Wilson, whose house was among the

economic impact as factor
n particularly bad days, Sherinne Wilson’s 1,200 homes in Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park neighbor-
for adding protections / A3
thoughts go back to that moment just be- hood destroyed by the Tubbs fire in October. NORTH BA
Y
fore she realized how bad the fires were. “It causes a lot of anxiety, and with the fire SANTA ROSA
She’s standing in front of a second-floor closet in season you just can’t really get away from it,” she High 88, Low 53
her home on Pine Meadow Place near Coffey Park, said. “I don’t think it’s something that will ever
trying to decide which box of photos and family go away.” THE WEATHER, C8
videotapes to take and which to leave behind. Nearly 10 months since the North Bay was
She thinks she has time. ravaged by historic wildfires, fire survivors, their Books T8 Lotto A2
Wilson, 52, looks out a window next to the friends, family and neighbors are still grappling / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Business E1 Movies D6
closet — fiery embers the size of her hand are with disaster-related trauma, anxiety and stress
PORTER
PHOTOS BY KENT

Community B10 Nevius C1

Ridge
join fellow Rincon
all lost their homes,
Condron, who
Park and Don 16.
Matt and Ligayarebuild party on July
’s Tubbs fire,
during Octoberduring a “Shovels & Bubbles”
home was saved portrait
from left, whose shovels after a group

floating on a strange draft of air in her yard, that just doesn’t seem to go away.
Jolene Lyons, with
they disperse
residents as
HEALTH
Crossword T7 Obituaries B4
TAL
FOCUS ON MEN
homes
survivors whose were de-
or businesses few were

T
stroyed. Whilethe disas-

barely moving, surreal, an ominous foreshadow- For many local residents not directly affected
he tower- by
untouched
ing plume ts remain
ter, its impac

Forum B11 Sonoma Life D1

of smoke uneven.
profoundly takable
appeared on One unmis
the eastern e
pattern to emergape of

ing of what’s coming. Mesmerized for a moment, by the fires, the devastating event is receding into
ay
horizon Saturd l from the landsc
afternoon severa of the most
loss: Some

Golis B1 Smith A3
and it also have
weeks ago, Sono- vulnerable resilient.
clearly rattled been the mostneigh-
residents.

memory. But for those who lost a loved one or a

e

she snaps out of it and leaves the house without

ma County s flood- 16 in Santa
Rosa’s
They includ to
bike ride July s.
Worried caller dis- Dunlop, 5, enjoys his a get-together for resident bors who gather s,
razed by flame
Rowan at
ed emergency reports. Rincon Ridge neighbo
rhood
h of blocks lines
patchers withturned mark the rebirt who were on the front up-
was no ders
grappling with
But the blaze counties away. There first respon
and children e way — through

grabbing a single thing. home, they find themselves constantly “triggered” REBUILD NORTH BAY
out to be two said. in October own uniqu ath of
authorities the anx-
threat here, once again laid bare heaval in their is fragile in the afterm
The episod
e ent across the
Well-b eing told, and it demands
a still so preval er’s fires. play.
tation, we are
iety and traum of Octob such devas
in the wake for those who attention.
North Bay are deepest our shared

“When I have ‘one of those days,’ that’s what I or “activated” by the firestorm’s nagging legacy
of
Grief and sorrow and for the
wider group

Neighbors, first responders,

lost loved ones,

INSIDE
go back to,” she said. “I could have taken one box, families and kids grappling with
but I didn’t. TURN TO SURVIVORS » PAGE A14 upheaval in different ways / H1
©2018 The Press Democrat

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PH V E
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E! S!

Open Satur
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A14 THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2018

“People need to know they are not wrong for feeling what they’re feeling.
... This is a real long journey. There is support available.”
DOREEN VAN LEEUWEN, president-elect of the Redwood Empire chapter of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists

PHOTOS BY ALVIN JORNADA / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

IN EMPTY NEIGHBORHOOD: Tubbs fire survivors Betsy and Gary Waters pause July 21 on Wikiup Drive, where their home survived the October firestorm while most of their neighbors’ homes burned down, in Santa Rosa.

SURVIVORS “I believe, a lot of us believe, the earlier

that we attend to these symptoms is going
to determine how we will go forward,”
CONTINUED FROM A1 she said.

— insurance woes, construction costs, Disillusionment phase

empty lots, fire-scarred neighborhoods,
repeated red flag warnings and incessant
California wildfires. The deadly blaze in
Redding and new fires this weekend in
Mendocino, Lake and Napa counties were
grim reminders of that heavy toll.
Such reactions are not uncommon,
according to local and national mental
health experts familiar with disaster-re-
lated trauma. The good news, they say, is
that psychological and emotional recovery
can be achieved. The bad news: It is going
to take a long time, as unprecedented de-
struction brings unprecedented trauma.
Wilson, a supervisor with Santa Rosa’s
Recreation and Parks Department, said
she, her husband and everyone else who
lost everything to the fires continue to
struggle with the day-to-day challenges
of rebuilding. With so many thousands of
homes lost, Wilson said she finds support
among those directly affected by the fire.
In fact, the only time she has talked
to a mental health professional was a
few days after the firestorm, for a few
minutes as part of the city’s immediate
response to staff impacted by the fire.
Wilson recalls being asked how she
was feeling, a question she had trouble
answering because she was in absolute
shock.
The process of rebuilding mental
health in the North Bay is no less import-
ant than the timely reconstruction of
fire-damaged neighborhoods, and the two
go hand-in-hand, said Sonoma County
Supervisor Shirlee Zane.
Even as the city and county work to
streamline reconstruction by fast-track-
ing construction permits and waiving
certain fees, mental health experts are
trying to map out countywide recovery
efforts that include free therapy sessions,
specialized disaster trauma training for
counselors and therapists, novel ther-
apies that reconnect wildfire survivors
with nature, and even a self-help app
aimed at assisting people with post-disas- is going to determine how we will go forward,” says Betsy Waters, a Santa Rosa resident and Tubbs fire still bothering me now?’” Leeuwen said.
ter stress and trauma.
“We’re not just rebuilding brick and
mortar, we’re rebuilding people’s lives
and that is a long process,” Zane said.
“Increasingly, we’re seeing two worlds
in the county: The world between those
who experienced the fire and those that
didn’t.”
Doreen Van Leeuwen, a local marriage
and family therapist, agrees. While most
county residents are moving on with
their lives, those who lost everything are said. “Rather, it’s the scope and magni-
reminded of the fires every day — be-
cause everything in their lives changed,
said Van Leeuwen, president-elect of the
Redwood Empire chapter of the Califor-
nia Association of Marriage and Family
Therapists.
“It’s two populations that are really
at different places,” Van Leeuwen said.
“People need to know they are not wrong
for feeling what they’re feeling. ... Of
course you’re upset, your whole life has
been ripped from you. This is a real long
journey. There is support available.”
Disaster trauma
Dr. Carol North, professor of psychi-
atry at the University of Texas South-
western Medical Center, has spent a
significant portion of her career studying at much higher risk for adverse mental
the mental health outcomes of disaster
survivors. A psychiatric epidemiologist,
her work with survivors of the 1995 Okla- id decline in their level of distress. But it ant that people realize the effects of the
homa City bombing was instrumental in never completely goes away, she said.
helping some mental health profession-
als assist survivors of the Sept. 11, 2001, ters are life-changing events, even among frequent state of hyper-awareness — are
terrorist attacks.
In the weeks after the October
firestorm, local mental health profession-
als warned a “phase of disillusionment”
would follow the initial phase of cohesion
where communities unite after a disaster,
whether natural or man-made. Locally,
that period was marked by the popular
slogan “Sonoma Strong.”
Local therapists say the disillusion-
ment period is here and is only exacer-
bated by the early start of the Northern
California fire season.
Van Leeuwen, the marriage and family
therapist, said she believes local resi-
dents who suffered significant losses in
last year’s firestorm are more or less
in the fourth stage of the familiar five
stages of grief and loss, which include
denial and isolation, anger, bargaining,
depression and acceptance.
She said the initial denial has worn
off. Guilt and regret — about not being
prepared, not taking the right things,
not being able to save a pet — is less
pressing but still felt. Anger comes and
goes, Van Leeuwen said, and now there’s
less bargaining — the wish to somehow
“influence the universe” in some way to
ease the pain of loss.
“Depression sets in when we realize
that we cannot undo what has been done.
The loss is real and permanent,” she
said, adding that the pain “just is” and
must be both felt and worked through.
Teaching people the tools to overcome
their distress is key, as the local commu-
nity, especially those directly affected by
the fire, approaches the anniversary.
Help with long-term recovery
Van Leeuwen said some fire survi-
vors have become frustrated over being
unable to completely “get over” their
symptoms.
“They say, ‘It’s been nine months, I
shouldn’t be feeling these things now,’
COPING WITH TRAUMA: “I believe, a lot of us believe, the earlier that we attend to these symptoms or, ‘What’s wrong with me? Why is this
survivor who has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. “I’m not making these things up. I’ve had
people say these things to me.”
In 2012, North published a study that Betsy Waters, whose home on Wikiup She said one resource that’s now avail-
examined post-traumatic stress disorder Drive is among the few spared in her able is sponsored by the Wildfire Mental
among hundreds of survivors of 10 disas- neighborhood, said she has been diag- Health Collaborative, an initiative spear-
ters, from October 1987 to April 1995. Her nosed with PTSD. After moving back into headed by the Healthcare Foundation of
research shows the main link between her home in March, she is constantly Northern Sonoma County.
PTSD and recent disasters is the level of reminded of the destruction every time The collaborative, which seeks to
destruction, North said. she drives to her neighborhood, located address the county’s long-term mental
“It’s not the type of disaster that drives just east of the fire-scorched section of health recovery needs, has launched
adverse mental health outcomes,” she the Larkfield-Wikiup area. mysonomastrong.com to help fire survi-
Though her home did not burn down, vors learn more about post-disaster stress
tude of the disaster, measured by the Waters said she had to have the house and coping methods. A mobile app version
amount of destruction and lives lost.” completely cleaned and painted and of the site is expected to be made available
Her study on survivors of the 1991 everything inside replaced because of to the public in September, she said.
Oakland Hills fire offers some insight smoke damage. That included all the The collaborative, she said, also is
into what North Bay firestorm survivors furniture and even insulation under the sponsoring special training for local
are going through and how they may floors. therapists and counselors in a coping
fare going forward. The study found that Waters said she and her husband are method known as “skills for psychologi-
survivors of the Oakland Hills firestorm in the process of suing her insurance cal recovery,” or SPR. The collaborative’s
exhibited a great deal of resilience, de- company, which has stopped returning first trainings were held on Friday and
spite their high levels of distress. her calls and emails. Saturday and more are expected to be
“There’s an important difference “Some days I can cope with it better,” scheduled, she said.
between psychiatric illness and distress. she said. “I do have triggers around the The training focuses on five core
They are very different phenomenons,” PTSD. The smoke from the recent fires skills that can be taught to anyone going
North said, adding that most people was very difficult.” through trauma, Van Leeuwen said.
who live through severe disasters do not She said her PTSD is improving, but These include:
develop psychiatric illnesses. she is still triggered by sirens. She recalls ■ developing problem-solving skills
North said those with a history of hearing sirens all day long on Oct. 9 ■ promoting positive activities
psychiatric illness before a disaster are while she was staying in her son’s house ■ managing reaction
in Montgomery Village, near Highway 12. ■ promoting helpful thinking
health outcomes, while those who do not While mental health can be a sensitive ■ rebuilding healthy social connec-
have a mental illness will see a fairly rap- topic to discuss, Waters said it’s import- tions
Van Leeuwen compared it to train-
fire on those who lived through it — the ing for a long-distance race, where the
“It may never go away because disas- PTSD, feelings of helplessness and the athlete’s body needs a strict regimen of
the resilient,” North said. real and enduring. TURN TO SURVIVORS » PAGE A15
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2018 A15

fun clothes
lothes ffor her

Our annual
Buy 1 Get a Second 1
at 50% off Sale
is ongoing now!
Buy in pairs, 1 blouse and
a pant, a necklace and an
KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT earring, a hat and a scarf
RECOVERING FROM OCTOBER WILDFIRES: Sherinne and Doug Wilson, joined by their dog, Daisy, lost their home on Pine Meadow Place in
Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park neighborhood to the Tubbs fire in October. The couple are in the process of rebuilding their lives after the disaster. and everything will be on
sale. It’s your choice of
SURVIVORS hormones cortisol and adrenaline.
Those who were not directly
affected by the fire, the vast majority
CALIFORNIA HOPE
PROGRAM OFFERS HELP what is on sale because
CONTINUED FROM A14 of the Sonoma County residents
Sonoma County’s program provides
who have largely moved on, can
outreach and counseling to those EVERYTHING
conditioning and strength building. recall the widespread empathy that
affected by the wildfires. The feder-
To combat stress and anxiety, the
mind also needs conditioning, she
followed the days after the fire.
“Remember that everybody knows
ally funded program provides crisis is on sale!
counseling, resource navigation and
said. someone who lost a home,” Van
disaster recovery education. Counsel-
“Let’s say you know you’re going Leeuwen said. “If so, those of us who
ors can be reached at:
to get activated by this fire in Yolo
County, but you tell yourself ‘I
are better off, we need to be really
■ Santa Rosa, 707-608-8805 Montgomery Village and Sebastopol
caring, thinking about and reaching
have these skills,’” she said, adding out to someone who is less well-off in ■ Northern Sonoma County, 707-608-
that in times of extreme stress, the terms of their total well-being.” 8807
brain is “hijacked” by the amygdala, The one-year anniversary will ■ Sonoma Valley, 707-608-8806
which is linked to emotions, partic- likely bring a flood of reminders for
ularly fear. fire survivors as community lead- ■ Southern Sonoma County, 707-608-
“In a fire, the thought could be ers, government officials and local 8806
‘Oh, my God, I’m going to lose media commemorate the event and ■ West Sonoma County, 707-608-8807
everything again’ — that’s fight or its impact on North Bay residents. ■ Adults age 50 or older, 707-608-8804
flight,” she said. “That’s the thing For Wilson, that level of remem-
that happens when we get activated. brance has been taking place every
Online: Sonoma County’s mental
Our brains get hijacked.” day.
health recovery website offers links
Van Leeuwen laid out simple “The one-year anniversary scares
to disaster resource guides, crisis help
steps in such situations: call a rela- the hell out of me,” she said. “I don’t
lines, free therapy and crisis coun-
tive or friend for support or go check even want to think about it. I think
seling at sonomacountyrecovers.org/
with an authoritative information there’s a lot of us who don’t want to
mental-health-wellness.
source, such as Nixle.com, to see if remember. We already remember REBUILD SECTION Mental health
there’s any real danger nearby. enough.” resources with disaster-related services
If there is no present danger, she
said, fire survivors may consider You can reach Staff Writer Martin
are available for fire survivors and
therapists seeking to help them / H17 Find Garage Sales
doing physical exercises to release Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.
some of the energy that has sud- espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Thursday-Sunday in The Press Democrat
denly built up in the form of stress Twitter @renofish. and online at pressdemocrat.com

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 SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2018 • SECTION H

Rebuild NORTH BAY

PHOTOS BY KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Jolene Lyons, from left, whose home was saved during October’s Tubbs fire, Matt and Ligaya Park and Don Condron, who all lost their homes, join fellow Rincon Ridge
residents as they disperse with shovels after a group portrait during a “Shovels & Bubbles” rebuild party on July 16.

FOCUS ON MENTAL HEALTH

T
he tower- survivors whose homes
ing plume or businesses were de-
of smoke stroyed. While few were
appeared on untouched by the disas-
the eastern ter, its impacts remain
horizon Saturday profoundly uneven.
afternoon several One unmistakable
weeks ago, and it pattern to emerge
clearly rattled Sono- from the landscape of
ma County residents. loss: Some of the most
Worried callers flood- vulnerable also have
ed emergency dis- Rowan Dunlop, 5, enjoys his bike ride July 16 in Santa Rosa’s
been the most resilient.
patchers with reports. Rincon Ridge neighborhood at a get-together for residents. They include neigh-
But the blaze turned bors who gather to
out to be two counties away. There was no mark the rebirth of blocks razed by flames,
threat here, authorities said. first responders who were on the front lines
The episode once again laid bare the anx- in October and children grappling with up-
iety and trauma still so prevalent across the heaval in their own unique way — through
North Bay in the wake of October’s fires. play. Well-being is fragile in the aftermath of
Grief and sorrow are deepest for those who such devastation, we are told, and it demands
lost loved ones, and for the wider group of our shared attention.

INSIDE

SR’S COFFEY PARK SEEING
PROGRESS WITH RECOVERY
With model home open to view,
building activity has dwarfed
other burned areas of the county.
Page H4
FIRE SURVIVORS GIVING
EACH OTHER HOPE
Residents come together in
festive atmosphere to celebrate
their efforts overcoming loss.
Page H11
MUSEUM’S PLAYFUL WAY
TO HELP KIDS COPE
Exhibit stocked with costumes
and props encourages children
to engage their imaginations.
Page H15
FIRST RESPONDERS FACED
PERSONAL UPHEAVAL
Firefighters, police officers and
others who sprang into action to
aid others struggle in fires’ wake.
Page H18

PARTICIPATING SPONSORS
H4 THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2018

COFFEY PARK IN SANTA ROSA »

325 homes under construction, model homes built, meeting set for
rebuilding park and restPration of underground lines halfway done

Neighborhood
humming along

JOHN BURGESS / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Coffey Park residents who lost their homes in the October wildfires arrive July 13 to tour one of two model homes built on Nina Court in Santa Rosa. The models were opened this month
by Windsor’s Gallaher Homes, which rebuilt the houses for owners who had rented them before the Tubbs fire.

I
By ROBERT DIGITALE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

n Sonoma County, Coffey

Park has become ground
zero for home reconstruc-
tion this summer.
Workers this month are re-
building a quarter of the nearly
1,300 single-family homes that
burned in the northwest Santa
Rosa neighborhood during the
October wildfires. The build-
ing activity there far surpasses
what’s underway in any other
area of the county, whether for
fire recovery or for new housing
subdivisions.
And crews are expected to start
more homes in Coffey Park in
the coming weeks. It has taken
almost 10 months, but fire sur-
vivors have applied to rebuild
nearly half the houses lost in the
neighborhood.
“We are ahead, definitely,” said Jeff
Okrepkie, chairman of the Coffey Strong
neighborhood group.
Nonetheless, Okrepkie noted that only
14 months remain before most fire survivors
reach a key deadline — the end of insurance
rental payments for temporary housing.
When those payments stop after October
2019, many who haven’t rebuilt their homes
could end up paying both rent and a mort-
gage.
“There needs to be a significant amount of
movement in the next three to six months,”
Okrepkie said.
Coffey Park has 325 single-family homes
under construction, according to Santa Rosa
records. Crews there already have complet-
ed seven houses, including the Kerry Lane
home of Dan Bradford, the first resident to
move back to the neighborhood at the end
of May.
By last week, Coffey Park homeowners
had applied to rebuild 592 homes. That
amounts to roughly 45 percent of the homes
lost there, and represents more than 40 per-
cent of all the permits sought to replace the
roughly 5,300 residential units lost in the
fires throughout the county.
Coffey Park is humming with activity as
Sebastopol artist Carole Flaherty holds one of her fire-inspired watercolors from her sketch book of a
scene she captured on Brandee Lane in Santa Rosa.
Flaherty, who is part of a group of “Urban
Sketchers,” works on painting that depicts the
construction underway in Coffey Park.
construction crews from different contractors
work next door to each other. The companies
that are building multiple homes often find
their projects separated by several blocks.
BETH SCHLANKER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
“It looks like the most unorganized sub-
division I’ve ever built,” said Aaron Matz,
president of APM Homes of Santa Rosa.
The amount of work has markedly
increased this summer, with slightly more
than 100 homes started in the past month.
Here is a recap of other Coffey Park news.
Model homes in the burn zone
Fire survivors no longer need limit
themselves to eyeing carpet swatches and
architectural drawings when trying to
picture what their rebuilt homes will look
like. Now they can tour two model homes in
Coffey Park.
The models were opened this month by
Gallaher Homes of Windsor. The company
rebuilt the homes for owners who had rent-
ed them before the fires. Gallaher Homes
is leasing the new houses as showcases,
perhaps for the next few years.
At least one other builder plans to open
a model home in the neighborhood this
summer.
Other large builders said they don’t need
such models because they are essentially
rebuilding the homes as originally designed.
However, those builders still are providing
ways for their clients to pick out new floor-
ing, appliances, cabinetry and other fixtures.
About 200 guests attended the models’
grand opening. Even clients who already
had picked out one of at least 14 floor plans
TURN TO COFFEY PARK » PAGE H6

“When there’s something that touches our hearts like this,

there’s just more in it. It’s more compelling.”
CAROLE FLAHERTY, Sebastopol apple farmer and artist who is part of a group of “urban sketchers” documenting the wildfire recovery
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2018
Tim Harrison of West Coast Drywall, right, and employee Jose Farias install fiberglass sheeting on the outside of a home being constructed with metal and steel in the Fountaingrove
Embracing new
neighborhood of Santa Rosa on Monday. The home was burned down during October’s Tubbs fire.
ideas for future
T
By KEVIN McCALLUM
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
he rebuilding effort in
Fountaingrove continues
to lag other areas dev-
astated by the October
wildfires, hampered as it is by
high rebuilding costs, wider gaps
in insurance for many homes,
and nagging questions about the
city’s infrastructure in the area.
The hillside area in north-
east Santa Rosa lost more than
1,400 homes in the Tubbs fire.
After a sluggish start, the num-
ber of building applications and
homes under construction is on
the rise as the summer construc-
tion season gets into full swing.
The total number of permit applications
in July more than doubled from the previous
month, increasing from 106 to 245, a 131 per-
cent jump. But that represents just 29 per-
cent of the total rebuilds in the city.
The number of permits issued is up
sharply, too, increasing 49 percent to 106.
But that’s just 20 percent of the homes per-
mits issued for rebuilds in the city.
The number of homes actually under
construction is up by 64 percent, but it’s
on a small base. Just 72 homes are under
construction in the area, 18 percent of the
total rebuilds in the city, and 5 percent of the
homes lost in the area.
None have been completed.
Building with hazards in mind
Some of those who are choosing to rebuild
in Fountaingrove are doing so with fire-re-
sistant building techniques and materials.
Anu Shah and his wife and two teenag-
ers lost their home on Garden View Circle,
after leaving most of their belongings
behind as they fled. Now they’re planning
to rebuild their home not out of wood but
of insulated concrete.
FOUNTAINGROVE IN SANTA ROSA »
House construction in hillside community
on upswing as some property owners turn
toward fire-resistant materials and designs
West Coast Drywall’s Jose Farias install’s fiberglass sheeting on the outside
of a home under construction Monday in Fountaingrove.
Shah grew up in India where he said
99 percent of the buildings are made of
concrete, and so the idea of rebuilding his
destroyed home with concrete was not for-
eign to him.
The wastewater engineer said he was
drawn also to the energy efficiency offered
by concrete construction.
The walls of Shah’s new 3,000-square-foot
home will be built with what is known as
insulated concrete forms. ICF blocks are like
large hollow Legos filled with concrete while
it cures.
But unlike traditional wooden forms,
which are typically removed once the
concrete hardens, IFC
forms remain in place
afterward to provide
insulation and protec- “Fountaingrove
tion for the concrete.
Siding or stucco can
then be applied directly
is going to look
to the walls.
In Shah’s case, his
totally different.
home will be covered
with a fire-resistant Nobody wants
stucco to which fire-re-
sistant paint will be
applied. He’s been told
a Tudor anymore.”
CARMEN KILCULLEN,
the house is designed chief of the Fountaingrove II
to survive for nine architectural review committee
hours in a fire.
City planning offi-
cials, who don’t have a lot of experience with
approving plans for such homes, had a long
list of questions for Shah and his architect,
he said.
“It took quite a bit of effort to get those
70 questions answered,” Shah said.
But city staff eventually approved Shah’s
building permit, and his homeowners asso-
ciation approved the design as well, he said.
Before deciding on the building technique,
Shah said he checked out a number of other
examples of homes under construction and
was pleased with what he saw.
“There are enough examples of local ICF
permitted structures and that kind of gave
us the confidence to move forward with this
technology,” he said.
Dan Schoenfeld, of Net Zero Disaster Re-
sistant Structures, said it only makes sense
for people who’ve gone through such a disas-
ter to rethink how they go about rebuilding
H5
PHOTOS BY KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
in such a high fire hazard zone, ravaged by
large wildfires twice in the past five decades.
Schoenfeld said he has several homeown-
ers planning to rebuild in the area using this
technique, more common in other parts of
the world.
“We’re not just trying to push our proj-
ects,” he said. “This is for the community’s
sake.”
Landscape changing for homes
There are so many homeowners who
are taking the opportunity to rebuild their
homes in a different way that the area will
likely have changed
housing landscape.
“Fountaingrove is
going to look total-
ly different,” said
Carmen Kilcullen, the
head of the Fountain-
grove II architectural
review committee. “No-
body wants a Tudor
anymore.”
In addition to con-
crete homes, the com-
mittee has approved
or is considering more
modern, metallic
homes, partially pre-
fabricated homes, as
well as homes that are one story instead of
two, as people reconsider whether they want
to climb so many stairs, Kilcullen said.
The committee has rules that require new
homes to be compatible with the neighbor-
hood, but those are a little hard to enforce
when the neighborhood has burned down.
“What does that even mean, especially
when we have to build a whole new commu-
nity?” Kilcullen said.
Replacing burned fire station
Work is underway to build a temporary
fire station in Fountaingrove, and to rethink
where the permanent one should go.
The city is spending about $1 million to
build a temporary fire station on the site
of the former station on Parker Hill Road,
TURN TO FOUNTAINGROVE » PAGE H6
H6
Derek New, left, and Jesse Reeger of Paso Robles Tanks weld shut an opening inside
Santa Rosa’s R3 water tank on Fountaingrove Parkway. The storage tank is being
retrofitted to bring it up seismic standards.
FOUNTAINGROVE
CONTINUED FROM H5
which burned to the ground in the
Tubbs fire.
It’ll be a large modular building for
fire crews with a tent next to it to cover
Engine 5. Work should be done by next
month.
The destruction of the new $4 million
station at Newgate Court, which was
completed in 2015, has caused city offi-
cials to explore other possible sites for
a permanent station in Fountaingrove.
Call volume is higher near the
commercial centers and retirement
communities about a mile west of the
former station, so officials are consid-
ering whether that would make more
sense for a new, larger station.
The Newgate Court station, which
was tucked onto the site occupied by
a large city water tank, was always a
little small for the department’s needs,
Fire Chief Tony Gossner said.
But since a new fire station is also
being considered for Rincon Valley, it’s
possible that station could serve the
east side of Fountaingrove, allowing
Station 5 to slide west without impact-
ing response times, he told the City
Council.
Perplexing water system
The water supply problems that fire-
fighters encountered in Fountaingrove
during the Tubbs fire are getting a
closer look by the city after The Press
Democrat asked for details about the
system’s performance.
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A preliminary look at the city’s water
supply system in the area found that of
the 10 tanks that provide the area with
up to 7.8 million gallons of water for
household use and firefighting, one was
out of commission for seismic retrofit-
ting, and another had limited capacity
because of seismic safety concerns.
In addition, the way the city replen-
ishes the tanks may have contributed
to diminished volume and pressure
problems amid the firefight.
The unrestricted release of water
from burning homes and businesses
is believed to be at the root of the
problem that firefighters experienced
in battling the fire.
Historically, to take advantage of
cheap nighttime electricity rates and
meet health standards for drinking
water, the city has allowed the water
levels in the tanks to drop to as low as
one third of capacity before they are
replenished overnight. That means
they may have been at their lowest
levels precisely when the Tubbs fire
erupted in October.
“This is a very complex problem to
fully understand,” Ben Horenstein,
director of Santa Rosa Water, told The
Press Democrat for a story published
last Sunday. “The city is working to
understand it and is planning to share
it with the public and the press and, of
course, the council. We are still in the
investigative process.”
The city’s report is due out in early
August.
You can reach Staff Writer Kevin
McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccal-
lum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter
@srcitybeat.
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2018
COFFEY PARK
CONTINUED FROM H4
offered by Gallaher Homes found it
worthwhile to behold the houses’ 9-foot-
tall ceilings and examine the kitchens,
baths and bedrooms.
“This makes it real,”said Magie
O’Meara, who lost her home on Pine
Meadow Place.
Artists capture fire recovery
They come to Coffey Park not with
hammers and saws but with watercol-
ors and paintbrushes.
They are reportage sketchers and
over the past nine months they have
captured scenes of devastation, debris
and recovery in the neighborhood.
The artwork, often posted on social
media, is sometimes referred to as re-
portage illustration or urban sketching.
Interest in such art is growing, with
more than 200 Urban Sketchers chap-
ters in more than 50 countries around
the world, including one in the North
Bay.
The handful of artists have filled
sketchbooks of images from Coffey
Park, Fountaingrove and the emergen-
cy operations at the Sonoma County
Fairgrounds. As they sketched, they
often ended up talking with firefighters,
contractors and fire survivors. The
experience, they said, has been unfor-
gettable.
“When there’s something that touch-
es our hearts like this, there’s just more
in it,” said Carole Flaherty, a Sebasto-
pol apple farmer and artist. “It’s more
compelling.”
Meeting set for park rebuild
City parks officials are gearing up to
host their first meeting for the design
and rebuilding of the public park for
which Coffey Park gets its name.
The meeting will be held at 2 p.m. Sat-
urday at the Finley Community Center
Auditorium, 2060 West College Ave.
The neighborhood’s 5.9-acre park,
one of 10 city parks or open spaces dam-
aged by fire, has remained closed since
the night of the infernos. City officials
have said the cost to rebuild it could
approach $5 million.
At the meeting, officials will pro-
vide an update on the testing of toxic
contamination at the parkland, as well
as the plans for debris removal and
rebuilding. The city will seek residents’
input on the new park’s design. Possible
items to be added include a dog park,
a restroom and a commemorative art
project.
Those who can’t attend the meeting
can still sign up to receive updates and
an online survey by visiting the web-
site: tinyurl.com/coffeyupdates.
Restoring utilities
Utility workers have hit the halfway
mark in their efforts to replace the un-
derground power and natural gas lines
in the streets of Coffey Park.
After four months of work, Pacific
Gas & Electric has completed 50 per-
cent of the underground replacement
project in the neighborhood, said
spokeswoman Deanna Contreras. That
includes digging more than 10 miles of
trenches, with 5 miles worth still to dig.
The project, which includes installing
new electric, gas, phone and cable tele-
vision lines, is on track to be completed
by the end of the year, Contreras said.
In the southwest portion of Coffey
Park, the underground work already
has been completed. Once the perma-
nent streetlights are ready to operate,
PG&E will start removing temporary
overhead electric lines, poles and street-
lights from that area, Contreras said.
You can reach Staff Writer Robert Dig-
itale at 707-521-5285 or robert.digitale@
pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @rdigit.
Carole Flaherty
of Sebastopol
holds one of
the watercolors
she painted
while working
with fellow
“Urban
Sketchers” on
Brandee Lane
in Santa Rosa’s
Coffey Park
neighborhood.
BETH SCHLANKER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2018
MARK WEST SPRINGS AND WIKIUP »
Construction has picked up steam with newly framed homes becoming
familiar site, but some residents are questioning PG&E’s above-ground poles
Slowly ‘starting
to feel real again’
David Hosking, left, the chief operating officer for Silvermark Construction Services, chats with Jacqueline Christensen, a vice president of Exchange Bank, about homes being rebuilt on
Willow Green Place in the unincorporated area of Sonoma County. The company has seen an increase in the number of fire survivors looking to rebuild their homes.
J
By J.D. MORRIS
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
oel Chandler is rebuilding
the Larkfield home he lost
to the Tubbs fire more than
nine months ago, outfitting
his new residence with cut-
ting-edge technology and build-
ing it with the most up-to-date
structural standards.
One thing about his Larkfield
Estates neighborhood is poised
to remain the same: the PG&E
power poles providing electric-
ity to him and his neighbors on
Brighton Court.
Chandler is not happy about
that. He wants the utility to be
held to “2018 standards” and
views the above-ground poles as
a possible safety hazard should
future fires ignite.
“It’s like they’re doing the bare mini-
mum,” Chandler said. “Why isn’t PG&E
being held to the same standards we are?”
Chandler wants the utility to put its power
lines underground, just as they are along
some other streets in his
area. He’s talking to other
Larkfield Estates property
owners about possibly sign-
ing onto a petition.
PG&E already is working
on replacing underground
power lines in Larkfield —
but only where they already
Joel ran below the surface prior
Chandler to October’s fires. The utili-
ty says that doesn’t rule out
expanding underground lines later, however.
“We are doing what we call ‘like for like,’
and we’re replacing what was previously
overhead and then re-trenching what was
previously underground,” said spokeswom-
an Deanna Contreras. “The conversation
about what needs to be underground and
where it makes sense to underground is a
much larger issue that needs to be approved
by all parties: the counties, the cities, the
(California Public Utilities Commission).”
In a follow-up email, Contreras said putting
power lines underground is “not a panacea.”
Underground power lines are still vulnerable
to weather-related damage, including from
lightning strikes, earthquakes and flooding,
and they can also be damaged by third-party
excavation work, Contreras said.
Underground lines also can take nearly twice
as long to repair when damaged, and it costs
about $2.3 million per mile to put overhead
lines in the ground, according to Contreras.
A certificate of occupancy is presented to Greg Owen, founder and CEO of Fairfield-based Silvermark
Construction Services, at a newly finished home on Willow Green Place just outside Santa Rosa.
PG&E has already finished trenching
2.5 miles of the nearly 4 miles planned in
Larkfield, and is on track to finish recon-
structing those underground lines by the
end of the year, Contreras said.
Houses ‘flying off the shelf’
Meanwhile, rebuilding in the greater
Larkfield-Wikiup and Mark West area
picked up some steam over the past month.
Fairfield-based Silvermark Construction
Services celebrated completion of the first
rebuilt home on Willow Green Place in June,
and the company has sold many of the 14
homes it’s rebuilding nearby over the past
month, according to David Hosking, the
company’s chief operating officer.
“People came in and were able to see
a finished product and boom: the houses
started flying off the shelf,” Hosking said.
“It’s hard for somebody to go buy something
and it’s just dirt, but every one of these have
framing or some sort of something going on.
And that’s why they’ve sold.”
Hosking expects occupancy approval on
another home by the end of the month and
one more in early August.
Newly framed homes popping up
Silvermark’s initial focus was buying lots
from fire survivors who didn’t plan to rebuild
and then selling them to others. Now, the
company has seen an uptick in fire survivors
looking to rebuild homes they will move into.
“It feels like a lot of people are going like,
OK, we better make some decisions,” Hosking
said. Between last weekend and Monday, Hosk-
ing said he signed up four “design-builds:” one
in Coffey Park and three in Larkfield.
Throughout the area around Old Redwood
Highway and Mark West Springs Road — a
H7
PHOTOS BY BETH SCHLANKER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
region once dominated by charred rubble
and empty lots — the sight of newly framed
homes is now familiar. Chandler’s house is
one of those going up.
“It’s starting to feel real again,” he said.
“It’s starting to come back to life.”
Offering feedback on recovery
The county also held a fire recovery
community meeting for the Mark West area
July 10 at the Sonoma County Office of Edu-
cation near Airport Boulevard.
About 70 people showed up to provide feed-
back that will inform a disaster recovery plan
being developed by the county government.
Michael Gossman, the deputy county
administrator heading the Office of Recov-
ery and Resiliency, compared it to a similar
meeting held recently in Sebastopol. The
Mark West meeting, which had a higher
share of fire survivors, focused more on
improving the county’s alert and warning
capabilities, criticized by many in the area
as insufficient during the fires.
“I think it’s because of the number of sur-
vivors in that area and how close they were
to the fires,” Gossman said. “We’re all at risk
for some type of disaster, but I think people
who either went through it or lived near it
in (supervisory) District 4 are going to feel a
little more sensitive to the next one.”
The county has another community
meeting planned for Thursday at 6 p.m. at
the Finley Community Center and another
on Aug. 8. at the Sonoma Veterans Memorial
Building, also at the same time. The recov-
ery plan is expected to be presented to the
Board of Supervisors in September.
You can reach Staff Writer J.D. Morris at
707-521-5337 or jd.morris@pressdemocrat.
com. On Twitter @thejdmorris.
H8 THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2018

SONOMA VALLEY »
Glen Ellen saw largest loss of structures in the Nuns fire, but residents
are making progress rebuilding the small town one house at a time

PHOTOS BY ROBBI PENGELLY / SONOMA INDEX-TRIBUNE

Brent Svendsen of Solaris Construction approaches the construction site of Todd and Megan O’Donnell’s home, which is being rebuilt exactly as it was before being destroyed by the Nuns
fire, on Sylvia Drive in Glen Ellen. As of last week, a total of 40 permits are pending approval for property owners seeking to rebuild in the area.

A patchwork of
projects begins
G
By EMILY CHARRIER
SONOMA INDEX-TRIBUNE

len Ellen is making

progress in putting
itself back together
after October’s devas-
tating Nuns wildfire swallowed
up 183 homes in a matter of days.
The tiny town saw the largest loss
of structures in Sonoma Valley,
representing 45 percent of the
407 homes destroyed.
On Dec. 15 the first rebuilding
permit, for a 1,000-square-foot
home on Dunbar Road, was
issued by the county. Since then,
crews from the Army Corps of
Engineers to service clubs, have
begun to remake the little hamlet
where writers Hunter S. Thomp-
son liked to drink, MFK Fisher The remains of the O’Donnell’s property on Sylvia Drive in Glen Ellen smolders days after it was
entertained, and Jack London burned to the ground during the Nuns fire. The fountain, which survived the inferno, still remains.
roamed his ranch. home for 15 years, never questioned whether survivors in the region seeking to recoup
As of last week, a total of 40 rebuilding to rebuild. They got right to work. damages estimated at $10 billion.
permits are pending approval for proper- “I knew there was going to be a flood of Svendsen’s ties to subcontractors have
ties from Warm Springs Road to Hill Road, people trying to build at once,” said Todd sped progress on the O’Donnells’ home.
although very few homeowners have broken O’Donnell. “The hardest part right now is finding
ground. Glen Ellen represents 7 percent of He called Svendsen three days after architects and engineers,” he said.
the 555 permits started in the unincorporat- the fire to make sure he had a contractor. O’Donnell tapped fellow volunteer
ed areas of Sonoma County. Svendsen said he had no firefighter George Psaledakis, also of Glen

“I knew there
By comparison, residents shortage of offers for work, Ellen, who lent his architectural skills to
in Kenwood, which lost but not everyone was ready the project. The couple planned to start
140 houses, have filed for to put the money down. over with a new design, but ultimately the
31 permits while just five
residents on the outskirts
was going The O’Donnells knew it
would take big dollars to
blueprints ended up just like the three-bed-
room bungalow they lost, albeit with higher
of Sonoma have sought
permits. to be a flood rebuild their Glen Ellen
dream home, and went to
ceilings. Due to tight funds, the O’Donnells
decided not to replace the garage and gran-
The rising cost of raw
materials paired with
the limited availability of
of people Exchange Bank to secure a
construction loan.
“They’ve been great.
ny unit.
The permits were pulled April 15, and by
early June they had a foundation poured.
contractors have meant
slow going for many
trying to build They’re bending a lot of
rules for fire victims,” Todd
Right now, the O’Donnells have their
sights set on Christmas, when they hope
homeowners. Some, like
Barbara Naslund, who lost at once.” O’Donnell said of the bank.
He estimates that insur-
their home might be ready for their return
to Glen Ellen.
her house of 32 years on TODD O’DONNELL, Glen Ellen ance only covered about 60 “That would be a great Christmas gift,”
Bonnie Way, have decided resident who is rebuilding his percent of what they lost, Todd O’Donnell said.
not to rebuild. Others are Sylvia Drive home after which included a large
still fighting insurance October’s Nuns fire garage and granny unit
companies for a sufficient in addition to the house. Little school that could
settlement. Taking out loans was a leap of faith. Dunbar Elementary opened in Sonoma
“We just hope we can get (the money) Valley in 1857 with 21 students. Its small
back from PG&E,” O’Donnell said. “Other- class sizes and rooted traditions have earned
Rebuilding hopes and worries wise, we might have to build this house and it acclaim as the “best kept secret” in local
Contractor Brent Svendsen was already sell it because we won’t be able to afford the education.
at work fixing dry rot at the Sylvia Drive mortgage.” One of its most popular rites is the Hal-
home of Todd and Megan O’Donnell when Cal Fire last month determined the Nuns loween Carnival, during which the entire
the Nuns fire blazed through. It left nothing fire was caused by PG&E electrical equip- community comes together, fully festooned.
but a concrete fountain and the remains of a ment. The O’Donnells said they plan to
fireplace. The O’Donnells, who’d lived at the sue the utility, joining thousands of other TURN TO SONOMA VALLEY » PAGE H9
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2018
A mural adorns a wall in Dunbar Elementary in Glen Ellen.
SONOMA VALLEY
CONTINUED FROM H8
This year, the festival date fell just days
after Sonoma Valley Unified School
District reopened its campuses, but
Dunbar never considered canceling the
holiday.
“It’s a tradition and we were not go-
ing to break it,” said Celeste Winders, a
mother of two Dunbar students.
The party was moved inside, be-
cause the school grounds, including
the kindergarten playground, gar-
den, chicken coop and famed Haver
Stage, were all destroyed in the blaze.
Everyone grabbed a costume. Republic
of Thrift sent nine employees dressed
up as the characters of “The Wizard
of Oz,” complete with flying monkeys.
It was important to keep a sense of
normalcy.
“The kids needed it,” Winders said.
That first week back was focused on
healing as the school rallied around
the five Dunbar families who lost their
homes. Counselors such as loss special-
ist Rebecca Bailey, whose Sylvia Drive
home burned to the ground, were sta-
tioned in classrooms to help kids cope.
To rebuild the melted playground,
PTO Vice President Chris Marino
immediately launched a fundraising
campaign, which garnered $11,296.
Because of liability laws, the school
had to replace the playground with
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H9
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 quarter of the homes lost in
the county in October. A smaller number of lots have changed hands or been put up for sale.
The big picture on reconstruction
578 11
Homes under Homes
construction rebuilt
313
Permits
issued
478
Permits
pending
KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
insurance funds. The donor dollars
went to outfit the space with toys, balls,
sandboxes and playhouses.
5,319
Total
The Rotary Club of Glen Ellen/Ken- homes lost
wood handed over $10,000, and a lot of
sweat equity, to rebuild the garden and
the outdoor stage just in time for May’s
annual fifth-grade melodrama. Land-
mark Winery gave another $10,000, Property lots in burn zones listed for sale since Nov. 1
one of many Glen Ellen businesses to
LOTS LISTED LOTS SOLD MEDIAN PRICE IN JUNE
support the school.
“That’s how Dunbar is, that’s how
Dunbar always has been. We take care
of each other,” Winders said. She was a
522 271 $242,500
student there herself when an electri-
cal fire burned her childhood home
to the ground in 1982. She was home
alone when the flames burst out of the Homes lost in October wildfires, by neighborhood*
wall, and the first person on scene was Coffey Park, Fountaingrove, Larkfield and Mark West Springs include surrounding areas.
her principal, Ken Limon.
While the school’s garden will take 2,000
time to grow, other repairs to Dunbar
campus are complete. However, Mag-
nani is worried about the longer-term 1,500 1,729
impacts. A majority of Dunbar stu- 1,586 *13 homes in outlying
1,473 areas excluded from
dents live in rental housing around the neighborhood counts
valley, and she fears the rising costs 1,000
in a tighter-than-ever housing market
will force families out.
“The rate of every rental is going 500
up,” she said. “I think we’re going to 518
see a shift in population after those
leases go up. I don’t think we’re near 0
done seeing the impact.” COFFEY PARK FOUNTAINGROVE LARKFIELD SONOMA
AND MARK WEST AND BENNETT
Emily Charrier is publisher of the SPRINGS VALLEYS
Sonoma Index-Tribune and Petaluma
Argus-Courier. Sources: County of Sonoma, City of Santa Rosa, Pacific Union International THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Housing help for homeless individuals and
families impacted by the res.
COTS Laure Reichek Housing Hub
575 West College Avenue, Santa Rosa
The 2017 fires stressed our housing and employment markets.
Did you lose your housing as a result of the fires or the
circumstances created by the fires? Are you looking for help
finding and affording rental housing?
Services include:
• Rental and deposit assistance
• Advocacy, coaching and help with paperwork
• Shared housing opportunities
Drop in hours are 9 to noon, Monday through Friday.
Find out more at cots.org
Funders include Redwood Credit Union Community Fund, Tipping Point
Emergency Relief Fund, County of Sonoma, and many groups, businesses,
and individuals like you.
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2018 H11

Rebuild NORTH BAY

A toast to F
KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Rincon Ridge residents and friends make a toast at a “Shovels & Bubbles” rebuild party July 16 at their homesites that were burned during October’s Tubbs fire.

By MEG MCCONAHEY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

or Claudine Kunkle, it took every bit of resolve

the future
she could muster to drive up to Elkstone Place
in Fountaingrove. For months, she had strictly
avoided going anywhere near the neighborhood
where she had spent happy times with friends.
But it was a bright, breezy evening in summer, and
there was a party going on at Matt and Megan Con-
dron’s place that she couldn’t miss.
“Driving in, I got a little bit of panic,” she confessed.
“I just wanted to turn around and get out of here.”
Walking in from her car along sidewalks empty of
homes, she took her time. But as soon as she arrived at the

Fire victims reclaim homes with celebratory

Condrons’ and saw a big clutch of friends juggling shovels
and glasses of champagne on the barren lot where the

camaraderie as they overcome their losses

Condrons’ house once stood, she felt comforted.

TURN TO TOAST » PAGE H13

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THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2018 H13

“There’s a reason you surround

yourself with good people
— so you can bounce back
from things you could never
imagine. People are resilient.”
TRACY WEITZENBERG, Fountaingrove resident who lost her home
on Southridge Drive durig the Tubbs fire in October

Tracy Weitzenberg, right, and Jolene Lyons share a laugh during a resident
gathering July 16 in Fountaingrove’s Rincon Ridge neighborhood.
Weitzenberg lost her home and Lyons’ home was saved during the Tubbs fire.

PHOTOS BY KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Rincon Ridge residents and friends gather for a “Shovels & Bubbles” rebuild party being held on a cul-de-sac where homes once stood before the fire. Organizers of the block parties are
seeking to help stricken friends and families embrace the future as fire-damaged neighborhoods begin the rebuilding process.

TOAST
CONTINUED FROM H11
Kunkle is still struggling with the after-
math of that night in October when the
Tubbs fire ripped through the Fountain-
grove area, leveling more than 1,400 homes
in the neighborhood, including her own off
Parker Hill Road. But on this July evening,
there was a festive atmosphere in the empty
Altaire subdivision as neighbors and friends
gathered not to mourn their losses but to
celebrate the rebuild.
It was the first of what chief organizer
Tracy Weitzenberg, who lost her home on
Southridge Drive in Fountaingrove, hopes
will be a succession of “Shovels & Bubbles”
rebuild parties aimed at helping stricken
friends and families embrace the future.
Matt Condron is her brother.
“I’m a glass is half-full type of person. I’m
just going to focus on the next step. This is
the only life we get, so I choose to be happy,”
she said, surrounded by a gaggle of girl-
friends, including Kunkle.
Weitzenberg is the daughter of former
Santa Rosa Mayor Janet Condron. She’s
now living with her parents while waiting to
build a new house near them.
Getting friends and neighbors together in
a positive way, she said, is part of the heal-
ing. And it’s not just happening in Altaire.
Neighborhoods in other parts of the burn
zone are holding or planning to hold parties
to boost morale and symbolically reclaim
their blocks and properties as foundations
are laid and walls go up.
Brad Sherwood, one of several block
captains in the fire-devastated Larkfield
Estates in northeast Santa Rosa, said his
neighborhood has been hosting meetings
over fire-related issues. But in August he
and another block captain, Shawn Ratliss,
will co-host a rebuild barbecue. Aside from a
quick update from the fire department, this
party will be for fun and camaraderie.
“It’s just really important to stay connect-
ed and be there for each other because we’re
all going through this and it’s really a rough-
and-tumble time for all of us. The more we
can do together, the better.”
Ratliss, who lived around the block from
Sherwood, said it has always been a friendly
neighborhood, where people show up with
home-baked cookies at Christmas or leave
pumpkin bread on your porch. One July
Fourth, everyone gathered on their lawns
with flags to cheer on a neighborhood pa-
rade with kids and strollers.
Former residents of Hennessy Place in Cof-
fey Park have been gathering since Christ-
mas, when they held their annual Christmas
brunch at an Airbnb rental in Healdsburg.
But Scott Wise, who bought his Coffey
Park house when it was brand-new nearly
30 years ago and raised three kids there, has
held regular street parties in the cul-de-sac
since the fire to mark events and holidays.
On Easter, they rented a jump house and
Rincon Ridge residents and friends raise their drinks for a toast during a “Shovels & Bubbles” party in
their neighborhood, where families are beginning to rebuild homes lost during the Tubbs fire.
Aly and Chris Pounds take a photo together
during a block party for their razed Rincon
Ridge neighborhood in Santa Rosa.
had an egg hunt for kids, and a small liba-
tions hunt for the grown-ups. As houses
rise again, there will be more events and
milestones to celebrate.
“We set up a table and chairs right in the
middle of the road. One of our friends brought
a boom box that works off Bluetooth from the
phone,” Wise said. “We keep it light. It’s just
good to see everybody, and it’s therapeutic for
all of us. Many of us have gone through life,
death, divorce and raising kids together.”
At the Altaire Bubbles & Shovels rebuild
party, kids who have been separated for
months ran freely among the empty lots, un-
hindered by fences and walls. Adults talked
and got caught up.
“There’s a reason you surround yourself
with good people — so you can bounce back
from things you could never imagine,” Weit-
zenberg said. “People are resilient.”
Neighbors in Altaire have been meeting for
months over serious rebuild issues. But this
was the first social gathering since the fire sent
them scattering. Under a canopy — the only
roof of any kind where 57 homes once stood —
they toasted with champagne and beer to the
re-emergence of their neighborhood.
“It’s fun to see the progress and know you
can head back to what you have before. It’s
a positive point as opposed to negativity,
which we’ve been dealing with a for a long
time,” said Matt Condron. He and 41 neigh-
bors signed with San Ramon-based Lafferty
Communities to rebuild most of Altaire.
The Condrons will be among the last in
line. All that remains of their home are two
stone pillars that will become part of their
new backyard. But he is happy to celebrate
the soon-to-be-laid foundation for his neigh-
bors Ligaya and Matt Park, whose home
looked down on his from a hill across the
street. They often joked about running a zip
line down between their two houses for the
kids, who played together.
“Through this process I definitely feel like
I’ve made more connection with my neigh-
borhood than ever before,” said Matt Park, a
psychologist with Santa Rosa City Schools.
“It will be wonderful to do this at each step
in the rebuild process. I will attend stuff for
friends as they get to each phase, and when
everything is rebuilt there will be quite a few
housewarming parties down the line.”
You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey
at 707-521-5204 or megmcconahey@pressde-
mocrat.com.
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2018 H15

PLAYTIME TO THE RESCUE »

Children’s Museum of Sonoma County’s Firefighter Playhouse exhibit offers
youngsters the chance to process their fear, loss through role playing

Liam Lam, 4, plays dress up as a firefighter in the

Firefighter Playhouse Exhibit at the Children’s Museum
of Sonoma County in Santa Rosa.

Sophia Webb, 4, left, who lost her Coffey Park home in

the Tubbs fire, plays in the Children’s Museum exhibit.

PHOTOS BY BETH SCHLANKER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Gioia D’Alessandro, 5, left, and Olivia Birdsall, 7, who lost her home in the Tubbs fire, play together on a pretend fire engine in the Firefighter Playhouse at the Children’s Museum of Sonoma

Imaginative ways
County in Santa Rosa. The exhibit, which runs through the fall, is stocked with costumes and props like fire hoses and firetrucks.

to handle trauma
S
By DANNY MUELLER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

ophia, 4, was having trouble sleeping. She was

temperamental and short with her younger
brother, Gregory. She refused to sleep alone
and would wake up afraid.
Olivia, 7, was having trouble paying attention in
school. Her teachers sent home notes about her lack
of focus. She sometimes yelled in her sleep.
Like many other children across Northern Cali-
fornia, Sophia and Olivia’s lives were
“Every single upended by the destructive wildfires
one of these that burned across the region last
October. Both girls lost their homes
kids has in Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park neigh-
borhood.
a story to tell.” “That was our home that was
ARMANDO ORDUÑA, taken from us in the middle of the
director of outreach programs
for the Children’s Museum night,” said Julie Birdsall, Olivia’s
of Houston mother. “That was our safe place.”
Both families escaped the Tubbs fire with little
time to pack their belongings. Stephanie Webb said her daughter, So-
phia, saw “many things on fire” as they drove to safety. Within days,
Sophia was leading family members in a new game.
“She would re-enact putting out fires and helping people get out of
rooms,” said Webb. “She would have Gregory re-enact a fire with us
leaving the house.”
It’s the type of trauma-inspired play that is central to the Firefight-
er Playhouse exhibit at the Children’s Museum of Sonoma County in
Santa Rosa. The exhibit, which runs through the fall, is stocked with
costumes and props like fire hoses and trucks. Children can choose to
play a firefighter, homeowner — even the fire itself.
Webb said her daughter was “very excited” to visit the firefighters
exhibit, where she took on the role of a first responder and helped
lead other children to safety.
Collette Michaud, the museum’s executive director, said role play
Liam Lam pretends to put out a house fire in the Firefighter Playhouse at
TURN TO RESCUE » PAGE H17 the Children’s Museum of Sonoma County in Santa Rosa.
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2018 H17

Health resources to help fire survivors

By MARTIN ESPINOZA

T
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

here are a
number of
resources
available for fire
survivors and men-
tal health profes-
sionals interested in
contributing their
time and learning
more about wildfire JOHN BURGESS / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

trauma-recovery Participants meditate during a trauma-informed yoga and

iRest meditation class, which seeks to help fire survivors
skills. recover physically and emotionally, at YogaOne in Santa Rosa.
The Health Care Foun- that can be accessed online ed by the wildfires. The
dation Northern Califor- BETH SCHLANKER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT, 2015 at samhsa.gov/find-help/ federally funded program
nia: The foundation has Therapist Susan Karle, left, drinks tea with Amos Clifford, the founder of the Association of disaster-distress-helpline. provides crisis counseling,
launched a self-help web- Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs, after practicing the technique of “forest resource navigation and
site aimed at helping fire bathing” at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park in Kenwood. County services: Sonoma disaster recovery educa-
survivors deal with their County’s mental health tion. Counselors can be
post-disaster stress. Visit
and Family Therapists, or iRest Meditation: Trauma- in Kenwood. The next recovery website offers reached at:
mysonomastrong.com. For RECAMFT, have volun- informed yoga and iRest walk takes place at 10 a.m. links to disaster resource ■ Santa Rosa, 707-608-
more information on how teered to give three to five Meditation classes in Sept 6. For more informa- guides, crisis help lines, 8805
to get involved or contrib-
free sessions of counseling Sonoma County can be tion, visit recamft.org/ free therapy and crisis ■ Northern Sonoma
ute to the project, contact
to anyone affected by the found online at recamft. event-2996765. counseling online at County, 707-608-8807
Debbie Mason at 707-473- fires. Go to recamft.org/ org/yoga/ sonomacountyrecovers. ■ Sonoma Valley, 707-
0583 or dmason@health- freecounseling to see a list- Federal Substance Abuse org/mental-health- 608-8806
carefoundation.net. ing of therapists by city. Forest Bathing: Walks and Mental Health Services wellness. ■ Southern Sonoma
RECAMFT’s full list of fire led by licensed therapist Administration: The agen- County, 707-608-8806
RECAMFT: Some members survivor resources can be Susan Karle take fire cy within the U.S. Depart- California HOPE program: ■ West Sonoma County,
of the Redwood Empire found online at recamft. survivors through Sug- ment of Health and Hu- Sonoma County’s program 707-608-8807
Chapter of the California org/local-resources. arloaf Ridge State Park, man Services maintains a provides outreach and ■ Adults age 50 or old-
Association of Marriage 2605 Adobe Canyon Road, disaster distress help line counseling to those affect- er, 707-608-8804

PHOTOS BY BETH SCHLANKER/ THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Jonah Kim, 4, plays in the new Firefighter Playhouse exhibit at the Children’s Museum of Sonoma County in Santa Rosa.

RESCUE
CONTINUED FROM H15
can be a powerful tool for kids to process
trauma.
“I knew instinctively this is the way
children process things, by play and by
acting things out,” Michaud said. “That’s
how they gain power and control and self
confidence is through toys and imagination
and through play.”
Children who experience a traumatic life
event often experience short-term distress,
according to the American Psychological
Association. Symptoms can range from
separation anxiety and lack of interest to
nightmares and irritability.
Mary Gillis, a marriage and family thera-
pist who practices in Petaluma, treats trau-
ma and anxiety among other mental health
issues. Her writing on the therapeutic basis
for role play is featured in the Children's
Museum exhibit.
“Part of trauma is having something
Justin Horne, 6, dons firefighter gear in the Firefighter Playhouse exhibit in Santa Rosa.
happen that feels out of control,” said Gillis.
“Then there’s the uncertainty about how to play, create and learn outside of school. She ton, seeing a need for relief, soon joined an
regain safety, control and understanding.” said the key to recovery is giving kids space. effort to help parents and kids who had left
She said children have a need to “exter- “I think kids are actually really resilient,” their homes.
nalize” the trauma, using their bodies and said Bailey. “We all talk about kids, how Armando Orduña, director of outreach
tangible objects to work through negative they seem to bounce back from things. For a programs for the children’s museum,
emotions. One of those emotions can be a lot of the kids, part of the trauma seems to said families were struggling in “chaotic”
fear of loss. be that parents are still going through it.” conditions as a shelter meant to house 5,000
“You should try to clean the room of a She said the teen club’s mission was clear residents stretched to accommodate thou-
7-year-old who lost her home,” Birdsall said in the first days after the fires: help anyone sands more.
of her daughter, Olivia. “She has little things who came through the doors. Bailey said the “There was nowhere for the kids to go to
stashed and hidden all over the place. She club was packed with people who needed to run, jump, play, sing, or just relax,” Orduña
doesn’t want to throw anything away.” print forms, charge phones, check on friends said. “They had the cot, and that was it.”
Olivia’s birthday party, normally held in or get a bite to eat. The Children's Museum opened a “Kids
the park at the center of her neighborhood, With schools closed for weeks as the county Zone” at the shelter, with games and support
was moved to an indoor venue this year. assessed fire damage, Chop’s served as a natu- staff to look after children. Orduña said the
Still, Birdsall said she sees signs of hope in ral meet-up spot. Melissa Stewart, program kids were the most resilient people at the
the rebuilding effort, and in her daughter’s and events director, said the club was a place shelter, using play to distract themselves
behavior. for kids to “experience some form of normal- from boredom or discomfort.
The Children’s Museum hopes it can help cy” at a time when few things were normal. With free child care, parents at the
in such cases. Months before the North Bay fires, a shelter were able to work through issues
“We want to be a place where families tropical cyclone slammed Houston with with FEMA, find donations or plan their
and kids can come and heal through this,” catastrophic flooding, pushing the city of next move. Meanwhile, their kids played
Michaud said. “It will definitely take time.” 2.3 million residents to its breaking point. with others who had been through similar
Children may gravitate to firetrucks and Hurricane Harvey stalled over the city, hardship.
costumes, but how do older kids and teenag- dumping heavy rain and forcing thousands “Every single one of these kids has a story
ers work through trauma? of residents into a temporary shelter at the to tell,” Orduña said. “What we did. How
Lorez Bailey is executive director of George R. Brown Convention Center. we got through it. What our neighbors did.
Chop’s Teen Club in Santa Rosa, a nonprofit Many evacuees were parents with their What complete strangers did to help us all
organization and place for teens to meet, children. The Children’s Museum of Hous- get through it. They all have their stories.”
H18 THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2018

EMERGENCY WORKERS SHARE PERSPECTIVES »

Firefighters, police officers who worked to save people
while their own homes burned need help to recover

First responders
face grief, healing

JOHN BURGESS / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

“First responder culture kind of requires you to be stoic, but it can be hard to keep that stiff upper lip, especially when you still see the devastation all around you,” said Cyndi Foreman,
Windsor and Rincon Valley fire prevention officer who helped evacuate the Larkfield area on the night of the Tubbs fire in October.

By GLEN MARTIN

L
FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

ike almost everyone else in and

around Santa Rosa, Tony Niel and
his family were fast asleep when the
robocall came early in the morning
of Oct. 9, ordering an immediate evacuation.
Niel jumped up, looked out the window, and
saw a wall of flame. He and his wife, Carol,
barely had time to hustle their two young
sons, Jordan and Mason, and their dog into
their car and truck and convoy down Mark
West Springs Road to Highway 101.
They followed a long train of fellow evac-
uees, with houses and hillsides lighting up
around them. But the freeway was packed,
smoke and embers were jumping all lanes
near the Luther Burbank Center, so they
took the River Road exit and conferred.
“We decided Carol and the kids had to
work their way back

“ I knew up (side roads) toward

a friend’s house,” said

hundreds of Niel, a Santa Rosa

Fire Department
firefighter. “And I had
PHOTOS BY KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT, 2017

people who to get to work.”

That was perhaps
Santa Rosa firefighter Tony Niel and his son, Jordon, 13, sift through the debris of their Larkfield home
on Oct. 18. Niel, below, and his family fled their home as the Tubbs fire overtook their neighborhood
in October. While he considers himself fortunate, recovering from the disaster hasn’t been easy.
were directly the most traumatic
moment of all the by sheer sense of mission.

impacted by many that followed

for the Niel family:
telling the kids that
And many, because of what they experi-
enced and lost themselves, are struggling in
the fires’ wake.
the fires, and I their father had to
head back into the
Santa Rosa Police Lieutenant John
Snetsinger retains vivid memories of those
was personally flames.
“They were crying,
first horrific days. He immediately deployed
to the front lines of the disaster, where he

affected by saying, ‘Daddy, don’t

go, we don’t want you
to die,’” said Niel.
their loss.” “Carol was crying. I
was tearing up. We
JOHN SNETSINGER, knew by then that
Santa Rosa police lieutenant our house was gone. I
and longtime city resident
told them that I didn’t
want to die either, that I was going to be very
careful, but that I had to try to help people,
because that’s what we do. I told them to
listen to their mama, and then I worked my
way down to Station 2 on Stony Point Road.”
Niel picked up fellow firefighter Drew
Peterson at the station and the pair drove
up to Fountaingrove, where they helped
with evacuations. At one point they rescued
Sonoma State University President Judy
Sakaki and her husband, Patrick McCallum,
as the couple fled barefoot down a street of
smoking asphalt, the flames roaring down
on them from all sides.
They were, in short, heroes — a tribute
Niel downplays. There were a lot of heroes
that night, he said.
But if Niel was a hero, he was also a vic-
tim. He and his family lost their home, along
with virtually every possession. They had
to live in an RV for 1½ months on property
owned by Carol’s boss; later, they found a
rental off 4th Street. They hope to rebuild.
Someday.
Niel considers himself fortunate, given
that his family is safe and they share a
strong religious faith that sustains them.
But it hasn’t been easy.
“It’s the emotional stuff that’s the hardest,
not the material things,” said Niel. “You’re
ripped out of your home, out of your com-
fort zone, the bed and routine you’ve known
forever. I’m not going to lie — it’s extremely
hard. We have our faith in God, and that’s
what has kept us going on the tough days.
But I feel we’ve been robbed of our sense of
safety, and it’s hard to get that back.”
The October fires forced everyday people
into heroic roles, rescuing others, making
stands against the flames and coming to the
aid of those who lost loved ones, their homes
and businesses. Many of those on the front
lines were first responders — firefighters,
police officers and sheriff’s officials, para-
medics and other medical personnel. They
were called to help, whether by dispatch or
stayed for most of the ensuing week. Virtu-
ally all of his interactions involved people
who were traumatized — and that included
the men and women in his own department.
“One thing that really sticks with me from
that first night involved one of our guys
who knew his house was burning down and
never wavered from his post, from doing
his job,” Snetsinger said. “We learned a lot
about our own people during the fires. And
most of what we learned was good.”
Snetsinger also learned that everyone is
different — including individual cops and
firefighters.
“People are individuals,” said Snetsinger.
“Some people were so distressed by what
they were seeing that it had a deep impact
on their emotional state. Others were able to
just keep going at a hundred miles an hour.”
Responses also seemed to vary by back-
ground, Snetsinger said.
“The responses of an officer who’d just
moved here from another city were likely to
be very different from one who was a long-
time member of the community,” Snetsing-
er observed. “I’ve lived in Santa Rosa for
50 years. I grew up on the west side of town,
and went to Schaefer Elementary. I knew
TURN TO RESPONDERS » PAGE H19
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2018
RESPONDERS
CONTINUED FROM H18
hundreds of people who
were directly impacted by
the fires, and I was person-
ally affected by their loss.”
“One of the main
takeaways from the fires
is that we’re not robots.
We see a lot of trauma in
our jobs (as police), but
something as extreme as
this shows you where ev-
eryone’s upper limits are,
and they differ. In a lot of
cases, we saw those upper
limits reached on that first
night.”
That sets up a dilemma
for first responders, who
are expected to emerge
from any disaster hale and
hearty, take a shower, bag
eight hours in bed, and be
back at it the next day. As
Snetsinger observed, that’s
not how it always works.
Identifying and treating
traumatized first respond-
ers can be difficult, given
the “suck it up” ethos of
the profession.
“Most critical events are
over in a matter of sec-
onds, and (police officer or
firefighter) responses are
often concluded in an hour
or less,” said Joel Fay, a
psychologist and former
cop who logged 33 years
in law enforcement in Los
Angeles and San Rafael.
But the North Bay fires
lasted 21 days, and many
police and firefighters were
victims as well, noted Fay,
who is providing counseling
services for Sonoma County
Sheriff’s Office employees.
“Some lost homes. A lot
of them were working on
the fires and they couldn’t
reach their families, and
they were worried about
their spouses and kids
getting out alive. But they
couldn’t and wouldn’t leave
their posts, so the stresses
were extreme.”
First responders, said
Fay, “are generally quite
resilient, and when they
go through something like
the fires, they instinctive-
ly try different things to
overcome the effects of the
experience — working out,
for example. But points can
be reached where resilient
strategies don’t work, and
that may not be immedi-
ately apparent. You can hit
that crisis a year later, or
even several years after the
incidents. Delayed stress
reactions are common in
these kinds of situations.
It’s similar to combat. You
do your tour, and a year
later there are intrusive
dreams, your spouse won-
ders why you’re irritable or
drinking too much. Things
can fall apart.”
Virtually all of Sono-
ma County’s fire and law
enforcement agencies
offer counseling and
therapy to ameliorate
the effects of trauma, but
not all approaches may
be equally effective, said
Cyndi Foreman, the fire
prevention officer for the
Rincon Valley/Windsor
Fire Protection District.
“First responder culture
kind of requires you to be
stoic, but it can be hard to
keep that stiff upper lip, es-
pecially when you still see
the devastation all around
you,” said Foreman, who
rushed to Larkfield when
the fires began raging
through. She helped evac-
H19
all that first night, I kept
trying to figure out how
to tell her that our home,
the keepsakes we had from
our trips together, every-
thing — was gone. We
finally told her on Monday,
and it was a very difficult
conversation.”
Personally, said Lowen-
thal, “I came in to the as-
sistance center our union
had established at the
fairgrounds on Friday, five
days after the fires started.
In that time, I’d only had
six hours of sleep. I’d been
wearing the same uniform
for the entire five days. I
was exhausted, running
completely on adrenaline.”
He was quickly taken
in by a ready and respon-
sive staff. A friend from a
Los Angeles County Fire
Department strike team
immediately went shop-
ping and bought him a
duffel bag and new clothes.
He was able to rest, eat and
talk to people who helped
him with everything from
CHRISTOPHER CHUNG / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT insurance claims to trau-
“For me, the hardest thing was telling my 9-year-old daughter our house was gone,” said Santa Rosa Assistant Fire Marshal ma counseling.
Paul Lowenthal, who observes excavators remove debris from the burned Santa Rosa Fire Station 5 in December. “It was amazing to come
into that sea of people,
living in trailers. But not a lot of them peers from
all responses are the same. other departments, who
Everyone saw their duties, were there just for you,”
registered their responses, Lowenthal said. “It was a
in different ways. Some tremendous relief to have
were more emotional, a system in place ready to
some less. In the end, catch us when we could
we’re just dealing with it finally slow down, to have
like the rest of the com- people who could help us
munity. We’re all in this begin our own recovery.”
together.” The signs of renewal
Assistant Santa Rosa are everywhere in Sonoma
Fire Department Marshal County. The debris has
Paul Lowenthal, another been hauled away. New
first responder who lost homes are going up. But
his home, said the support the scars on both the land
of both peers and profes- and the people are pro-
sionals was instrumental found. Full recovery will
in helping him work require ongoing and active
through the stress. Lowen- intervention on all fronts
thal was on the job as soon and for all residents —
as the fires began late in including first responders,
CHRISTOPHER CHUNG / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT the evening on Oct. 8, and said Fay.
Santa Rosa Fire Department firefighters Tony Niel, from left, Ray Spradlin and Alex Serrano stayed on the fire lines for “Whenever I’m in Sono-
play with a dog that they rescued from the backyard of a Fountaingrove-area home while a full week. He knew his ma County, I still see the
Brian White rests during a short break from fighting the Tubbs fire on Oct. 9 in Santa Rosa. home was destroyed that signs — ‘Thank you fire-
first night, a Sunday. fighters, thank you first re-
uate panicked residents to Foreman said. “They’ve (Joel Fay). In the end, you “For me, the hardest sponders,’” said Fay. “We
safety and her memories gone through it, too, or can’t characterize things thing was telling my all know the stories, how
are filled with images of maybe they’re still going in broad strokes. The 9-year-old daughter our they saved lives. Now we
impenetrable smoke and through it. Having an open impacts on the members house was gone,” said need to be there for them,
towering flames. and honest conversation of our department were Lowenthal, a single par- to make sure they have the
“We’re used to going with a brother or sister in all different. Twenty-nine ent. “She was at her mom’s treatment and resources
on strike teams and then your profession can have of our employees lost home that night in Peta- they need. We need to be
coming back to our own a real impact in reducing homes. Some are still luma, so she was safe. But there to save their lives.”
unaffected communities,” PTSD.”
said Foreman. “But now Fay agrees with Fore-
it’s our community that’s man that qualified peer
been destroyed. You can counselors are an essen-
feel powerless, and that tial resource, “but we also
can be devastating for first have to have clinicians
responders.” available who are compe-
So devastating that sui- tent with both trauma and
cide is one of the leading public-safety culture, and
causes of death among we have to have enough of
firefighters and police, said them on hand to provide
Foreman. effective treatment to any-
“The pressures can be so one who needs it. Famil-
great that deep depression iarity with public-safety
can set in,” Foreman said. culture is particularly
“You don’t want to burden important. If a responder
your spouse with the is hurting and he goes to
baggage you’re carrying a clinician who clearly
around. And clinical ther- doesn’t understand that
apists often don’t know culture, he won’t return
the particular issues, the and he’ll probably label all
struggles around this kind therapists as ineffective.” Midstate Construction Has Over 83 Years
of work, so they may not Spencer Crum, a ser-
be helpful in some cases. geant and spokesman with Building Quality Construction.
That’s why peer counsel- the Sonoma County Sher- Midstate Construction will focus our efforts and manpower to rebuild
ing is gaining so much iff’s Office, said both peers
momentum in firefighting and trained clinicians are our community in multi-family residential, hospitality, winery, office
and police circles.” important for addressing and retail. Our company culture and commitment has been one of
Trained peer counsel- first-responder stress.
ors, said Foreman, offer “We’ve held two coun- supporting our employees, our clients and our neighboring areas.
something traditional seling sessions, one right
therapists don’t: a bone- after the fires and then a
deep understanding of briefing six months later
the job and its specific to see how everybody is
stresses. doing,” said Crum. “We
“They know what you’re use a peer support team
going through because in conjunction with the 1180 Holm Road, Petaluma, CA
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