It’s been just over a year since a number of fires devastated areas of Sonoma, Napa, and other northern counties. The Tubbs fire, which began in Calistoga, flattened over 4,000 homes and killed 22 people, making it the most destructive wildfire in California history. Now, homeowners are rebuilding, wineries are re-opening, and communities are picking up the pieces. KALW’s Ninna Gaensler-Debs and Angela Johnston reported on the fires a year ago. They join us for an update.
I talked to one recipient recently who lost everything. He woke up, saw smoke, grabbed his kids, and left - and the next time they came back, their house was burned to the ground. Actually, his wife delayed enough to bang on the doors of several of their elderly neighbors and likely helped save their lives. Anyways, now a year later, they are renting a new place, with the help of those funds, and it’s furnished almost entirely with donations from other people in the community. But he told me that he’s still grappling with lingering trauma - recently his garage malfunctioned and started smoking, and when his kids yelled and he ran outside and saw smoke, he said he totally panicked, and couldn’t stop crying. It brought him right back to that moment a year ago when he woke up.
