Tough answers lead to more questions for Santa Rosa mobile home park residents

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (KGO) -- How symbolic that John Triglia likes puzzles. He has been living one since the Sonoma County Firestorm last October.

"I am still in limbo. Others call it purgatory," said Triglia.

When the fire consumed 116 residences in the Journey's End home park, he felt lucky to own one of the 44 that survived. "I thought I was lucky. Now, I sometimes think it would have been easier if I were gone," said the 91-year old former Marine and mail carrier.

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Four months after the fire, he and fellow residents remain evacuated during a massive clean-up. Saturday, they learned the park owner hasn't the money to rebuild, leaving residents wondering what will happen to their surviving homes. Many may have to abandon those for a lack of the money to move them off the property.

"I don't know what we're going to do," said Theresa Udall, a retired nurse who has lived in her mobile home for fifteen years. "I have lived in five different places since the fire."

All the while, her home has sat intact and red-tagged due to environmental hazards and a lack of utilities.

If help comes, at all, it will take a long time. A local non-profit, Burbank Housing, wants to work a deal with the property's owner to buy and redevelop into an apartment house for low-income housing. Journey's End residents would have first priority.

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"When you're 91 years old, you don't have a lot of time," said Triglia, who lives, now in the Sandman Motel, just across Highway 101. He has utilized every square inch of the place---does his dishes in the bathtub.

"It could be worse," said Triglia. "Some people are homeless. Look on the bright side."

Click here for a look at more stories and videos about the North Bay fires.