Tubbs Fire anniversary remembered in Santa Rosa

ByWayne Freedman KGO logo

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Tubbs Fire anniversary remembered in Santa Rosa

If only the pain from the Tubbs Fire could fade away as easily as chalk on the pavement in Santa Rosa's Old Courthouse Square.

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (KGO) -- If only the pain from the Tubbs Fire could fade away as easily as chalk on the pavement in Santa Rosa's Old Courthouse Square.

"A lot of things don't last forever. How people feel, community connections," said Elizabeth Jimenez Montelongo, as she worked her temporary canvas.

The North Bay did feel a sense of community, Tuesday. Begin at a temporary clinic set up by Santa Rosa Community Health after fire destroyed the largest of their nine clinics across Santa Rosa.

Remember last year's benefit for fire relief at AT&T Park last November? The non-profit Tipping Point raised $17 million, that night. They spent $4.25 million keeping Santa Rosa Community Health going with temporary clinics like this one in a parking lot for 24,000 of their 50,000 under-served patients.

"We knew our people needed care. That the most vulnerable before the fire would be the most after, and we would have to do whatever it took, " said Annemarie Brown of Santa Rosa Community Health," Annemarie Brown with Santa Rosa Community Health said.

Speaking of whatever it takes, we also watched a ribbon cutting in Coffey Park, where Crista Gatti moved into her rebuilt home Tuesday. She's a nurse at Kaiser who had been at work when the blaze blew through. "I never thought my house would burn."

Nor did she think she could rebuild in one year. The secret - that while the owners of most burned homes sought local architects, Crista found one from out of town. We asked contractor Calvin Sanders how long the project took from foundation to opening.

"I think we were 86 days," he said. "That is extremely fast."

Fast, for someone who hasn't endured the past year.

The North Bay Fires: One Year Later: