NFPA Journal - January/February 2018 - 25

REPEAT?

The historic devastation wrought by wildfires in 2017 offers a
strong case for a new approach to creating wildfire-resistant communities.
Experts say we could create those communities today.
If that's true, then why is it so hard to get it done?
By Jesse Roman

IN EARLY OCTOBER, FAST-MOVING WILDFIRES whipped
across vast swaths of Northern California's wine country,
fueled by tinder-dry conditions and pushed by powerful Santa
Ana winds. One of those fires, the Tubbs Fire, tore through
densely settled suburban neighborhoods in the city of Santa
Rosa, reducing block after block of homes to piles of gray ash.
In the days following the blaze, the residents of one of those
neighborhoods, Coffey Park, began slipping past a makeshift
perimeter to survey the damage, despite the urging of police to
stay away. Besides the ash and rubble, most people found little
remaining of their incinerated homes.
"This is our only life. Now, it's just vanished," Coffey Park
resident Veomany Thammasoth told The Press Democrat newspaper, as a relative wheeled away a metal safe dug from the
wreckage of the family's home of 30 years.
At least 1,400 homes in this once-idyllic cluster of cul-de-sacs
on Santa Rosa's northern edge burned, about half of the total
destroyed citywide by the Tubbs and Nuns fires, just two of the
nearly two dozen wildfires that wreaked havoc in California's
wine country in October. Collectively, the fires destroyed or
damaged more than 14,700 homes, 728 businesses, and killed
44 people.
Now, as residents turn their focus to recovery, an array
of concerns competes for their attention. Fire victims need

support, housing, and eventually insurance dollars. Community leaders must decide how to smartly and fairly rebuild,
all while coping with a humanitarian crisis and significant
property tax revenue losses. In the midst of immense personal loss, victims must wrangle with difficult questions about
whether to rebuild, how to rebuild, and if they can even
afford to do so.
Lurking in the background, but just as key to residents'
futures, is the question of how Santa Rosa can prevent this
from happening again.
This isn't the first time the city has faced these questions.
In 1964, the Hanly Fire laid waste to portions of Santa Rosa
along a footprint remarkably similar to the one outlined by
the Tubbs Fire in October. However, whereas Hanly descended upon a mostly rural farming region of 30,000 people,
Tubbs encountered an urban suburb of 175,000 residents,
with thousands of vulnerable structures clustered closely
together. As a result, the devastation was magnitudes greater
than it was more than 50 years ago.
What will the next wildfire find when it inevitably races
down the eastern ridgeline into the new Coffey Park? Can the
battered communities of Northern California protect themselves, or are they destined to suffer the same fate over and
over again?

N F PA . O R G / J O U R N A L * NFPA JOURNAL

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - January/February 2018