Two years ago, their neighborhood burned. Now they’re reliving a ‘nightmare’
SANTA ROSA — As a powerful wind rushed down Dogwood Drive in Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park neighborhood early Sunday morning — prompting a mandatory evacuation order for the Kincade Fire burning to the north — it carried dark memories of the blaze that devastated the area two years ago.
Residents rushing to pack their belongings said they felt like they were reliving the night of the October 2017 Tubbs Fire — which leveled their entire neighborhood and killed 22 people.
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“This is a nightmare,” said Colleen Thill as she stood in her driveway, her red bathrobe blowing behind her. “It feels just like two years ago. It’s some nice PTSD.”
Many residents of the block just moved back in to their homes the last few months, and houses up and down the street are still in various states of reconstruction. About 70 percent of the homes in the neighborhood have been rebuilt.
As the Kincade Fire burned near Geyserville and Healdsburg, Sonoma County’s mandatory evacuation zones have advanced further and further south. At 4:35 a.m., phones on Dogwood buzzed with the alert locals had been dreading — a message telling them to leave now.
“I said I wasn’t going to go this time,” Thill said. But as the wind whipped leaves down her block, she and her husband John found themselves loading up the car with boxes and suitcases.
“We’re taking the stuff we took the first time,” John said — lots of family photos, his mother’s wedding ring. “Everything we got in the last two years, I don’t care as much about.”
They also took their two cats, which they got after six of their cats died in the 2017 fire.
One of their daughters was already evacuated from her home in Windsor, just north of Santa Rosa. The Thills planned to drive south and stay with another daughter in Petaluma.
“I try not to get frozen with fear,” Colleen said. “But I really don’t want to go through this again.”
Around the neighborhood, locals hurried back and forth between their homes and cars. Sheriff’s deputy vehicles rolled through the cul-de-sacs, sirens blaring and lights flashing against the houses.
Residents said they were grateful that this time, at least, they had more notice. Sonoma County announced an evacuation warning for the neighborhood around 10:30 p.m. Saturday, six hours before people were ordered to leave.
Two years ago, “we barely had any warning,” said Sherry Fish. “We had leaves falling down that were burnt and hot still — so we were like, yeah it’s time to go.”
Fish, who has two young kids, said she couldn’t believe history seemed to be repeating itself. “We just moved back in two months ago,” she said.
Down the block, Rick Merian, who’s lived on Dogwood since 1986, filled the back of his truck with supplies he needed for his drywall business.
Not on the packing list: The Halloween skeletons and pirates “that talk to you” standing in the middle of his garage.
There wasn’t a “a chance in hell” he ever thought he’d go through this again, Merian said. He said neighbors had been checking in with each other through the night, and pointed around the block — “she’s a single mom. They’re renters over here. I’m worried about them.”
He said he planned to stay as long as he could, and water down the house before he left.
“Last time, we had less than 10 minutes notice. Half an hour after we left, our house had burned,” Merian said. “At least this time, we have a chance.”