Kincaid Fire points out another advantage of tiny homes

SAN RAMON — Tiny homes have taken off in popularity and have been widely touted as one of the solutions to the Bay Area’s housing crisis because of their affordability.

But the Kincaid Fire that’s engulfed Sonoma County revealed another advantage: the ability for people to evacuate from a wildfire — and take their home with them. No more concerns about spoiled food, sleeping in a car or an evacuation center, and no more worries if the house would still be standing in a wildfire.

That was made clear to a Sebastopol couple when the Kincaid Fire broke out the evening of Oct. 23 near Geyserville, about 27 miles northeast of their town. Luckily, their tiny home was already out of the area and they avoided being stuck in the backup of people evacuating.

Lindsay Wood had taken their tiny home to a startup conference in San Ramon hours before the fire started.

“When the fire broke out, I was already here — not having to be on the road,” said Wood, who arrived in San Ramon on the day of Oct. 23 for a five-day conference on startups.

“All of my friends are either without power or in an evacuation zone. They’re sleeping in cars, hotels, friends’ places,” she said. “And a lot are affected by the fires that happened two years ago — PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) is heightened, for sure.”

Lindsay Wood’s husband, Eric Wood, was in Santa Rosa on Saturday catering a Halloween party that used a backup generator. After his catering job ended, he drove to his parents’ home in Palo Alto and rejoined Lindsay on Monday.

Like so many others in the Bay Area, the couple found themselves repeatedly frustrated and dismayed in their home-buying search. They were renting in San Rafael, and were outbid on three properties in Novato despite their combined six-figure income.

“And that’s when we realized: ‘I don’t think home ownership in this model is for us,’ ” Lindsay Wood said. “I was looking at tiny homes coming out online and on TV, and realized we needed our own tiny home.”

The Woods’ tiny home was completed in March and is about 300 square feet. It’s considered a luxury tiny home: It has a full-size refrigerator, runs on solar, sleeps six people and has a bathtub, steam room, shower and four-burner stove. The couple said they paid $105,000 for it, including a $25,000 package to set up the solar and water.

Since buying the tiny home on wheels in March, the couple has traveled to Texas and Colorado, and showcased their tiny home to about 5,000 people, she said.

The Woods are now consultants for tiny homes with their business experiencetinyhomes.org, helping people with the design and preliminary work on a tiny home before a building is selected. They’re working to build their fledgling company, so husband Eric takes on catering jobs.

They are strong advocates of the scaled-down housing. Lindsay Wood said the tiny home option is ideal for seniors who want to simplify their lives, and for people who can’t afford the $100,000-plus down payment required to buy a house.

But even though they may be more comfortable living in their tiny home than their neighbors who had to evacuate, the Woods are waiting for word as to when they will be able to return home to their rented property site in Sebastopol.

Meanwhile, firefighters gained a foothold in holding back the 76,000-acre Kincade Fire that has ripped through Sonoma County, doubling containment figures to 30 percent overnight on Tuesday.

As of Wednesday, the Kincaid Fire had destroyed 206 structures, 94 of which are homes and seven of which are commercial buildings. Another 90,015 structures remain threatened by the fire’s path, Cal Fire said.

Unlike the Tubbs Fire that wiped out two Santa Rosa neighborhoods two years ago, and the Camp Fire last year that killed 86 people and destroyed the town of Paradise, no one in this inferno’s path has died.

The Woods moved their home on wheels Tuesday to the Target parking lot next to the Courtyard Marriott San Ramon, and were headed to Fresno on Wednesday to attend another event where they were planning to showcase their tiny home.

And Lindsay Wood fears for the future of Sonoma County with repeated, destructive wildfires.

“Sadly enough, this is a new normal,” she said. “All of us are hoping and praying that ‘Hopefully, not this year again.’ But here we go, with yet another wildfire. The fact that Sonoma County had the largest evacuation that’s ever been recorded (in county history) means entire cities and businesses were affected.”

She added: “Sending prayers to all of our friends and family as they are unsure if their homes will be there when they lift the evacuation.”