Families flee pre-dawn Christmas Eve fire in Rohnert Park

Wendy Laupoa sat on a hotel bed Wednesday morning surrounded by wrapped gifts that firefighters managed to grab, hours earlier, from her townhouse as fire destroyed her family’s Rohnert Park home and damaged three other units. Fourteen people were displaced.

Her son Michael Laupoa, 23, barely escaped the fire, which broke out in his upstairs bedroom in the first minutes of Christmas Eve. Rohnert Park Public Safety Officers Rick Bates and Matt Snodgrass carried him from the burning building because he is unable to walk because of the physical ramifications of fighting terminal brain cancer over three years, she said.

In an interview, Bates said that when he and Snodgrass arrived at the complex, they could see flames and smoke was billowing out the windows of the Laupoa residence.

After Wendy Laupoa told the officers that her son was still inside, the two entered the apartment and searched downstairs and found no one, initially thinking Michael was a minor. They both crawled up the stairs on their hands and knees, given the intensity of the heat.

At the top of the stairs they heard a slight groan, Bates said, and then they felt Michael Laupoa’s hand as he was sprawled on the floor.

Bates said he was unsure if Laupoa would have perished if he and Snodgrass hadn’t immediately entered the residence, instead of waiting for firefighters. “He was pretty motionless when we got ahold of him,” Bates said. “We had to drag him out of there.”

As they escaped the apartment, Bates said melting plastic landed on his uniform. The two officers later were treated for smoke inhalation and released.

“The only thing that matters to me is that we made it out OK,” said Wendy Laupoa, who has lived in the Civic Center Drive townhouse with her two sons for 10 years.

Rohnert Park fire investigators still were determining what started the blaze, reported at 12:07 a.m. Wednesday. The fire caused about $50,000 in damage. Two units were left uninhabitable and the other two were damaged by smoke, but those families will be allowed to return after electricity is restored in a few days.

“We lost our home. We lost our home,” said Mozart Jones, Laupoa’s boyfriend, outside the Motel 6 off Commerce Boulevard.

The two-story fourplex is tucked into a corner of a neighborhood lane that loops off Civic Center Drive south of Rohnert Park Expressway. Wednesday morning, a gaping, charred hole was all that was left of Michael Laupoa’s bedroom window and exterior wall. The Santa-themed holiday paper that covered their front door was torn. Insulation and broken glass littered the ground.

Standing in the driveway, Lisa Sutter, her boyfriend, Sean Hanson, and her son Jacob Sutter, 20, were planning to check into a motel room provided by the Red Cross. Jacob Sutter pointed to a red alarm bell on the building’s exterior near his window.

He was asleep when that bell started ringing. He ran outside and broke the glass of a fire extinguisher box, but the small device was no match for the growing fire.

All residents of the building got out, and neighbors filled the sidewalk and street, many in their pajamas. Rohnert Park and Rincon Valley firefighters battled the flames.

“Smoke and flames were shooting through the first complex’s windows on the second floor when they arrived, so it was fully involved,” Rohnert Park Public Safety Commander Jeff Taylor said.

Firefighters contained the blaze to the first and second units and stopped its spread through an attic.

David Shimel, 49, was asleep in a neighboring unit, separated from the fire by a wall.

“I woke up to screaming and the bell alarm. I looked out the window and saw people outside. I looked to my right and saw flames coming out of the window,” Shimel said.

Shimel grabbed his wallet and keys and ran out with his family, including his 10- and 12-year-old nephews. They expect to be displaced for weeks at least.

“I’m a little nervous about that,” he said.

Michael Laupoa suffered second- and first-degree burns and smoke inhalation in the fire, his mother said.

“I’m confident everything can be replaced. We are still going to celebrate Christmas, right here,” said Laupoa, looking around the small motel room. “It’s different, but I’m grateful.”

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.