Two-alarm fire burns Windsor care home, displaces residents

Rachel Daniel first noticed the telltale sign of fire by the orange glow outside her bedroom window late Tuesday night.

She looked more closely, then screamed to her husband “Brett, something’s wrong next door! It’s a fire! It’s a fire!”

Daniel rousted their two children, aged 15 and 12, before running to the front door of the burning house, a group care facility for five disabled adults.

“They were getting everyone out,” she said.

Thankfully, everyone was able to escape the blaze, which awakened the sleeping occupants just before 11:30 p.m. and heavily damaged the care home on Kristine Way. A neighboring house also partially burned, but was unoccupied by the owners who purchased it last week.

The two-alarm fire brought in firefighters from Geyserville to Santa Rosa.

Don Smith, who runs the care home along with his wife, Donna, declined comment Wednesday. But his stepdaughter, Jeri Barron, said “Everyone was out safe. They do fire drills every four months and have fire alarms. They run a tight ship. They’re by the book.”

Windsor Fire Prevention Specialist Cyndi Foreman said that’s the silver lining to the story: “They regularly practice fire drills.”

“Everyone was tuned in to what was going on,” she said. “It went extremely smooth. The reason is, they were prepared and practiced their escape routes.”

Foreman said the fire started in a small shed in the yard of the group care home and was either electrical or discarded smoking materials. “It’s two things we can’t rule out,” she said.

Damage to the care home was estimated at $175,000.

Barron said her mother and stepfather have been running the facility for 20 years, eight of those on Kristine Way. Both have developmentally disabled brothers living in the home.

“It’s what draws them to their work. It’s their passion,” Barron said as she stood on the sidewalk in front of the charred house.

The five disabled adults, aged 26 to 62, ended up spending the night next door at the Daniel’s home - the three men in the living room and two women in the family room, including one with a service dog.

“I tucked them in. I didn’t know what else to do but give them blankets, pillows and go to bed,” said Daniel, a school music teacher.

By Wednesday morning, the disabled adults had been relocated to Hampton Inn and Suites, courtesy of the Red Cross.

Firefighters combed through the remains for hours, retrieving salvageable items including dentures, glasses, walking canes, wallets and identifications.

Ray Martinez, 41, hadn’t even moved in yet to the adjacent house that also suffered significant damage.

“I got the keys Friday,” he said of the two-story, three-bedroom home. The fire “took out the second floor ... burnt the whole top from room to room. It damaged all three.”

Martinez, a Lexus automotive technician, was standing under some eaves of his fire-damaged house Wednesday morning, dodging the rain and awaiting the insurance adjusters.

With water damage to the bottom floor, he was expecting the loss would exceed the fire department’s initial $75,000 estimate.

Martinez and his girlfriend, Sherry Driggs, were looking forward to holding a birthday party in their new house on Dec. 6 for his son, who is turning 7.

“It’s not turning out that way,” he said of the party plans.

The couple had done some interior painting and brought a few things over Tuesday. But they weren’t yet staying at the house, and had left several hours before the fire broke out.

“I just moved my clothes up there,” said Driggs, who said they were damaged, but represented only part of her wardrobe.

Foreman said that typically when a home is insured like the Smiths, the insurance company will pay for them to rent a new home until the fire-damaged house is repaired.

“This is really traumatic for any of us that would go through any of this, but especially for people with special needs,” she said. “Their routine and environment is important to their emotional well-being.”

Staff Writer Randi Rossmann contributed to this report. You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at 521-5214 or clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @clarkmas.