Volunteers build home for Valley fire survivors

MIDDLETOWN RANCHERIA

On a wooded lot behind the Twin Pine Casino, finishing touches are being applied to a three-bedroom house that carries with it a hopeful future for a family of three who lost their rental home and all their belongings to last year’s catastrophic Valley fire.

It’s the first of many homes volunteer groups from across the country plan to help build for people displaced by the September wildfire.

“It’s very exciting to see that projects are moving forward. I think it brings a lot of hope to a community that has been devastated,” said Kevin Cox, who grew up in Santa Rosa but now lives in Indiana, where he founded the Hope Crisis Response Network. The group utilizes a nationwide network of volunteer groups from hundreds of churches - both denominational and nondenominational - to help people whose lives have been upended by disaster rebuild.

Cox’s group hopes to build 80 to 100 homes for fire victims in the next five years, depending on how much money and building supplies are donated to the project. The materials for the Middletown Rancheria house were purchased with donations from several tribes seeking to help displaced tribal members. Team Lake County, a coalition of government agencies, tribal groups, nonprofits and businesses, also was part of the project.

The recipients of the new rancheria home, Justin Lord, 33; Courtney Van Leuven, 26; and daughter Emilia, 15 months, are one of an estimated 1,395 households affected by the Valley fire, which burned 76,067 acres and almost 2,000 structures. Among the buildings destroyed by the blaze were 1,281 homes, 27 multifamily structures, 66 commercial properties and 581 minor structures. Four people died in the fire, the third-worst in California’s history.

Lord, a Middletown Pomo tribal member who has worked as a Twin Pine Casino manager since the fire, and Van Leuven, who works at the Yuba College campus in Lakeport, are thrilled by their improving fortune.

“We’re homeowners now. That’s exciting,” Van Leuven said.

It’s been a stressful six months for the family since their home and belongings were consumed by flames. Van Leuven said she still finds it difficult to believe she’s getting a brand new home of her own. The family has been living at the Twin Pine Casino hotel, compliments of the tribe, since shortly after the fire.

“It’s kind of surreal,” Van Leuven said. She said it will feel more real when they move in next week, once the water is connected.

They’ve moved in some furniture and their two horses already are in a fenced area behind the house, in view of the back deck and windows. The horses, two dogs, some baby photos, a computer and video camera are among the few remnants of their life from before the fire. They fled the approaching fire with few belongings, believing they’d only be gone for a night.

When they returned to what had been their home outside Middletown, nothing was left.

“It was just ashes. All the trees had fallen. You couldn’t even tell what kind of cars” had been parked in the garage, Van Leuven said.

“It takes the air out of you when you see that,” she said.

Construction began on their new home in December. It was slow going the first month, with just one volunteer - a man from South Carolina - initially available. Lord worked alongside, but he had no carpentry skills at the time.

“We tackled it and we did it,” Lord said. He said he plans to utilize his new skills by helping others rebuild.

Cox said the volunteer efforts will pick up later, after a facility is set up where volunteers can sleep and eat.

“We’re known for our camps. That’s why we get volunteers to come stay with us,” Cox said.

Normally during disaster responses, there are at any given time camps of 30 to 40 volunteers who travel - at their own expense - to an area to work in shifts of a week or two. They typically work in teams of about a half-dozen.

Diane and Dave Jackson of Rincon Valley are part of the network through their church, First United Methodist in Santa Rosa.

“We’ve been all over the country” since retiring 12 years ago, said Diane Jackson, 71, a former teacher. Dave Jackson, 73, is retired from the Postal Service.

They usually volunteer for two weeks of disaster rebuilding each year, Diane Jackson said. They’ve been to areas hit by floods, tornadoes and hurricanes.

They jumped at the chance to assist their Lake County neighbors and have recently returned home from helping with constructing the home on the rancheria. Two other Sonoma County residents, Paul Desideri, a retired Montgomery High School shop teacher, and Brian Gebhart, a retired vineyard manager, also worked on the project, she said.

She said she was glad to work with Cox’s organization because it’s very organized and has people and supplies lined up before they start work.

Jackson said she and the other volunteers she knows do the work because they enjoy helping others.

“We feel like we’re doing something worthwhile,” she said.

Cox said he expects the building to pick up later this year, as more and more residents are able to get permits in place and housing is set up for the volunteers.

In addition to the Hope network, other volunteer building groups, including Habitat for Humanity, of Lake County, expect to participate in the rebuilding in Lake County. Habitat currently is building a home for Steve Shurelian, an Anderson Springs man credited with saving his disabled neighbor by getting him into a swimming pool when the fire swept through.

A recent survey indicated that more than half of the displaced homeowners intend to rebuild.

Recipients of aid and volunteer helpers must apply for help and must meet certain criteria. In most cases, it includes a requirement that they owned the house that was damaged or destroyed, Cox said.

For more information, contact Cox by email at kevin@hcrn.info.

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 462-6473 or glenda.anderson@pressdemocrat.com.