Healdsburg fire survivors hold ‘bittersweet’ reunion in aftermath of Walbridge fire

It was like old home week with a somber twist at a gathering of Healdsburg’s Mill Creek Road residents and landowners on Saturday.

Some of those at a reunion of leaders and members of the Citizens Organized to Prepare of Emergencies, or Mill Creek COPE, lost their homes to the Walbridge fire nearly a year ago.

And because of the pandemic, most had seen each other only over Zoom for months.

“It’s grief and gratitude,” said COPE co-leader Dan Grout. “We’re giving a tip of the hat to those who lost their homes and having a bit of a celebration for those who are still here.”

Those who suffered devastating losses were still in good spirits and resilient, thankful they had places to live and would be able to rebuild because they had good insurance. There was much laughter, and cries of “I didn’t recognize you without your mask!”

The community gathering of the volunteer organization and those it serves was held at the hilltop Mill Creek Road home of Daryl and Lisa Groom, where guests caught up with each other, sipped alcoholic beverages and lemonade and chatted on a large patio with a killer view of vineyards and hills.

“We’ve been waiting for a year and a half to do this,” said Grout, whose family lost their home and is renting a house in another part of Healdsburg. He said the next step is to get group members together to talk about restoring the watershed and trying to create a more fire-resistant forest.

Daryl Groom said he and Lisa, a COPE co-leader, were happy to provide the space, and “felt the need to help where we can.”

Added Lisa, “We want this to be the beginning of a new phase for us.”

COPE formed before the Walbridge fire struck, and was luckily able to create a community wildfire protection plan, whose maps, resources and community organizing may have saved lives. The devastating wildfire burned 55,000 acres on Aug. 18 and 19, destroying or damaging hundreds of homes and the historic 137-year-old one-room Daniels Schoolhouse.

Speaking to the crowd, Lisa Groom quoted a letter sent to the group by fire marshal Linda Collister after the fire. It said “Just know that Mill Creek COPE was a success because we didn’t lose one person.” That put things into perspective, Groom said.

COPE was founded by residents Mark Farmer and Mark Menne. Menne lost his home and he and his family have moved to the East Coast with relatives for now. Farmer, who has sold his property and is moving to St. Louis for his wife’s new job, was feted with speeches and a large goodbye sheet cake.

“I wish we had done this earlier, but we got to know our neighbors,” Farmer told the crowd, holding back tears, as friends rushed to give him a hug. “It’s all about neighbors helping neighbors.”

The former 3M executive, who moved to Healdsburg six years ago to grow grapes, said his family will definitely be back.

“This is a very bittersweet time for me,” Farmer said.

Marshall Turbeville, fire chief of the Northern Sonoma County Fire Protection District, helped with the creation of the group and the plan. He also wrote a grant application that recently landed the group $300,000 to enhance and create fuel breaks along strategic ridges and major private roads.

Turbeville said he supported the group because community-based planning was what was needed.

“It was a mechanism to get things done,” he said.

Since the Mill Creek Road COPE was established, 14 other chapters have sprung up.

The fire protection plan allowed residents to stay in touch during the Walbridge fire in an area with no cellphone reception. The list within the plan gave COPE leaders a way to contact residents neighbor to neighbor through texts, emails and door knocking, Turbeville said.

“It’s good to see people we haven’t seen for so long,” said Bonnie Pitkin, whose home and the Daniels School on the family’s property burned. Five generations of Bonnie’s family (the Sewards) have lived there, she said. A rebuild is in the planning stages.

Mill Creek homeowners Marc and Jeanie Kahn said they loaned the guesthouse on their property to people who were burned out of their homes after two different wildfires.

Asked what it was like to see all her neighbors again, face to face without masks, Jeanie said “It was kind of like ‘This is the way it’s supposed to be.’ ”

You can reach Staff Writer Kathleen Coates at kathleen.coates@pressdemocrat.com.