Progress still lags in Fountaingrove, but return offers hope for one family

It was Oct. 7, 2017, when Jarrod Holmes and Judi Seargeant-Holmes moved their family into the home they bought in Fountaingrove. After three years of renting while putting vacations on hold and not buying a dog, Jarrod, Judi and their children, Isabel and Adam, had a place they could call their own, a home on the south side of Crown Hill Drive with a stunning view of Hidden Valley.

The first full night they spent there would be the last for nearly two years.

Over the following night and into the morning, their new home and the one they rented a half-mile away were among the more than 1,500 Fountaingrove homes the Tubbs fire destroyed when it rushed over the hills from Calistoga. The Holmes family, who had put their phones in do-not-disturb mode, became aware of the fire that night only when one of Isabel's friends made contact, prompting their escape.

That marked a period of transitory living, with 10 total moves counting their return to their rebuilt home over the Labor Day weekend. Jarrod Holmes, an oncologist, said the family learned a lot over the past two years, beyond the normal lessons they tried to teach their two kids - “work hard, earn your money, get what you want.”

“A tragedy happens,” he said, “and the learning becomes about the response and the resiliency. It becomes about establishing a sense of normal amid abnormal situations.”

Slow progress after 2 years

As the second anniversary of the fire approaches, 147 Fountaingrove homes - about 10% of the Tubbs fire's toll for the area - have been rebuilt.

Another 572 are under construction, with 175 others either awaiting city review or waiting to begin building, according to city data.

The fire also took out a fire station, prompting a temporary station to be erected on Parker Hill Road. Heat from the historic blaze ruined streetlights, blackened thousands of trees and melted water pipes, contaminating for weeks part of Fountaingrove's water system with benzene. In the cleanup, many residents complained their properties had been over-excavated, and a dump truck carrying fire debris from Fountaingrove collided with multiple vehicles, injuring seven people, three seriously, including one woman who was paralyzed and has since died of cancer.

Many who own or have sold burned lots have left for good, whether for fear of a repeat fire or a desire to avoid the complicated ordeal of rebuilding a home in hilly, fire-prone terrain subject to more stringent building codes.

Some have realized they were under-insured and were facing rebuilding amid an affordable housing crunch that has squeezed the labor and materials markets, sending prices skyrocketing.

The owners of more than 600 homes in the area have yet to enter the rebuild process, according to a Press Democrat analysis of city data.

While nearly 88% of the destroyed units in Coffey Park are rebuilt in the process of being rebuilt, the same can be said for only 59% of those in Fountaingrove. The building progress lags behind, too, with 521 Coffey Park homes rebuilt compared to 147 in Fountaingrove.

Hindered by gap with insurances, costs

Santa Rosa City Councilwoman Victoria Fleming, whose district includes Fountaingrove, noted that the gap between covered losses and the cost of rebuilding made it difficult for many people to even begin. Plus, the hilly area and its large lots can forestall rebuilding projects like those in Coffey Park in which a single builder can work on numerous projects at once, keeping costs low for builders who group together.

“If my home had burned down, I wouldn't have been able to afford to rebuild, based on the insurance reimbursement at the time,” Fleming said.

The Holmes family know they've been lucky. Their insurance policy appeared to require them to spend at least one night in the home before they were eligible for reimbursement, and they barely made it. Because they were new buyers, their coverage was up to date, allowing them to rebuild in a timely fashion and move in earlier this month. Plus, they noted with gratitude, they benefited from a rush of post-fire support from the community and local organizations, and even from old high school acquaintances who'd fallen out of touch but reached out after the fire.

Sitting in their new family room last week, both parents and the two kids say the fire brought them closer together.

Judi, home from a shift as a physician assistant in a Clearlake emergency room, spoke about the importance of being honest about emotions as part of the recovery process. She recalled joking to lighten mood fairly soon after the fire, remarking the house “finally had an open floor plan” and singing snatches of “Burning Down the House” by the Talking Heads. But, she said that when she felt emotions like sadness and grief, she didn't hide it from her children.

“I felt it was really important to show my kids,” Seargeant-Holmes said. “I think you have to feel (those emotions) to move through them.”

Isabel, a junior at Montgomery High School, said she had become more comfortable with being emotionally open during the post-fire period. And Adam, a sixth grader at Sonoma Country Day School, said it was important to “accept that it happened” and to move on.

Rebuilding home, more

Their rebuilding journey didn't end when they got the keys to their house. In the family's case, their backyard still needs major landscaping work and their builder needs to put some finishing touches on the home.

Jarrod recalled how he would drive by their property after dropping off Isabel at cross-country practice to check on progress before heading back to the rental. A week after moving in, he went up to Fountaingrove to continue the habit, remembering on the way that the drive he'd made repeatedly now just meant coming home.

“It sounds corny to say home is where the heart is, but honestly, losing everything makes it easy to register the things that are important,” Holmes said. “We lost stuff, but not life or limb. With all of those moves, the constants were sort of our normal family routines, whether it's dinner together every night or saying a blessing before a meal.”

“All those things anchor you to who you are and how you want to be in the world.”

You can reach Staff Writer Will Schmitt at 707-521-5207 or will.schmitt@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @wsreports.