Santa Rosa residents seek mystery man who saved them from Tubbs fire

In the early hours of Oct. 9, the windows and balconies of David Trezise and Alison Reynolds’ east Santa Rosa home offered only vistas of ominous orange flames.

After the acrid smell of smoke roused Reynolds around 3:30 a.m., the couple attempted to escape their Bennett Ridge Road home with their Norwich terrier, Bella, and their cat, Louie. A wall of flames consuming nearby houses and vegetation blocked them about a quarter-mile from home, Reynolds said. Their neighbor, Bill Barnier, joined them as they waited, considering the option of taking refuge in their swimming pool.

“We live on this ridge and at our back is (Trione-)Annadel State Park,” said Reynolds, 68, who has lived in Bennett Valley with her husband for about 12 years “We see the whole sky is red and orange and we just see everything lit up by this fire, and we are just trying to get out of the neighborhood. We realized there is just this firestorm and we cannot go - everything is just on fire.”

Around 4:30 a.m., Reynolds walked to the bottom of her driveway to check the fire’s progress from a different vantage point. In that frightening moment, a man drove up to the bottom of the driveway in the otherwise desolate neighborhood.

The slender, dark-haired driver, described as 5 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 10 inches tall and in his 20s or early 30s, was behind the wheel of a dark-colored sedan or SUV-type vehicle. He said his name was Miles. No one had seen him before.

“I can’t really remember the conversation, except that it was basically like ‘Oh my god, what are you doing here, can you get us out?’?” Reynolds said.

“He was very calm, and he said ‘Go get your car and you can follow me out,’ and so we did. The houses were still on fire and the trees were still on fire, there were burning debris and downed power lines, but he clearly knew how to lead us out.”

After following Miles down Rollo Road to Bennett Valley Road, the group hugged and parted.

The evacuees headed toward Santa Rosa, and Miles went toward Glen Ellen, Reynolds said.

They haven’t seen Miles since. Seven months after the fire, Reynolds still is determined to find him.

She’s emailed 100 neighbors, contacted fire and law enforcement agencies, and placed a classified ad in The Press Democrat beginning April 18, but no clues have emerged.

She said it might have occurred to the group to try and drive down the road again that frightening early morning, but in the moment, as flames encroached, it didn’t seem like a possibility.

“I would like to thank him so much for what he did,” she said. “I don’t know if he knows how meaningful it was for me or my husband to have been saved those last hours …

“I don’t know anything about fires and frankly, fire is one of my fears. His act has not gone unappreciated - this gift he gave us without a second thought.”

After they escaped, flames came within 10 feet of the couple’s home, Trezise said, consuming landscaping and pool furniture but not the house.

Trezise felt calm the morning of Oct. 9, but as the months have passed, the reality has set in. Bennett Ridge lost about 100 homes. Two of seven homes in Trezise’s cul-de-sac burned, he said.

“The last couple months, I’ve thought about it more, and it sort of sunk in to me how precarious our situation was. That’s kind of sobering,” said Trezise, 67.

Gold Ridge Fire Protection District Chief Dan George, whose agency covers the Bennett Valley area, was not aware of a man named Miles who lent a helping hand that night.

Sonoma County Sheriff Sgt. Spencer Crum and Carolyn Gonzalez, a duty officer with Sonoma County Search and Rescue, also did not know the mystery man’s identity.

While George said it’s generally safer to leave rescue work to trained first responders, friends and neighbors played a role in aiding residents during California’s most destructive wildfire.

“We don’t recommend it, but it’s appreciated when the outcome is successful, when there’s a good outcome,” George said.

“That’s what a lot of people did that night, going out and helping people who weren’t aware of what was going on.”