Saturday marks five years since the Bay Area and California suffered one of its greatest disasters – the 2017 Tubbs Fire. Within two hours of when it sparked, the wind whipped blaze destroyed 6,000 North Bay homes, mostly in Santa Rosa.
For more, stream KCBS Radio now.
According to recently released data from Sonoma County, 80% of those properties have either been rebuilt or are in the process of reconstruction. In the part two in a series of special reports from Santa Rosa, KCBS Radio's Jeffrey Schaub visited with one family who lost most everything in the Tubbs Fire but are grateful for their new home.
SANTA ROSA, Calif. (KCBS RADIO) – Brad Sherwood, an executive with the Sonoma Water Agency, took me out to the pool behind his family's new Larkfield neighborhood home.
"The house fell into the pool, so when the house burned down, it just all fell back into the pool," he told KCBS Radio, recounting his family harrowing experience in 2017 when the Tubbs Fire ravaged and destroyed their Santa Rosa home.
Initially their insurance carrier said they wouldn’t cover the damage, but Sherwood was tenacious.
"A few months into debating with the insurance company, they covered the restoration of the pool," he said.
Sherwood and his wife captured the images of the fire in a photo album and what did to their original green home.
"This was actually our last photo leaving the house from the fire. And then this is the day after," he said. "Everything is charred and black and ash."
But like the phoenix that rises from the ashes, the Sherwoods rebuilt, bigger and better.
In addition, their two children's' parakeets, which barely survived the blaze, are in their son's room.
Twice since the family settled in over the last three years, they’ve had to evacuate because of other threatening wildfires, which Sherwood called "unsettling" and "shocking." The constant evacuations have also had an impact on their children’s lives.
"They’ve had backpacks with their favorite toys in them, ever since the fire," Sherwood said.
In a sad irony – some have suggested stupidity – right next to the Sherwood's new home stands a 50 foot tall PG&E tower, replacing the one that had been there before the fire.
"During the rebuild of our house, when I saw the PG&E trucks pulling up with a larger tower, a bigger tower that they’re going to replace the old one with, I was shocked that they would have undergrounded this line," he said.
Despite the towering reminder of the fire, the Sherwoods are happy to be back in a home.
"The rebuild has allowed us to design the house that we love today. So yeah there are silver linings in everything," Brad Sherwood said. "You’ve got to be optimistic."
DOWNLOAD the Audacy App
SIGN UP and follow KCBS Radio
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram