Evacuations and devastating wildfires are both becoming too common in Santa Rosa and there’s a little rhyme or reason to the path fire takes.
It destroys one home and leaves another feet away untouched.
Glass Fire flames that tore through parts of Santa Rosa Sunday night reduced dozens of homes to ashes. When the evacuation orders were lifted Tuesday afternoon, some residents made the gut wrenching drive to see if their home was still standing .
“There were five or six homes that burned on the corner, so I was 300 feet away from my house burning,” said Robert Deschler from Santa Rosa.
Deschler moved to the Skyhawk area of Santa Rosa after the 2017 Tubbs Fire destroyed his home in the Fountain Grove area of the city. A neighbor of his up there lost out, again.
“He was a neighbor of ours in Fountain Grove and they lost their house here for the second time,” said Deschler.
There are a lot of people in Santa Rosa who are fire evacuation veterans, including Megan in the Summerhill neighborhood.
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“I know from the last fire that I should bring my bra, good pair socks and good pair tennis shoes,” she said.
A few years ago, her family had mere minutes to flee the fire in Coffey Park that took their home. This time around, this high school senior and evacuation veteran, sounds wise beyond her years.
“So it was honestly better and we were all more prepared,” said Megan. “We know where we were going with our exit plan is but really families have an idea that they can go across the street if your house catches on fire, that's out of the picture.”
