Santa Rosa Coffey Park Residents Search For Memories Hidden Among The Ashes
SANTA ROSA (CBS SF) -- Searching through the ashes that were once her Santa Rosa home, Linda Miller hoped that she could find some small pieces of her life before the devastating Tubbs Fire.
Miller's Coffey Park neighborhood was completely eradicated by the blaze. Block after block of homes were reduced to piles of ash and debris. With the evacuation orders lifted and the fire out, the residents have been allowed to return to the rubble of their Santa Rosa neighborhood.
Miller and her husband were among those back in Coffey Park this week.
On their hands and knees, they sifted through the ashes with their gloved hands for anything that could have survived the inferno.
"There is a lot of memories, a lot of history, a lot of personal belongings (in the rubble)," Miller's husband said. "Finding something, anything makes it (searching) worth it."
On this day, there would be some small victories.
Miller found her grandmother's ring -- a bit charred, the case it was stored in burnt to a crisp.
"I got grandma's ring," Linda Miller said. "It's a little charred, but its okay. We'll clean it...I don't know how but miraculously we found that."
Among the other items salvaged was a ceramic bride and groom that topped the couple's wedding cake. It was broken, but could be repaired.
"It means a lot," Miller said of the find. "It was also the top that my parents used for their wedding...I will glue it back together and keep it forever."