Relief felt across North Bay as storms bring end to milder fire season
SANTA ROSA -- What was expected to be another tough fire season in the Bay Area hasn't materialized.
In fact, if more wet weather arrives as expected Sunday, the Santa Rosa fire department is considering calling an end to fire season next week.
The Larkfield Estates community was wiped out by the Tubbs Fire in 2017. Today, Larkfield Estates looks like a new housing development.
Paul Lowenthal was one of many who lost their homes.
"We went to work that night having no idea that the fire would destroy our homes," he said.
The only recognizable thing left on his property the next morning was the frame of his new truck.
Lowenthal is also the Santa Rosa fire marshal and he was working to alert residents about evacuations that fateful October night. He then started hearing that fire was approaching the streets in his neighborhood.
"On our way up Old Redwood Highway we diverted into this general location and we could tell the neighborhood is completely destroyed," he recalled.
While the community still feels the devastation of the destruction five years ago, the Tubbs Fire changed the way residents protect their homes by creating defensible space. The fire department also changed the way it responds by sending more resources and using technology to spot fires sooner.
"We've had fires this season. We've had no shortage of fires but the fires were not only being controlled by how we changed our response to the incidents but being controlled by the proactive measures the residents have put into place," Lowenthal explained.
Mother Nature also played a role in reducing fire risk. The North Bay never got the high offshore wind events that often come in September and October and, with rain in the forecast, fire season may be nearly ended. While communities avoided devastating fires this year, firefighters say that, with climate change, they never know what next year will bring.
"That does seem to be the new normal in California but we're changing how we react to that weather to hopefully reduce the destructiveness ... The potential is still there," Lowenthal said.
KPIX correspondent Andrea Nakano filed this report