Five years after the CZU fire, a community rebuilds from the ashes

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, Calif. (KION-TV) – Five years after the CZU Lightning Complex Fire tore through the Santa Cruz Mountains, the community is still picking up the pieces.

The fire began on August 16, 2020, sparked by a series of dry lightning strikes that lit up the landscape. It would go on to burn more than 86,500 acres and destroy nearly 1,500 structures, many of them homes.

Among those forced to evacuate was Tonia Weakland.

"I remember the ashes in the air, and I had plans to go visit some family in the Central Valley. So I locked my chickens in the pen, and I left. And little did I know, that was the last I'd ever see of my home," Tonia Weakland, fire survivor, said.

"We got a robo call to evacuate around ten at night, and that was it. You know, there was no going back to collect belongings," Tonia Weakland, fire survivor, said.

For Tonia and many others, the road to recovery hasn’t just been long, it’s been incredibly isolating.

"Through a lot of it, it feels like I've been, you know, pretty alone and fighting through a lot… it's been a very emotional and expensive journey," Tonia Weakland, fire survivor, said.

"Mostly it was I'm determined to rebuild. I feel so attached to that beautiful piece of land," Tonia Weakland, fire survivor, said.

"The only reason I really considered selling was out of necessity. That piece of property has been in my family for decades. It was my mother's home before it was mine," Tonia Weakland, fire survivor, said.

"The only reason I would have sold is because I wasn't going to be able to rebuild, but the long-term recovery group made it possible," Tonia Weakland, fire survivor, said.

That rebuilding is now underway, and it’s not happening alone. Tonia is surrounded by volunteers from the Long-Term Recovery Group and Habitat for Humanity.

"Right now we're in the framing process. As you can see, we have all our volunteers over there framing one of our interior walls," Tonia Weakland, fire survivor, said.

But the process has been slower than anyone hoped.

"A few years in, we realized that the rebuilding process was slower than we would have liked. We knew there was a lot of people in our community that were under or underinsured that wouldn't be able to build because of the cost of building," Long-Term Recovery Group representative said.

"We really wanted to create a volunteer rebuild program. And so that's what we set out to do," Long-Term Recovery Group representative said.

And that’s exactly what they’ve done. Small teams usually four to eight volunteers per day are now making a difference, one frame at a time.

"Five years, that can feel really daunting, especially if you haven't even started yet, to even imagine that you're going to get there. If you have insufficient funds to hire a general contractor and do it on your own, we are here to offer that hope," Long-Term Recovery Group representative said.

"We've started to build from the ground up. This started in the spring and we are close to what you're seeing behind me… we're framing. So foundation is done, and we're now framing walls," Long-Term Recovery Group representative said.

Every home being built through the program is designed with the next fire in mind.

"Which they have to be, with some fire resilience built into it. We're also using some for siting, and we're really working with the clients to create and talk about maintaining defensible space. Our windows are double pane," Long-Term Recovery Group representative said.

The group is also now thinking beyond just traditional rebuilds.

"The only house that was standing after the fire went through was the passive house. We want to move in that direction. So we're working with some capacity building internally to make that a reality. We're imagining the future of fire rebuild specifically is to build passive houses to make sure that they are, one, energy efficient," Long-Term Recovery Group representative said.

"We're in the framing stages. Hopefully be able to be watertight by the end of next month, and hopefully we'll have more builds to build," Long-Term Recovery Group representative said.

That future also means rethinking the way homes are protected from wildfires at the most basic levels.

"We've changed our venting in our roofs. I think a lot of these homes having debris on the roof kind of started sparking some of the embers to create fire on the building," Long-Term Recovery Group representative said.

"Learning new ways to kind of protect these homes as well. I know some people kind of balk at the new regulations that we are implementing into these builds. But it is something to try and prolong these homes," Long-Term Recovery Group representative said.

With the help of her community, Tonia is doing more than rebuilding a house, she’s rebuilding her life.

"We broke ground a couple months ago, and I've been going down there every Tuesday to put in my sweat equity, me and my younger child, who's 19, and it feels very empowering to be building our own house. And I can express my gratitude toward the community that is supporting," Tonia Weakland, fire survivor, said.