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Ok. Yeah, some describe October 8th 2017 to be a weird night. So tell me about that night, how that night was for you and any specifics you, you recall? Yes. So I was with my boyfriend that night and per usual, I was about, I think 18,

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19 and my mom was like, hey, don't stay out late. So I was like, ok, so I was with my boyfriend and we noticed that the weather was really weird. It was really windy but kind of like warm at the same time. So both of us

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right away were like earthquake weather. Like we literally said that we said this is earthquake weather. So we were just kind of like, huh weird vibes already. I accidentally fell asleep, went home and I thought it was still kind of weird weather and then around 45,

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am I remember what time it was. It was definitely early early in the night because my boyfriend started calling me and I was like, oh, like what could he possibly want? Like I just left and my mom, as soon as I was about to answer the

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phone, my mom was knocking on my bedroom door and she was like, hey, there's a fire and I started freaking out immediately and that's how we all found out. Is that scary? Yeah, because, um, Coffee Park is right by where my boyfriend lives. So, if I

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was, like, still over there I wouldn't closer to the fire. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You live right next to Coffee Park? Yeah, he lives right next Coffee Park. Yeah. And that's the place I got totally, totally burned out. Hundreds of houses burned out. Can you describe any

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of the events that led up to your evacuation? Uh Yeah. So like I said, my mom knocked on my door. I finally talked to my boyfriend. He was more worried than I was because he could physically see the smoke and the fire from his house. So

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my mom was like pack your stuff. Um, she was what? We all were awake. We were watching the news. We were just kind of keeping updated and we were going to see where we were going to evacuate to, but we knew we had. Yeah. So you

00:02:04.785 - 00:02:20.994

got evacuated. Yeah, we left, we went to my family's house in. Yeah, I think that night it was actually kind of crazy because my grandma doesn't drive. So my grandpa was helping, they have renters at their house. So my grandpa was helping them evacuate and I

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had to go pick up my grandma and take her to Petaluma and we had to stop to get gas. And that was crazy because all the gas stations were like, it was insane. Like you could not like it was wild. So, did you feel prepared for

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the evacuation? You think? No, no, not at all. What about, tell me about the, how the county responded? Like, were you given any updates? Did you give, did they give you any like call to the house? Did they give you any updates to your phone? Anything

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like that? I don't quite remember. I feel like we might have gotten a message to our phones but at the same time I think it was just high hearsay. Was there any like, emergency response thing? Like anyone came knocking on your door or you just kind

00:03:06.669 - 00:03:26.589

of? No, no, no, just, yeah. What about you? You were able to get out safely? Go? Yeah, I was, I was able to leave. I had enough time to leave. Yeah, that's good. What time was that, that about? It was still dark outside the other night.

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Yeah, because it was about to be like six or seven. I wanna say maybe, no, it was definitely still dark time at night or in the morning, like morning but like super bright, like the sun's out. Can, can you tell me about what, can you tell

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me about how the fire impacted your living situation? Like, how long did it take you until you worried that they go home? I think it was for, it was definitely longer than a week, longer than a week. Yeah. Like, I was in front of, for like

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a week. Like, I didn't go home, like, it was just super smoky and my mom was pregnant at the time so she could not, she had to leave. She could not be around smoke. Super smoky. Yeah. It was like, very difficult. How do you think the

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fire impacted your health at all? Did it affect your breathing anything long term health effects? Do you think it was definitely, yeah, the smoke was not, it was definitely a health issue. Like even in Petaluma, if you walk out, you see the papers falling down, like

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burnt ashes, falling down, like you could see like, you know, it was pretty bad. What about the campus? How was the JC responding to that? So the JC was definitely more responsive than like vocal than the county. Um Obviously my um all my teachers had emailed,

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the JC had emailed like, hey, you know, like classes are canceled, things like that. My teachers were keeping updated, you know, if you needed help, definitely reach out. Um They were more, it was definitely a time of crisis. So school was kind of on pause for

00:05:11.320 - 00:05:30.899

that whole week because obviously a lot of people were displaced. Yeah. So do you think the campus, did you have to turn any assignments or just, I did have a few teachers who still wanted us to keep updated, like, keep, you know, we had school so

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we had to do our assignments and there were some assignments that we were already like for, like, I think we have like an essay or something. And my teacher said, you know, like if you, because it's pretty much do already. So he kind of still wanted

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that submitted. And obviously if you had an issue, you could reach out and then have a past like a change your due date. But for the most part, if things were due, they kind of still wanted them turned in. Could you go to campus? Everything was

00:05:58.359 - 00:06:13.554

close, it was close. It was all like by email, by email by the due. Yeah. And by this time COVID wasn't like obviously happening. So they didn't really know about like zoom, nobody really know how to like switch to that. We didn't have, we didn't have

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any online classes in person classes just like stopped. And if you don't mind me asking, what year were you? Was that your freshman year? No, I feel like I was there sophomore year because my third year I went, oh, ok. Second or third year, second or

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third year. So you're pretty into it trying to get your degree. Do you think the fire had any impact on your like goals for graduation or did it, do you think it impacted your degree in any way like graduating on time? Did you have to retake

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any classes for me personally. No, no, no. So I, once, you know, I was able to go back home, everything was pretty good. I wasn't, you know, I didn't lose my home, so I was able to go on with my daily life. It was definitely not

00:07:12.510 - 00:07:26.869

normal. Like I said, my boyfriend's family lived by Coffee Park. Both of them lost their homes. So it was definitely an adjustment. I had to be there more emotionally for my boyfriend and his family because their family was living with his family because they lost their

00:07:26.880 - 00:07:47.839

home. So it was definitely a change, a big change. And you say that it impacted you emotionally. Can you expand on that? Yeah. It's pretty sad. You know, we would drive once the fires were cleared and everything. So it was just like, it was, um, how

00:07:47.850 - 00:08:03.149

do I, like, it was just unreal driving past the streets and, like, seeing just nothing but burnt ash. Like, it was insane. Like, it was actually pretty sad. Like I cried. Yeah. My boyfriend was obviously very upset. Like I said, both of his family's homes were

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just destroyed. They had nothing. They were just left something. Yeah. And it made me more grateful for what I had. Mhm. Definitely. Because your home was. Yeah, because I wasn't affected like that. Wow. How about the transition back to school? It was definitely tell me about

00:08:27.109 - 00:08:41.840

that hard because it was, um, it was a, how would you say, like, um, a soft, such like a, like a sore subject for people because some people did lose their homes. I was in classes with and obviously most of my teachers were pretty good at

00:08:41.849 - 00:09:00.419

understanding, you know, things were going on, but I feel like going back to school wasn't. Um, how do we say it was definitely more like, um, a community thing, like everyone was, you know, like supporting each other in the time. It was just kind of like

00:09:00.429 - 00:09:22.030

what just happened, you know, do you think this transition back to school affected your mental health in any way? Just like with stress or maybe even anxiety that it could happen again? Yeah, I definitely think so because I feel like the next year there was another

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fire and then that one definitely was just like, well, like this is happening again and I was in school again and I was just like, when is it gonna end? That's pretty scary. Yeah, because you never know if every year that you're gonna be affected by

00:09:36.219 - 00:09:50.419

a wildfire and you have to continue on with your daily life. It's kind of hard just trying to like get through everything and we just went through this definitely traumatizing because every time I smell smoke now I'm like, oh no, like it takes me back to

00:09:50.429 - 00:10:08.640

that time. Yeah. And like, do you think if you feel prepared now if it were to happen again, more prepared than you did the first time. I definitely do. I definitely know, you know, how, where I would go. I know there's more resource, resources now. You

00:10:08.650 - 00:10:23.159

know, I feel more, I feel like if there were a start of a wildfire, we would be alerted earlier than we were beforehand. And obviously, um, last time for the tubs fire, it was unseen and the winds were just crazy. So it just accelerated. But I

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think now that most people are aware that this is like it might happen again. So I think I'm pretty prepared. That's good. How about your family? Um Yeah, I definitely think it'll be harder for them since they have kids and things like that. So they have

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to worry about all the like, you know, the kids making sure everyone safe. Um Me personally, just me so I can just pack up myself and go. Yeah. Were you working during this period of time? And if so did it affect your job in any way?

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I was not working at this time? I was just going to school full time. Ok. So we were talking about the JC. How do you think the JC dealt with or used like resources to like recover, cope? Like were there any resources offered uh for students

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as far as I remember there definitely was like I said, they were sending emails to all the students. Um They definitely had a good um you know, if you need to talk to a counselor, definitely talk to a counselor. Something that's good. Um, I know there

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was a, like after the fire there was a lot of, um, like resources you could go to if you needed, you know, clothes, water, food and things like that. That's what I definitely, now that I'm remembering when I was in Petaluma, I wanted to help people.

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So there was the Veterans Building in Petaluma. I mean, my cousins because we were all out there for like a while. So we're like, let's go do something since we weren't physically affected by the fire. We went, we went, we went and it's definitely sad seeing

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a lot of families that were like, you know, displaced and have nowhere to go. Wow. You know, that's pretty sad. So, yeah, how do you think the fire impacted, like, teaching? Do you think it was harder for the professors to, like, get on with teaching? Like,

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did you, do you think their style of teaching changed anything like that? I don't think their style of teaching changed my teachers at least, you know, they were sensitive to the subject. They definitely, you know, if you had an issue definitely bring it up, but they

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continued their curriculum. They didn't like, I feel like some classes because we did miss in person class, they had to like, push some subjects. We didn't, like, learn everything we needed to learn. We didn't cover the full syllabus. There was definitely some things that got pushed

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that weren't just, yeah. But other than that, you know, they moved on with the curriculum. How long was it till you could go back to, like, in person class? Do you remember? I honestly do not remember. I think it was over a week. Well, it was

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definitely after the smoke had gone down because the, the, the air quality was not, it was not, it was like the lead. It was pretty bad. Yeah, I, I feel like it was definitely in like, three weeks. I think the fire wasn't contained until I think

00:13:43.729 - 00:14:02.130

it started October 8th. It wasn't contained in, like October right before Halloween. I think October 28th or 29th is what we found out was until it was completely contained. It's like a solid 20 days. I wanna say, like a good month then. Yeah, because there was

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no way students were going to return to school. The teachers, I'm sure lost their homes as well. Faculty. Do you have any other or can you tell me about any changes that happened in your life since then? Or how do you think it impacted your life?

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Long term, long term, it affected my life because it, um, it was a really, how do you say, like, I guess traumatic event, you had to have a big, huge fire where, you know, people that you grew up with in their homes, they're left with nothing.

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It's pretty sad and, you know, um, long term it just makes you think personally it's more like an effect towards climate change for me. Like, it's definitely something that's gonna keep reoccurring. So I feel like, you know, long term, I feel like the county should be

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more prepared for things like wildfires, have more resources, have more everything. Yeah. Do their part in understanding climate change, figuring it out what they could do to minimize it, especially if we're just counting. Yeah. Do you have any last comments, questions, stories? You can take your

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time. Last comment says is I'm really proud of the community. How everyone took care of each other after the fire was definitely you could feel the community love. You think you still feel it today for sure 100%. You think it, I think it made the community

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a lot closer. It really did because we, you know, we got through it, everyone went through it and if it happened again, sadly, like we were, we were resilient so we can do it again and overcome it. I mean, not just that, I mean, there was

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fires after that. Yeah. With COVID. Oh Yeah. Yeah. It just made everything a little better, the fires and then COVID definitely it's just the world's changing. So it's like you don't know what to expect anymore. And now that you've been through all this, all these traumatic

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experiences with like your community and you grew up in this community. So having that happen, I'm sure is a huge deal. Just knowing that you have those people by your side they're in and a good like um heartwarming, heartwarming. It makes me feel at peace knowing

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that, you know, if I ever go through something like that, I will find I can have help and reassurance for understanding all that. Yeah. Nice. Well, thank you so much of that. Thank you.