Coffey Park Tubbs fire hero dies of complications from cancer

May 18—A 49-year-old Santa Rosa man credited with helping to save the homes of his neighbors during the Tubbs fire died last week.

Michael Mirante was a husband, father and mortgage marketer who loved music, baseball, barbecue competitions and craft beer. He passed away early in the morning of May 13 at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, said his wife, Mahrya Mirante. The causes of death were kidney failure and pneumonia, brought on by the cancer he'd been battling for close to two years.

Early on the morning of Oct. 9, 2017, Michael returned to his family's house on Sweetgum Court in Coffey Park, a few hours after much of that neighborhood was destroyed by flames. Four houses on Sweetgum, including Mirante's, were not burned. Using garden hoses and water drawn from a neighbor's pool, he helped preserve the standing homes, putting out spot fires and extinguishing embers.

Fearful of looters in the immediate aftermath of the fire, then determined to clean his severely smoke-damaged house, Mirante spent many hours in the burn zone in the days and weeks following the Tubbs fire. Possibly, too many. Mahrya believes it was his exposure to chemicals and contaminants released by the flames that caused her husband's cancer.

In a May 12 story in the Press Democrat, she expressed anger at the family's home insurance carrier, Farmers. Despite extensive damage to the home from smoke, ash and soot, Farmers paid just a small fraction of what it cost to clean and decontaminate the house.

"After a thorough investigation of this claim," Farmers spokesman Luis Sahagun wrote in an email, "including several subsequent reviews requested by the customer, we provided payment for covered losses, per the terms of their policy."

After experiencing severe stomach pains in November of 2019, Michael went to a hospital emergency room. A CT scan found a large tumor around his right kidney. A biopsy revealed the grim news: He had B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma, an aggressive cancer that was spreading quickly.

He went through six rounds of chemotherapy. Once the cancer went into remission, he would be a candidate for a bone marrow transplant. But it never went into remission.

Michael's oncologist had recommended a newer regimen, called CAR T-cell therapy, which gave the Mirantes some hope. But a month ago, he went to the hospital, feeling delirious. Doctors found more cancer, this time on his spleen. Then he came down with pneumonia. While on a ventilator, which helped him breathe, Michael's kidneys grew weaker, leading to a buildup of toxins in his bloodstream.

On the night of May 12, doctors removed the ventilator. Around 4:40 the following morning, in the presence of his wife, his mother, his mother-in-law and his 15-year-old son, Evan, Mirante passed away. He died 11 days before the 18th anniversary of his marriage to Mahrya.

There are plans for a celebration of his life, though a date has not been set, she said.

"He was the life of the party," said Mahrya, "always kind to everybody.

"He was just a genuinely nice guy."

Mahrya Mirante has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help the family pay for household expenses as well as hospital stays, prescriptions, medical supplies and their insurance deductible. To donate, go to gofundme.com/f/what-mike-would-have-wanted.

You can reach Staff Writer Austin Murphy at 707-521-5214 or [email protected] or on Twitter @ausmurph88.

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