CZU fire destroys more homes than 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in Santa Cruz County

Sep. 2--In a stunning milestone, the number of houses, commercial buildings and other structures destroyed in the CZU Lightning Complex fire still burning in the Santa Cruz Mountains has now surpassed the number destroyed in Santa Cruz County during the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake.

As of Tuesday night, 1,431 structures in Santa Cruz County had been destroyed in the massive fire, sparked by lightning on Aug. 16, compared with 1,084 destroyed there by the Loma Prieta earthquake 31 years ago.

The fire is now the 9th most destructive wildfire in California history, ranked by structures destroyed.

For the past three decades, the 6.9 magnitude earthquake has been a landmark event in Santa Cruz County -- and Bay Area -- history. Yet as fire crews continue to put out the CZU Fire, which wiped out whole communities around Boulder Creek and Bonny Doon, and burned all of Big Basin Redwoods State Park, a new chapter is being written, with the full scale only now coming into focus.

"The fire caused widespread devastation with little pockets of homes that survived," said Ryan Coonerty, a Santa Cruz County supervisor. "It's almost like what you see with tornadoes where you have three houses knocked down and one remaining. There are vast areas that have been burned to the ground. I've never seen anything like it."

Coonerty was 15 when the 1989 quake -- the largest in Northern California since the 1906 temblor that leveled San Francisco-- hit. The shaking, seen by millions watching Game 3 of the World Series between the Giants and A's on television, wrecked the Bay Bridge, San Francisco's Marina District and Oakland's Cypress Structure Freeway. It also leveled much of Santa Cruz's historic downtown -- aging brick buildings built on soft soil -- because the epicenter was eight miles away, in the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Aptos.

Landslides closed Highway 17 for a month. The violent shaking wrecked homes from Boulder Creek to Watsonville. For longtime residents, the quake remains a singular milestone. People still discuss where they were on that Oct. 17, when the San Andreas Fault ruptured.

Coonerty was at football practice at Santa Cruz High School. In the weeks after, he helped his family rescue thousands of books from the rubble of their family business, Bookshop Santa Cruz, on Pacific Avenue. Afterward, they stayed afloat by operating in tents with other demolished businesses, until the downtown was rebuilt several years later. The final new building broke ground last year.

"To recover, it took everyone pulling together," he said. "Everyone tried to not just rebuild what was there, but to build something new and better. We did that after the 1989 quake and I think we can do that again now."

The earthquake destroyed 774 residences in Santa Cruz County, according to a report completed in 1990 by the state Division of Mines and Geology, which estimated the damages at $433 million. Adjusted for inflation, that is $904 million today.

Although no total has yet been tallied for damages from the CZU Complex fire -- which by Tuesday night had burned 85,378 acres, and was 45% contained, the cost could come close to, or exceed, the earthquake's damage total in Santa Cruz County. Of the structures destroyed in Santa Cruz County in the fire, so far 911 are residences, including 14 in rural San Mateo County.

Like Coonerty, Nathan Fry experienced both disasters. He was 5 years old when the earthquake hit Santa Cruz and his babysitter threw him and his brother under an oak table. Their house on the edge of town pretty much split in half and his family had to live elsewhere for more than a year. Now, his home in Bonny Doon has burned down.

But Fry, a 35-year-old farmer, takes a spiritual view of the two catastrophes.

"The universe has a plan for you," he said Tuesday. "I don't think it throws anything at you that you can't handle, whether it's fire, earthquake or flood. I'm grateful to be here."

William Kelly was renting a room a few miles north of Boulder Creek in a home that was destroyed by the fire. When the earthquake hit, Kelly was in San Francisco watching the World Series on TV.

"It's easier to accept an earthquake than it is to accept a fire," said Kelly, 65, a retired salesman. "The earthquake is one quick blast. Now we're on Day 12 and we've still got a fire going."

Kelly said one big difference is the amount of support offered to affected residents. "I drove by and saw the FEMA trailer and I thought, 'Where were you in '89?'" he said.

Then, Gov. George Deukmejian toured the damage, as did President George H.W. Bush. On Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom visited. Then, downtown Santa Cruz, which had been on the National Register of Historic Places, was leveled. Now, the 1936 headquarters at Big Basin Redwoods Park, also on the National Register, burned to ash.

In the 1989 earthquake, far more homes in Santa Cruz County were damaged than in the fire: 13,329 compared to 86 now. Then, brick chimneys on thousands of homes fell through roofs, and some homes had damaged foundations. But they were repaired.

It took two-and-a-half years for Steve Rahm to rebuild his home after it burned down in the 2017 fires in Santa Rosa's Coffey Park neighborhood. He said hiring people to remove debris, working with insurance companies, county officials and contractors, is slow. But he and his wife love their new house, which they moved into in February, more than the one they lost.

"We had a lot of people come in and try to buy land here," he said. "People were low-balling at the beginning. I'd recommend that people in Santa Cruz County tackle each problem thoughtfully and carefully. You are making decisions out of anger and fear at first, and you really need to take your time and think about it. Be patient."

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