Ventura County homeowners begin long road to Thomas Fire recovery

Feb. 08--Like many people affected by the Thomas Fire, Cory and Mathew Auric didn't believe the flames would reach Ojala, their 25-acre community in an unincorporated area of Ventura County near Ojai.

Then they saw the blaze.

"We went into town on Dec. 6 to check on the status of the fire and came back up here thinking we were safe," Cory, 29, said. "A sheriff came up and told us we needed to evacuate. But we didn't really believe him so we went and drove around the corner and saw that it was, in fact, coming so we packed up pretty quick and got stuff together. We looked at the fire again and it was a 60-foot wall of flame, there was a train of 100 firetrucks going down the road with loudspeakers saying, 'If you stay you are going to die.' "

Neither the Auric brothers, whose family has owned the property since 1978, nor any the 12 tenants they leased the property's cabins to died in the Thomas Fire, although their homes did not escape the inferno unscathed. Today, most of the property's cabins are uninhabitable and the area is littered with debris and destroyed cars.

While the brothers are spending much of their free time cleaning the area and working toward recovery, Cory noted it would likely take five to 10 years to fully rebuild their rural property.

Beyond the Auric brothers' property, the Thomas Fire burned for 40 days and consumed 281,893 acres in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties before it was finally fully contained Jan. 12. Now that the Thomas Fire has passed, Ventura County residents such as Cory and Mathew are beginning the long road to recovery.

Read more:Downtown Ventura's businesses look to bounce back from Thomas Fire losses

Rebuilding can be a costly and time-consuming process, even for those with homeowners insurance. Though county and state officials are working with homeowners on cleanup and recovery it will likely take several years before the first wave of residents rebuild and reoccupy their homes, said Supervisor Steve Bennett, whose supervisorial district covers much of the area hit hard by the fire.

Bennett anticipated the Thomas Fire recovery would be faster than Northern California's recovery from October's Tubbs Fire -- which destroyed over 2,800 homes in Santa Rosa -- but stressed that it would still require considerable time due to high demand for the state's recovery resources.

"There are 700 homes to clean up and everybody wants to know when their property is going to get cleaned up," Bennet said. "(Recovery teams) aren't going to lay out a schedule because they have to have the flexibility to move resources where they think they can do the most good. Some of the more fortunate people will probably be taking occupancy two years from now."

Regardless of the time and money involved, all newly-built homes, reconstructed or otherwise, are required to conform to modern building codes for safety reasons. For older structures, that means it may be impossible to rebuild homes as they were.

Although most residents are aware of building code requirements, the cost of reconstruction is catching some people off guard, said Chris Stephens, director of the Ventura County Resource Management Agency.

"The building codes are updated to reflect new and better engineering information, such as relating to earthquakes or energy efficiency," Stephens said. "Most code things people have heard about, such as double-paned windows or new structural requirements to withstand earthquakes. Most building code things are not surprising (but) the cost of construction is higher than some people were anticipating."

Parts of the Auric brothers' property were spared from the Thomas Fire, but Mathew anticipated reconstruction costs would be significant.

"Four of our cabins and a two-story duplex burned to the ground," Mathew, 37, said. "Going off typical construction costs, you're talking about $1.5 million to $2 million in reconstruction. Whether we will we be able to rebuild or not will come down to our finances."

Read more:People displaced by Thomas Fire navigate Ventura County housing market

Even as recovery continues, some residents are wary of potential future disasters. Cory noted that many of the hills on his property were charred in the Thomas Fire and the area would be further devastated if a mudslide were to hit the area. The recent mudslides in the Montecito area of Santa Barbara County resulted in 21 deaths, destroyed over 100 homes and damaged over 300 more.

Bennett noted he had received many concerns about mudslides after the Thomas Fire and a series of debris flow safety meetings has been set up this week. Bennett advised residents impacted by the Thomas Fire to visit http://venturacountyrecovers.org/ to learn about available resources.

One of the primary sources of available government assistance comes from the Federal Emergency Management Agency recovery resources. The agency is currently operating a Disaster Recovery Center in the city of Ventura out of the parking lot of the Ventura County Credit Union at 6026 Telephone Road. The program includes disaster unemployment insurance, legal assistance and housing loans.

Read more:FEMA opens disaster assistance center in Ventura

People impacted by the Thomas Fire should visit the Federal Emergency Management's Disaster Recovery Center, said Victor Inge, FEMA external affairs officer.

"We had 889 FEMA registrations in Ventura County and people are continuing to register for assistance," Inge said. "We're going to have a presence here for quite some time and our disaster recovery centers will remain open until it is deemed not necessary and people stop coming. We have a disaster recovery center located in (the city of) Ventura and if residents have questions or documents they want to drop off, we're here."

The deadline for FEMA applications is March 16. Inge said people impacted by the fire should not wait for the deadline to approach and recommended people apply for FEMA assistance as soon as possible.

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