How will LA recover? Tubbs Fire Recovery in Wine Country offers signs.

Donna and Bob Williamson call the strange memorabilia pulled from the ashes of their home the Museum of Misery.

There’s the molten green wine bottle, the hanging glass neck, which looks like it was pulled from a Salvador Dalí painting. It is a piece of silver that is joined together into a thick, lumpy material, and its branches stick out like needles.

A plate they received on their wedding day that reads: “For better or for worse.” There are only a few pieces left. The text that says, “It will be better.”

The collection sits in boxes behind the garage of his new home in Santa Rosa, Calif., a city of about 175,000 people in Sonoma wine country.

The Williamsons know the pain and uncertainty experienced by those who lost their homes in the Los Angeles fire—wondering how to rebuild and restore lost wealth. Building anything in California is expensive and bureaucratic even at the best of times, and now thousands of Southern California residents will be competing for the same permits, labor, and equipment all at once.

“There is light at the end of the tunnel,” said Ms Williamson. “But it will be a long tunnel.

The Tubbs fire, which killed 22 people and destroyed more than 5,000 homes in 2017, offers a lesson in what Los Angeles County residents can expect as a city tries to rebuild. the surrounding area is the city of California. As with the two major wildfires in Southern California, the inferno that ravaged Sonoma County spared no expense, scattering homes in the hills, bungalows on the plains, and parks. ‘the mobile home called Journey’s End.

On the night of Oct. 8, 2017, an electrical system caught fire north of Calistoga, a town about 10 miles from Santa Rosa known for its hot springs and red wine. Flames swept across the hillside before they descended on Santa Rosa, where they jumped Highway 101 and quickly destroyed the neighborhood.

The combined weight of the debris that had to be hauled away after the Tubbs fire and a nearby fire was twice the weight of the steel and concrete that make up the Golden Gate Bridge. The first phase in Los Angeles, too, involves the removal of remnants from buildings and properties, a process that could take months as the details of the complex and sensitive environmental process are sorted out. the authorities. Construction can begin only after inspectors determine that the treated soil is free of toxic materials.

After all, California’s state website and local laws can make obtaining the necessary permits for new construction tedious and expensive. The National Assembly has passed dozens of laws designed to make housing easier and faster, but the system remains sclerotic.

The city of Los Angeles is worse than most: It takes a year — 466 days — to get a permit for a new single-family home there, compared with 187 days statewide, according to a data analysis of license file by the Terner Center for Housing. Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley.

But tragedy has a way of creating a sense of urgency.

Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order on Jan. 12 that suspends two of California’s toughest environmental laws — the Coastal Act and the California Environmental Quality Act — for buildings and company built after the fire. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass followed up with an order a day later that accelerated permitting for recovery efforts, created a new force to clear debris and expedited construction of temporary housing for families. relocated.

In a state where wildfires are becoming more frequent and destructive, it has become a game. Following the Tubbs’ decision, Santa Rosa established a permit office designed to take home builders beyond bureaucratic red tape that can slow down projects at regular intervals.

“I had a rule for my staff that if you can make a local decision, do it,” said David Guhin, who was Santa Rosa’s planning director during the fire.

The following year, after the Butte County wildfires, the city of Paradise opened a similar store—the Building Resilience Center—in a bank branch. empty in the center of the city. The wildfire was the deadliest wildfire in the state and destroyed more than 18,000 homes.

The Williamsons, conservatives who are no fans of California’s politics or regulations, say the permitting process isn’t as bad as they feared. They stressed the importance of hiring architects and contractors who know the most up-to-date California codes because new buildings must meet fire safety and energy requirements that likely did not exist. when the original buildings were built. For example, new homes in California must have solar panels, automatic sprinkler systems, thicker walls with more insulation, ventilation that prevents the ingress of heat and fire-resistant roofs.

“The big factor is energy efficiency,” said Dan Dunmoyer, chief executive officer of the California Building Industry Association. “That’s when it starts to add up to 50, 60, 70 thousand dollars.”

However, Coffey Park, a middle-class neighborhood in the plains, was rebuilt faster than many people expected, and residents moved back there faster – many within two years, and some even faster – than in the rich hill towns. Insurance payments generally covered the higher portion of smaller, simpler repairs. And many neighbors were able to use the same construction companies to produce their houses on a larger scale, pouring foundations up and down the block and building several houses at the same time.

This may suggest a faster schedule for the construction of houses in Altadena, a suburb of Los Angeles where the average homeowner can set the speed level of traditional architecture. Homes that burned there are still worth, on average, more than $1 million, but still far below those in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood that overlooks the ocean.

Annie Barbour, 62, was a grocery store worker when her 1,500-square-foot tract home in Coffey Park was set on fire. He and his neighbors formed a group called Coffey Strong, meeting not only to drink wine and grumble, he joked, but also to discuss rebuilding and holding officials accountable.

“I got the keys to my house a year and two weeks after the fire,” he said, adding that such a timeline is short. He now works for United Policyholders, a nonprofit organization that helps accident victims through insurance claims. He flew to Los Angeles on Tuesday to help victims and to Maui in 2023.

Adjacent to his renovated home is a renovated Coffey Neighborhood Park, funded by the state and private donations. The old park was destroyed by fire, and the new park has a dog park, a modern playground and a heart-shaped bike rack and coffee cup. In a nearby corner, five cherry trees were planted, one for each Coffey Park resident who died in the fire.

The recovery process was worse in Fountaingrove, a more affluent area in the hills. Tim Slater, 58, lives in a cul-de-sac of 15 houses. Mr Slater, a pilot and former Eagle Scout, took on the renovation as if it were a second job and said he completed it in two years, the second fastest on the road. Others are still unfinished more than seven years later.

Only four of the original homes remain, while others have sold their land to developers and moved elsewhere. An unhappy couple divorced and chose to split the insurance payments and separate rather than rebuild. Some left California because they couldn’t bear the risk of more wildfires, Mr. Slater said.

It took the Williamsons about five years to build their home. They added a cathedral ceiling and a laundry room. The deer returned, and so did a family of eagles in a nearby tree. Farmers’ insurance payments, plus compensation from Pacific Gas and Electric, provided enough money to cover the $2 million cost of their repairs.

But life is far from idyllic. There are still burnt trees. Some developers have replaced rural homes with luxury buildings that look out of place. And the Williamsons received a letter in August saying that Farmers Insurance was ending coverage for their new home, a decision that is increasingly common in California. Their new insurance premiums have quadrupled.

Mr. Williamson, 82, considered leaving California instead of rebuilding. He considered Texas or Florida, but thought those states had storms and hurricanes, and lacked the weather, wine, and beauty of Northern California. They also didn’t have their beloved handball team, where they helped each other find architects and contractors and lend a helping hand.

“We’ve built a friendship over 20 years,” he said. “We’re too old to rebuild.”