”
No home, no income, no insurance
– where do I go from here. I’m just trying to survive, I
guess.
”
GILROY
– It’s been three weeks and they are probably dead, but it’s
worth a shot.
GILROY – It’s been three weeks and they are probably dead, but it’s worth a shot.
Judi Snow stands by as her neighbors put out their dogs’ favorite food, call their names and even wave one of the socks that Marley used to steal and play with until it was a soaked with canine slobber. Dogs are known for their strong sense of smell, but none of Judi’s neighbors’ three dogs have returned home since the Croy Fire broke out on Sept. 23.
“I dreamed last night they found Marley,” said Judi, who had her house and the three single-wide trailers on her property that she rents destroyed by the area’s largest blaze in 17 years. “When I was up there the other day the renters were sifting through the remains of their home for bones (of the dogs). It’s really so sad. We are all close friends, and to watch that is very hard.”
Judi’s plot of land in the 7900 block of Croy Road – close to where the roaring fire originated – accounted for only 10 of the 3,000 acres that burned for the seven days and nights the fire raged, but it was her world that went up in smoke.
“No home, no income, no insurance – where do I go from here,” said the visibly exhausted 59-year-old Tuesday afternoon from her daughter’s home in San Martin. “I’m just trying to survive, I guess.”
When asked to estimate how much she lost in the fire, Judi can only take a deep breath and shake her head, “Everything there was.”
Like many residents of the 34 homes scorched in the fire, Judi, who lives alone, didn’t have insurance on her paradise: a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with a two-car garage sitting on the sun-soaked, vegetation-rich south face of Bachelor Hill in Uvas Canyon.
Judi and her family are concerned about the negative perceptions of the homes in the area portrayed by the media and by county officials. Fire inspectors now believe the overpowering blaze was sparked by electrical wiring for solar panels, but rumors of drug labs in the area were reported to have started the during the first days the wall of flames marched through Uvas Canyon.
“Just because a home is not permitted doesn’t mean it was dangerously built,” said Judi’s daughter Renee Roberts of the area known to be scattered with unpermitted homes, single-wide trailers, out-of-date RVs and would-be power and electrical systems. “Anyone who lived there was fire conscious – you had to be – and I hate how people think anything without a county label is dangerous. These were not shacks that burned – most were probably more than up to code.”
A way of life
Government codes, permits and regulations seem to lose their significance driving further and further up Croy Road, and that’s why Judi decided to move her dreams there.
Turning her back on the road rage, concrete playgrounds, layoffs and working lunches of the Silicon Valley to build her home in the Santa Cruz Mountains 17 years ago, Judi married a simpler life, and never looked back.
“I chose to buy this land because I wanted something of my own,” said Judi, explaining the philosophy running through the veins of many residents of the rugged and beautiful Uvas Canyon area. “I didn’t want to work at IBM anymore – going to work when it was dark and coming home when it was dark.
“I probably could’ve bought a little condo in the city – but that’s not me – I couldn’t stand it.”
So instead of pushing along with the rat race, Judi moved above it.
Working a handful of temporary jobs to provide income while she, her friends and family built her dream 1,500 feet above the Pacific – Judi was finally able to spend pollution-free days among Redwoods, madrone and manzanita, and go to sleep with only Mother Nature guarding her front door.
“I like the simple life,” said Judi, whose South County roots go back to 1961 when, “tractors were still driving down Monterey Street.”
But as Judi and many other victims of the Croy Fire are learning, the county government does not exactly operate on the same principle of simplicity.
Although the county has announced it will not fine the owners of the illegal structures burned in the fire, it will demand victims planning to rebuild their home to go through the full legal permit process this time.
“The county is saying it will cost $4,500 to obtain a new building permit,” Judi said. “How are we supposed to afford this? If I had the money I would rebuild in a minute, but we lost everything.”
Even though Judi and her son, Bob Snow, had built a 10-foot fire break between her home and the surrounding woods and brush, it wouldn’t have mattered if there was 100-foot break because the fire was so hot, Bob Snow said.
“I understand (the county) can’t just turn their backs on the law, but I would think there could be some sort of gray area,” said Judi, highlighting the sometimes frustrating relationship between the county and many of its rural residents. “The reason many of us didn’t apply for permits in the first place is because we knew they would want to come in and make us pay for new roads that are already fine. I don’t know, I guess it’s just that the people who live here don’t need all the things everybody else does or else they wouldn’t be up here in the first place.”
Now what?
Splitting time between her daughter’s home in San Martin and camping on her charred property in a neighbor’s small travel trailer that immaculately survived the fire, Judi has had a lot of time to reflect on how to begin rebuilding her life, but the answers have not been easy.
A thousand rains couldn’t wash away the hurt the fire has caused Judi and her family based in San Martin, including her son, her daughter and grandson, Anthony Roberts, 11. But just one hard rain could damage Judi’s property even further, and working to prevent erosion seems like the logical next step for the Snow family.
“The rains are supposed to be coming soon. So the first thing we need to do is contact the Agricultural Commission and learn how to stop (erosion),” said Bob Snow, adding that the hardest part of the recovery process was starting it. “We hear about all these programs to help rebuild. We have a whole lot of phone numbers written down. But it’s a very overwhelming process when you’re still trying to find where you’re going to sleep tonight.”
Buying hay from local ranches and spreading it on the land to absorb the water and mud during the rainy season is one measure Judi Snow will take to prevent erosion, but even that costs money she doesn’t have now that she isn’t making any money from the trailers she leased.
One thing that has helped the recovery process has been the outpouring of charity from the South County community, which has made donations of food, water, clothes, power generators and even mountain cabins for the victims of the Croy Fire.
“People ask how to help and I don’t know what to tell them until I’m at my property trying to open a can of soup and I realize I have no can opener,” Judi said.
Judi also said she has no hard feelings toward the owners of the home where the fire began – although she does not know them personally.
The fire cost the state and county more than $8 million to control.
“I hear the county is thinking about suing the guy, and I don’t think that’s right,” Judi said. “He’s sick with regret already, and he did nothing wrong – it was an accident. He’s already been through enough.”
Beginning to come to grips with the pieces of her life lost forever and the pieces that still remain, Judi plans to continue to sift through the remains of her house
“I had just brought a trunk from my mother’s house with picture and my wedding dress up to the house a week before – now that’s gone,” said Judi, who was able to recover her wedding ring and class ring from the remains of her home. “At first I thought the pictures would be the hardest on me. But now I’m just thankful for the moments when those pictures were taken and the opportunities I’ve had in life.”
Surrounded by three generations of family in her daughter’s home, Judi adds one more thing.
“I don’t know if I could get by without this family – it’s what has kept me going.”
The victims of the Croy Fire have established a Web site to communicate and provide information for people wanting to help the recovery process: to www.mall-net.com/croyfire/.
