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A Tea fire commemoration was held at Westmont, where eight buildings and 15 faculty homes were destroyed. Dozens of students and faculty gathered in the Voskuyl Prayer Chapel for a prayer and worship service. Photo by Victor Maccharoli

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Tea Fire remembered on 1-year anniversary

By COLBY FRAZIER — Nov. 14, 2009

Tooth brushes, forks and spoons, shampoo. This is a small list of the things that the hundreds of Tea fire victims were missing a year ago yesterday when the wind-whipped blaze roared through the foothills, consuming more than 200 homes.

As the one-year anniversary of the fire came and went yesterday, many residents were neck deep in the rebuilding process, and according to Tom Reed, executive director of Unity Shoppe, a local nonprofit that provided countless toothbrushes and other necessities in the early days after the fire, many fire victims are now seeking furniture.

“Here we are, realizing that meeting these needs is a long-term deal,” Reed told a handful of Tea fire victims and nonprofit leaders yesterday at an event in front of Unity Shoppe’s headquarters on State Street.

A Tea fire commemoration was held at Westmont, where eight buildings and 15 faculty homes were destroyed. Dozens of students and faculty gathered in the Voskuyl Prayer Chapel for a prayer and worship service.

The blaze displaced 62 Westmont students and 18 faculty members. On Nov. 1, Westmont students and staff held a rededication ceremony to celebrate the completion of several new homes there.

In the days following the fire, Reed said 186 families affected by the Tea fire received some form of support from Unity Shoppe.

While nonprofit traditionally serves as a place where thousands of residents can pick up food and other necessities, Reed said he and his staff did a lot of shopping for Tea fire victims, buying extra sets of dishes and other staples.

In all, he said Unity Shoppe gave $100,000 worth of goods to Tea fire victims, about half of which came out of the nonprofit’s pocket.

One Tea fire victim who got help from Unity Shoppe was Grant Gibson, who lost his home on West Mountain Drive.

In the early days after the fire, Gibson said he received clothing and food from Unity Shoppe.

“We had 25 minutes to get out,” he said. “When you leave you don’t grab tooth brushes.”

For the last year, Gibson, like many of his fellow fire victims, has been embroiled in the rebuilding process. For him, it hasn’t gone smoothly.

He and his wife, Terri, were insured by California FAIR Plan, which many fire victims call the “Unfair Plan.” Shortly after nearly all of his possessions became a heap of ash, Gibson said he discovered he was “grossly underinsured.”

It’s a complicated equation, but one of the things that appeared to hurt Gibson and many other Tea fire victims was that money paid out for living expenses was often apparently connected to rebuilding expenses. In other words, the more one spent on rent and other living expenses, the less one had to put toward rebuilding expenses.

“You get a real education after the fact,” Gibson said.

As it stands, Gibson said his insurance will only cover about one-third of the costs to rebuild.

And rebuilding estimates were far from affordable. He said he was once quoted $690 per square foot. At that rate, a 2,000-square-foot home would cost nearly $1.4 million.

Gibson said he looked into every alternative possible, including modular homes and adobe construction. He settled on buying an existing house downtown, which will be chopped into several pieces, moved to his lot, and put back together, a process that he said is less than half of what it costs to build from scratch.

On hand yesterday in front of Unity Shoppe were representatives from the American Red Cross, as well as several other charitable organizations that supported, and continue to support Tea fire victims.

“Santa Barbara has much to be proud of that these kinds of organizations are here to help,” Reed said.

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Tea Fire : 11/14/2009

Shame on the California "FAIR" plan, the lenders who won't extend without penalties the mortgages on homes no longer standing, and the bankers who are receiving huge monetary bonuses each year...money ill earned. Shame on the politicians for allowing this to continue.

Debi Hart

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