photo credit: City of Santa Rosa 
A screenshot from a map shows completed and ongoing rebuilding from the 2017 Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa. 

October 8 marks the eighth anniversary of the deadly 2017 Tubbs Fire which killed 22 people in Sonoma County. The fire started in the northern part of Calistoga near Tubbs Lane.

At the time, it was the most destructive wildfire in California history. In Santa Rosa alone, the firestorm destroyed more than 3000 residential units.

According to the City of Santa Rosa’s Resilient City Recovery Reporting Dashboard, just over 2,500 structures have been rebuilt since the fire raced from Napa County into Sonoma County in the early morning hours of October 9, 2017.

There are still nearly 850 housing units that are either in permit review, pending construction, or in construction.

Santa Rosa created six 'Resilient City' zoning areas to make it easier to rebuild by modifying zoning and fees: in Coffey Park, Fountaingrove, Fountainview, Montecito Heights, Oakmont, and the Highway 101 Corridor.

A plan to build a Sonoma County Fire Memorial honoring those who died has been delayed.

“Where we’ve been delayed for almost a year now, is working with the City of Santa Rosa on an agreement to use Nagasawa Community Park for the project,” said Tara Thompson, Director of Creative Sonoma.

Thompson says the organization has narrowed down the search for an artist, and the Fire Memorial Task Force has continued work to guide the project while paperwork drags on.

“They will be kind of steering and guiding a community engagement plan, so that we’re very thoughtful about how we’re doing outreach to all the different community members who were effected and impacted by the fires,” said Thompson.

Thompson says she’s hopeful the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors could approve the draft license agreement by the end of November, but says it may take longer.