Tubbs Fire survivor offers experience, hope to those displaced by historic Los Angeles fires

February 18, 2025

Story by The Press Democrat.

• Brad Sherwood, a survivor of the 2017 Tubbs Fire, helps those affected by recent Los Angeles wildfires by sharing his recovery experience.

• He joined a delegation from After the Fire USA, a nonprofit supporting fire recovery, to provide insights on navigating processes like FEMA relief and rebuilding.

• Their mission emphasizes hope and guidance to others facing similar disasters, reflecting the growing community of survivors helping one another rebuild after devastating fires.

The first thing Brad Sherwood recognized was the smell.

Fires had just torn through Los Angeles, followed by the first measurable rainfall in months. In the burn zones, welcome moisture cooled the fuming detritus of vegetation, buildings and cars. The air hung thick and wet and sooty, almost sweet.

The scale of devastation wreaked by the Palisades and Eaton fires was unlike anything Sherwood had seen. But that acrid scent was unmistakable, instantly transporting him back over seven years and 400 miles to when and where he smelled it first, at the smoldering ruins of his own home the day after the Tubbs Fire burned it down.

Sherwood and his family barely had time to escape as the conflagration ripped down the canyons northeast of Santa Rosa and incinerated their Mark West neighborhood overnight on Oct. 8, 2017. The deadly firestorm that ignited Tubbs and other fires in Sonoma County that evening marked the beginning of an era of catastrophic, climate change-driven megablazes across California and beyond.

Posted in 2025