Dozens of people gathered to watch as Claire Gottsdanker, Abe Powell and 1st District Supervisor Salud Carbajal released a single balloon into the sky Wednesday, signaling the end of a crisis period and a transition to the rebuilding of many of the homes that were destroyed in the November Tea Fire. Wednesday’s event marked the closing of the Tea Fire Relief Center, which was housed in a portable trailer on the campus of Cold Spring School, near the fire’s origin in the Montecito foothills.
Gottsdanker, president of the Mountain Drive Community Association, lost her home in the fire. She’s lived in the area since 1964 and said she can’t go back and change what happened, but she can choose to look forward. As the community moves toward the rebuilding phase, she said, it’s important to mark the events along the way, like the relief center’s closing. On the verge of tears, she called the center a “safety net” for those reeling from loss, “shoring up survivors until we can walk on our own.”
“Today is that day,” she said.
The Tea Fire, which ignited late on the afternoon of Nov. 13 amid gale-force sundowner winds and temperatures in the 90s, started in the area of the Tea Garden above East Mountain Drive. The blaze raged for days, destroying 230 homes, seriously injuring two people and scorching 2,000 acres in the Montecito foothills, upper Sycamore Canyon and Rattlesnake Canyon. The fire burned through the Westmont College campus and left the renowned Mount Calvary Retreat House & Monastery in ruins.
For the past three months, the Cold Spring School center has served as a point of origin for residents who lost their homes. The center provided computers with Internet access so fire survivors could explore insurance options, find housing, connect with FEMA and get information about what the rebuilding process would involve, said Adele Goggia, who worked at the center. Goggia, a project architect with Harrison Design Associates, said the experience was “eye-opening” for her.
“Originally, I was thinking this would be a good opportunity because I had some planning background,” she said, but she quickly realized that most people weren’t in a state where they were ready or able to rebuild. “I had to learn a lot about disaster relief.”
“There were a lot people who came in that I probably never would have met in my walk of life,” she said. “I can really say that a lot of these people are my friends.”
“Phoenix Awards” were also handed out to those who were instrumental in the Tea Fire Relief effort, such as county workers and representatives from Cold Spring School and private organizations.
“The Phoenix rising really represents who we are … rising from the ashes for new life,” Gottsdanker said of the community, which has bonded over the years as it has endured other fires.
Carbajal was among those receiving a Phoenix Award and he commended the community cohesiveness during the disaster.
“We’ve had a crisis and we’ve had a tragedy, and the silver lining in it is that it just shows what kind of a community we have,” he said. “It was so amazing how the leadership came from within the community that was devastated.”
Even though the Cold Spring center has closed, Gottsdanker said the Mountain Drive Community Association will operate its own relief trailer for three days a week. That facility will open in two weeks.
In the meantime, she said she had gotten the go-ahead from the county to start rebuilding just that morning.
“I’m ready to pour my foundation today,” she said. “And that’s really exciting.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at lcooper@noozhawk.com.
