On Monday morning with media outlets from as far away as Sacramento in attendance, Paradise Town Town Councilman Michael Zuccolillo popped some champagne to celebrate the town’s issuance of the first Occupancy certificate to Travis and Victoria Sinclaire.
“We’re Ridge strong and we’re coming home,” Victoria said at the ceremony in front of the home. “It’s a community effort between town hall, PID, PG&E. There have been so many people involved in making this dream a reality.
“Watching what you have been doing is inspiring to people all over town,” Zuccolillo said to the family. “It’s been inspiring to me and to (Town Councilman) Steve and to the town this serves as a beacon of what we can do as a town.”
The 1,900 square-foot home on Forest Lane was rebuilt by Ken Blanton’s Integrity Builders, includes a “man cave” for Travis and an office space for Victoria near the bedroom.
“You had a great builder and got in done in what two, two and a half a months,” Zuccolillo told the family. “We’re here to celebrate.”
More than a few homes around the Sinclaire property survived the fire on Nov. 8 but her’s did not, despite having the fire clearance.
“It was a nightmare leaving this, but I also thought somehow it wasn’t going to burn, even though looking around everything was on fire,” Victoria said. “I didn’t the last time was going to be the last time. So coming home is …”
The fire did cost them 38 trees and bushes, so she does plan to replant some of what was lost. The Sinclaire replaced the wooden deck in their back yard with a cement one.
But that wasn’t the only fire-safe part to the new home, that’s about 200 square feet bigger than the previous home.
Blanton said that the cement deck is an example of what residents who rebuild will be asked to do. He said they used a lot more cement and less wood.
“We have fiber cement siding,” Blanton said. “And the fulcrum vents at the base of the fiber cement siding.”
Blanton said the fiber is more fire-resistant and requires more heat to ignite.
Blanton said that he’s meeting with clients and now the Sinclaire home can act as an example, not just to his clients but to all those who are looking to rebuild.
“I am so invested in this,” he said, noting that the subcontractors have been critical to the rebuild. “This town has been so good to me my whole life. I never doubted for two seconds that I wasn’t coming here to help rebuild.”
For the Sinclaires, they’re just the first of many to rebuild.
“As a community, we’re just going to build up each other, we’re going to help each other,” Victoria said. “Paradise will return and the Ridge will return.”
