Narrator: The largest fire in Sonoma history
burned through here last October.
Sorting through what the fires leave behind
has become a regular part of life in California.
- That was my room?
That was my bed.
My grandma had that bed since before I was born.
I don't even like being here right now.
I don't like looking at it.
Narrator: California has always burned,
but three years of back-to-back fires
have taken a devastating toll
and an insurance crisis is unfolding.
- I'm happy to have survived it, but, you know,
I'm very unhappy that I lost all my neighbors.
- While no one died in the latest fire,
people in Sonoma County have to make a choice,
live with the risk or leave for good.
This is the last home standing on a ridge
that was swallowed up by the Kincade Fire,
the 2019 season's most destructive blaze.
Its survival is possibly
thanks to the handmade fire defenses
Chris Arai has installed over the past several years.
- The house has a metal roof.
It has a stucco exterior, 10,000-gallon water tank.
We have a fire gel that we apply to the windows.
The off-grid system, massive batteries.
Narrator: 10 miles down the road,
Michelle Hall's family has nothing left.
- It didn't really hurt the trees,
it just got all of our buildings and our structures.
I don't want to look at anything
that's going to remind me of this ever again.
I just want it to be over with and be able to move on.
Narrator: The sudden blaze may have been
started by a faulty wire
maintained by the electric company PG&E.
It destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses.
- I was asleep and about 3 o'clock in the morning,
I got a call that Soda Rock was on fire.
Narrator: This 150-year-old winery
that is a local landmark burned to the ground.
- I was in pretty much shock for the next four or five days.
Just not knowing what to think.
Narrator: Kincade spread across 120 square miles.
It was the season's most destructive fire.
No one died but no one knew what they would come home to.
- I get to the bottom of where our driveway actually starts
and I could see the corner of the building
and it was still in its original color
with what looked like a bit of roof on it,
thinking, well, that's a good sign.
And I just got out of the truck and ran up the hill.
- Arai had reason to worry.
About two months before the fire,
his insurance company sent him a warning.
- We got a letter that they were going to drop our policy,
and it was like a one-sentence reason.
You know, they just decided we were too high-risk for them.
Definitely, the DIY aspect saved the house.
Narrator: An electrical engineer,
he dedicated himself to building
a home that could withstand wildfires.
He poured the concrete basement just before
the 2004 Geysers Fire ripped through the area.
15 years later, as the Kincade Fire loomed,
the sheriff and multiple fire crews
warned him to evacuate immediately.
- So, our original intent was to ride it out down here
and Tess asked me, are you sure that we're going to survive?
And I said, well, I can't be 100% sure.
I'm 95-plus.
Narrator: He used every waking minute
to prepare the house,
boarding up windows and smearing them
with flame repellent gel.
- It's what's called a hydro gel.
Narrator: His off-the-grid solar panels
powered a sprinkler system that surrounds the property.
- So, these sprinklers have a radius
of about 45 feet, so they can put
a fair bit of water down out there
that keeps those grasses, those lower fuels from catching.
Narrator: But as the wind shifted,
Arai knew it was time to leave.
He jumped in his car and drove down the hill.
Three hours later, the embers began to fall like snowflakes.
This is footage from a camera
that he set up right before he left.
- I would definitely ride it out now.
Absolutely, because now I know that the house didn't burn.
- Arai is one of over 350,000 California homeowners
who've been dropped by insurance companies
in the past two years
in what some experts have called a crisis.
Michelle Hall, now without a home,
hasn't been able to get insurance for years.
A local charity is helping her pay for her accommodation
while her family figures out what's next.
- So, the companies,
a lot of them wouldn't even, like you said, touch our house.
They said absolutely not.
We're not going to insure you.
It's too high risk.
Narrator: One of the few heirlooms
to make it out in their rapid evacuation
was the 100-year-old deed to their homestead.
- I, Woodrow Wilson,
President of the United States of America,
in the year of our Lord 1916.
Narrator: Generations of her family grew up here.
- I learned to hunt, trap, and play in the dirt,
watch out for rattlesnakes.
Narrator: But a century after settling in California,
the Hall family is ready to say goodbye.
- The fires, you know, they're helping push me
and the high cost of living.
You know, that's probably the No. 1 reason.
Because if we wanted to move into town, we couldn't do it.
Narrator: By one estimate,
thousands of residents have fled Sonoma County
over the past two years, the biggest drop on record.
This latest fire hit during the grape harvest,
which is also peak tourism season.
So even those who didn't own property
felt the impact in weeks of lost wages
and rolling blackouts.
- A lot of people like they got evacuated,
so they couldn't work for like one week or two weeks.
A lot of people were out of work.
So we're trying to help all those kind of families
that really, really need help.
- Corazon Healdsburg, a local charity,
set up a free store to provide necessities
like diapers, socks, and paper towels.
Moody's estimates it costs the average resident $765.
Businesses in the evacuation zone
lost an average of $16,000.
Overall Sonoma took about a $725 million hit.
And the county is preparing to sue PG&E,
California's electrical utility, for damages.
For a local staple called the Jimtown Store,
the losses have been too great to bear.
- The reason I haven't quit earlier
is because of all the people.
Narrator: Three decades ago,
Carrie Brown and her late husband
bought what was once a 19th-century general store.
Her sister is the manager
and many employees are local college students.
- It's more than just a little cafe
and a roadside destination.
It really, really is like
the heart and soul for our community.
Narrator: On December 30, 2019,
the Jimtown Store closed its doors for the last time.
- To all, thank you for 28 wonderful years.
Narrator: Even for those who escaped the flames,
the future is still uncertain.
Across the state, an insurance crisis is unfolding.
Multiple reports suggest that recent wildfires
have wiped out decades of profits for the industry.
In December, as insurers continued to drop policies,
the state of California stepped in.
It temporarily blocked them from cutting off
close to a million more customers in 2020.
Meanwhile, Silicon Valley has offered
a technological solution.
The startup zesty.ai uses artificial intelligence
to help insurance companies more accurately assess risk.
- From all indicators
and all the researchers and scientists,
this is, you've heard it over and over again,
the new normal.
Narrator: David Shew,
who was a firefighter for more than 30 years,
consults with the company.
- So, you're not giving up on California?
- Not at all.
No, I don't think so at all.
It's just the fact that we have
to think differently about the way we've done things.
Narrator: Zesty's platform rated the Soda Rock Winery
as high-risk for fire,
even though no one else expected it to burn.
- Usually the vineyards provide a pretty good fire break.
And so I was not overly concerned to be honest.
Narrator: Until now, insurance companies
have relied on models based on historical fire data
and low-resolution satellite imagery,
making them more likely
to drop policies for entire zip codes.
Zesty uses dozens of data points,
including building records, roof shape,
and distance to flammable vegetation,
to estimate a property's risk.
- There's many different layers of information
that can be gleaned to asses
the vulnerability of a structure to a wild land fire.
Narrator: It could become an indispensable tool
for those who wish to remain in a landscape
that will continue to be reshaped by fire.
- The public has to accept the fact
that if you choose to live in a fire prone environment,
it is a constant piece of work
that you have to maintain your structure.
You have to constantly work on your property
for vegetation clearance and setbacks and defensible space.
Narrator: Despite the devastation,
the team at Soda Rock Winery reopened almost immediately.
- So, I said, well,
we've got some wine and we've got the barn.
I got some planks.
I got some barrels.
Why don't we just open?
And we did.
Narrator: Today a glass of merlot
can be paired with fresh roasted walnuts.
Chris Arai is already preparing for next time.
- Are you willing to play
these odds year after year?
- Well, now I'm confident.
Narrator: Michelle and her father are ready to leave.
- So what do you think is next for you guys?
- I think moving to Idaho.