tonight -- >> heavenly father, please help us. >> paradise lost. a california town engulfed in flames as residents flee for their lives. a week of wildfires seem to turn the golden state into a hell's gate. this historic death toll now exceeding 70. californians just beginning to grapple with the devastation. but there's one california city that knows all too well what lies ahead -- santa rosa. tonight we bring you a story a year in the making. santa rosa's rebirth after enduring a history-making fire of their own. a community and its residents now rising. >> "nightline: out of the ashes" will be right back.

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do survivors pick up the pieces? one california community spent the last year living that reality. the residents of santa rosa. and tonight they share their harrowing journey. >> this has been one of the most difficult years we've ever had. >> that confirmation comes in, gut punch. >> one year later i could put everything i own in a laundry basket. >> we've got to get out of here. >> i don't know where to go. >> [ bleep ]. >> come on, let's go, let's go, come on! >> that night seemed like a complete blur. >> i remember just saying, you need to evacuate, and evacuate now. >> reporter: memory can be a funny thing. sometimes it's crystal clear. >> go, go, go, go! >> reporter: other times it's just flashes, sights and sounds. >> just sirens. i just remember hearing sirens, it seemed like for days. >> reporter: we don't always get to choose what we remember and what we forget.

for firefighter paul lowenthal and some residents of santa rosa, california -- >> oh my god, it's just all gone. everything we've worked for, it's all gone. >> reporter: memory is all that remains from that night in october 2017. when a raging wildfire passed over the rolling hills of wine country and overtook the quiet suburb of santa rosa. >> we have multiple structures involved. >> i just knew the house was going to be gone within 15 minutes. >> oh my god. >> you have to go southbound, get out of here, go. >> i have a 9-year-old! >> definitely not something i think i'd ever experience in the city of santa rosa. >> reporter: for some it came with no warning and dealt a vicious hand. >> charcoal the size of heads, cinders just falling. >> reporter: in its wake, utter devastation. whole neighborhoods reduced to ash. now, one year later, santa

rosa's residents are still grappling with how they suffered through until this week, the most destructive wildfire in california history. looking at what went wrong as they rebuild from the ground up to try to ensure the disaster of this magnitude will never strike home again. >> nobody's prepared. not for what happened the way it happened. nobody's prepared. >> reporter: october 8th, 2017. started off as a warm, dry, and breezy sunday. what are known as the diablo winds are picking up steam as they move through the city. veteran firefighter paul lowenthal notices the winds, but his mind is diverted instead to the monotonous rhythms of fatherhood. >> my daughter and i were in hawaii for the week. kind of setting in, trying to get back into a normal routine. getting ready to start a school and a workweek. >> reporter: but that night, around 11:00 p.m., he gets a

call from work. >> started seeing glows in the distance. eventually hit a wall of fire. literally fire on both sides of the road, blowing across. there was no way to get through it. that's when i knew this was not coming to santa rosa, this was here. >> what's going through the pit of your stomach? >> we've got to get people out, we've got to get them out now. >> reporter: it's the middle of the night and most of the city is asleep. paul calls the santa rosa police department for help. >> they're going to start moving us into the creek and farm area -- >> those police officers just dove in without asking questions, and immediately started going door to door and getting people out of harm's way. >> police! >> reporter: with body cameras rolling, police officers are deployed to areas where they think the fire is going. but the wind has a mind of its own. the wind pushes the fire farther than first responders had

anticipated, leaving some residents in the neighborhood of coffey park unaware of what's headed their way. >> i can actually feel the heat. >> it was the loudest wind i've ever heard in my life. it was -- it was like a -- just a barreling sound of nonstop wind. >> it was like a blow torch. >> the lights started to flicker. okay, let's just get water and candles together, put them on the table. >> i went to the front door and see it's really windy and smoky and ash was flying. then within less than five seconds, i looked back, and it was a wall of red. >> what's going through your mind? >> we've got to go. >> one of our neighborhoods walked to a viewpoint up the 101. she came running around the corner and said, it's hopped the 101, get out, get out. >> it hopped the 101 means it hopped a six-lane freeway? >> yeah. >> now it's on your side? >> yeah. we didn't say anything to your neighbors, like go get your

neighbors, or talk to you soon. we just ran back into our houses, grab the dogs, grab some clothes, we grabbed some of our son's stuff, put it in a duffel bag. get in my car, turn the corner, and there's somebody's lawn on fire. i see flames coming up over the rooftops. that's when it registered with me, this is bad, this is real bad. >> there was ash and embers coming down as we're getting in the car. literally fire raining down. >> you're fleeing for your lives? >> yeah. >> i had a hose, i couldn't have saved my house. just the ferociousness of the winds and the embers from that field and everything else, blowing across. >> reporter: in another area of coffey park, officers reach the home of nancy and ken mizoni. >> hello! what's your plan? >> just in here with a hose. >> yeah, you're going to fight it out? >> i'm going to fight it out. >> you sure? >> yes. >> anybody else here with you? >> me and my wife. >> do you want me to get your wife out of here? >> no, she's all right. it's chaos, where are we going to go?

>> we can get her where she needs to go. >> reporter: this is ken's wife nancy. her husband's having a hard time talking about that night, and she struggles to do so too. >> ken seemed pretty adamant that he was going to stay. >> we were staying. we were staying. fire department had to be -- they had to be coming. they've got this. it's just a matter of, we're going to help them out, you know. >> reporter: what nancy and her husband didn't know at the time was that the fire was already destroying the area around them. it just hadn't reached their home yet. >> sir, you're going to put a lot of people in danger. the fire is a couple of houses over, it's coming at us. >> it's huge. >> please. we need to get you out of here. please get in the car and leave. you have two officers here now -- >> where should i go? >> that way. >> that way. >> just get out of here. it is one field away. >> like right now. i'm leaving now because i've got to save myself and save other people. >> you could hear the urgency in

the police officers' voice. ken didn't want to hear it? >> didn't want to believe it, couldn't grasp it. we were in shock. >> reporter: not long after the officers leave, terror sets in. >> i remember jumping down and i had the hose. and ken said, quick, we got to go, we got to go, we're going to come right back. and when i ran -- when i got to the front of the house where the fire -- it was 30-foot flames across the street from us. all you saw was fire. >> reporter: with only seconds to spare, nancy and ken joined the multitude of others fleeing for their lives. >> fire! >> reporter: but some are finding themselves stranded, like mario montes. >> a police officer knocked on the door and i told him, well, i

can't evacuate, i have five ladies with me in the house, i need help. >> reporter: he is the sole caretaker on duty at the assisted living center. he immediately begins helping police officers with the evacuation. >> i had -- i ran with me taking irene out. >> reporter: mario passes 87-year-old irene lopes to officered on damns who wheels her out of the house and struggles to load her in the back of his car. >> i cannot walk! >> okay, i'll help you. >> reporter: embers are raining down upon them. the fire is right there. >> i can't, my feet -- >> i was putting her in a lot of pain, helping her get into the car. >> please help me!

ai-yi-yi, my legs! >> i'm sorry, you've got to sit up. >> okay. >> reporter: once the cars are loaded up, the officers make their escape. >> let's get out of here. >> i got it, i got it. >> let her in. >> reporter: and safely drive the women to an evacuation center. >> 2 inches from the ground. >> reporter: where they're welcomed by first responders, volunteers, and a group of mass evacuees, so many afraid of what their morning holds. when we come back -- dawn sheds light on the painful path that lays ahead. >> oh, look at that. gone. [ bleep ]. >> reporter: paved with hard lessons for us all. and a second chance to reclaim their lives. forged by the heroes of that night. stay with us. i wanted more from my copd medicine...

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connecting people... ...uniting the world. ♪♪ this special edition of "nightline" continues. >> the author toni morrison once wrote about a loneliness that roams. [ crying ] >> alive on its own, the kind you can't tuck away. perhaps that was the feeling on this morning. october 9th, 2017. >> it's like a frickin' train coming through here. >> reporter: when residents slowly returned to find what they once knew, now alien.

>> it was hard to take in, it was hard to really grasp for a while. >> reporter: this is what jeff acrepki came home to, ruins where his house once stood. not everyone suffered the same outcome. the fire dangled people between two fates. >> look. look at this. >> wow. >> reporter: those who were spared -- >> oh my gosh, we didn't get touched. >> reporter: and those who lost everything. >> they weren't so lucky. >> no, they weren't. >> when you first laid sight on your house, or what was left of it, what went through your mind? >> i wanted to be sick. it's just all gone. everything we've worked for. it's all gone. >> in the days after, you hear a lot of people say, at least everybody's safe, they're just things, it's just stuff. in your mind you're just like, you want to cuss them out because it's not just stuff. it's the memorial flag for my wife's father. she lost her dad in iraq and

that's all we have of him. my son's blankie. my son's favorite toy. those aren't just things, those are remnants of our lives and other people's lives that we don't have anymore. >> reporter: the fire killed 22 and laid waste to 3,000-plus residences, some the homes of first responders who worked tirelessly to evacuate others, like firefighter paul lowenthal. >> when it hit me, it was day five. our fire chief, tony gosner, and jonathan cox, the chief of cal fire, pulled me aside and said, you're done, you need a time-out, you need a break. i looked at him and said, what do you want me to do? i don't really have anything to go to. >> when you went home, what was that like? >> not as hard as trying to explain to my daughter that our home was destroyed in the fire. she wanted to get back what she had before. i get it. but at the same time, it's an opportunity for us to start over, start a new chapter. >> reporter: charlie and date higgins marked the start of their new chapter by hanging

this symbol, one that for them meant perseverance. >> i'm coming back. coming back. >> reporter: in the days that followed, the cleanup began. >> a couple things. >> reporter: the most commonplace items now personal treasures. >> this is our house number from our house. oh my gosh. >> it looks literally like a surreal piece of artwork. >> oh, yeah. oh yeah. that is just how we found it. >> reporter: as time passed, so many in santa rosa were still displaced, still mourning, and longing to be home for the holidays. >> that was the only place i felt that i belonged. >> reporter: her friend ronnie wanted her to know she still did. >> one night we drove over there. there's ronnie. and he put a big 15-foot christmas tree on my lawn. >> reporter: as more trees were

trimmed, the sound of caroling echoed through the streets. ♪ rudolph the red-nosed reindeer ♪ >> reporter: a simple truth discovered -- that home is in the heart. with the new year, new hope. >> this is the living room. >> yeah. our fireplace will go there. >> reporter: nancy proudly shows us the makings of her new home. >> this is one of the bedrooms. this is the master bath. >> reporter: she's hoping to move back in by the end of this year. as is kate higgins. >> every time we come, there's a little more done. it means we're a little closer to being back home. feels like a little piece of you is being put back together. >> reporter: roughly 27% of the homes lost are now under construction, or have completely rebuilt. >> people don't understand why

we're letting people rebuild back in those areas that have burned. the reality is a lot of those homes were older homes, built before the standards went into effect. the idea is now that that construction will protect those homes. through the construction, with the fuel reduction, it will make those homes successful in surviving a wildfire. >> reporter: so many in santa rosa live in constant fear that disaster could strike again. climate science has found that longer, drier periods have created tinder box conditions that when sparked and mixed with coastal winds are leading to high-speed infernos. like the one we saw earlier this week that destroyed the city of paradise, california. >> we're seeing them time and time again. it's definitely becoming the new norm. >> reporter: now perhaps the community of paradise, just hours away, will look to santa rosa for lessons in their own recovery. >> the only good thing that's come out of this disaster is the neighborhood coming together. we're stronger together now than

we were a year ago. >> reporter: on this night, the first anniversary of the fire -- >> i want to invite you to stand here together in community. >> reporter: close to 500 people have gathered together in coffey park. >> you can burn our neighborhood to the ground but you can't take our community spirit. what you're finding is the strength, the hope, the love, the life. it's back. >> reporter: a community that stands firm in its resolve, that loneliness will roam no longer. when we come back, a special reunion for one hometown hero. ♪ whoa! the mercedes-benz winter event is back and you won't want to stop for anything else. [ barks ] ho!

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♪ on the night of the santa rosa fire, 87-year-old irene lopez was rescued from her senior care home by this policeman. >> okay, get in. >> i cannot walk! >> okay, i'll help you. >> reporter: officer andy adams, now one year later, she finally gets to say thank you. >> hello, how are you? >> oh, i'm great. i'm alive thanks to you. what's your name? >> andy adams.

>> andy adams. i'm not going to forget that name ever. why, you are a handsome guy, my goodness. >> thanks. >> i wish i was young. >> back off, i'm married. >> reporter: bonds forged in the fire, illustrated here and across santa rosa that out of the darkness comes the light. >> our thanks to the folks we met in santa rosa, and our thoughts are with all those who lost so much in california's fires. thanks for watching "nightline." good night, have a great