Tuesday was a welcome home celebration for three residents of the Orchard Housing Community in Santa Rosa after they lost their home last year in the Tubbs Fire.

Louise Ostlund took a walk through each room of her new manufactured house.

“I love it. I just love it. It is just right,” Ostlund said.

Ostlund’s next door neighbor, Leslie Willis, felt the same.

“I am very excited after one year to finally come back to the orchard and get back into the brand new home,” Willis said.

The two women will not be able to move into their houses for another few weeks but Cindy Towner, the third resident, says she has big plans.

“I will have some friends over because I now we have these nice new porches over here,” Towner said. “There is room for a nice bistro table and a couple of chairs.”

The Tubbs Fire burned 36,000 acres before it was contained.

Over 5,000 structures were destroyed and 67 of those were homes in Orchard.

John Moore with JM Environmental handled the demolition and remediation after the fire.

“It was daunting. I was here a couple of weeks after the fire,” Moore said. “This place was just leveled it looked like a war zone. You couldn’t really tell where one started and one stopped but I knew it was 67 units.”

The Orchard Housing Community is owned and operated by Hometown America Corporation.

“Well the next step is to get all of the other houses done,” Dani Crawford with the corporation said. “Our goal is to get everyone that is rebuilding with us back in this year.”

Ostlund is just thankful to be among the first to return home.

“It is not my house. It is not the house that burned down. It will never be but it’s a really nice house well done,” Ostlund said.

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