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Santa Rosa Fire Damage Repair, From Smoke Cleanup to Rebuild
Smoke residue in a house that didn’t burn, a structure that has to come down and go back up, or creek water across a floor: our North Bay crew comes up US 101 from Petaluma to handle it.
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Tell us what happened and we'll call you back. In a hurry? Call (844) 623-3946.
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Santa Rosa, CA
What does fire damage repair in Santa Rosa involve?
Three stages, and RestoreX handles each one from our Petaluma office, about 17 road miles south of City Hall. First we board up and secure the building. Then we clean soot and smoke residue and treat the odor. Last, under our B General Building license, we rebuild what was lost, with Santa Rosa’s permits.
Santa Rosa’s population rose by two-thirds between 1950 and 1970, then grew by about 3,000 people a year until 1991. Half of its roughly 71,400 housing units were built before 1980, and the median build year is 1980, per Census Bureau estimates for 2020 to 2024. The core is older. The 1906 earthquake destroyed most downtown commercial buildings but spared almost all the houses, and the old neighborhoods around downtown, several of them historically designated, keep many Victorians. Fire and smoke damage remediation in a Victorian takes a different approach than in a newer house.
Housing: U.S. Census ACS 5-year estimates. Distance is approximate.
About Santa Rosa
What did the 2017 and 2020 wildfires do to Santa Rosa's housing?
The October 2017 Tubbs Fire destroyed more than 3,000 homes in the city, about 5% of its housing, including most of the homes in Coffey Park and Fountain Grove. In September 2020 the Glass Fire reached the Skyhawk and Oakmont areas, where 26 damaged or lost properties had to be disconnected from the city water system.
Rebuilding has taken years. The city’s Housing Authority put $38.4 million in federal disaster recovery funds to work after the Tubbs Fire and has added 377 affordable homes, the last of them at Burbank Avenue Apartments in Roseland, which opened in October 2025. The fire also took the historic Fountaingrove Round Barn. In the Glass Fire areas, Santa Rosa Water sampled and flushed the damaged properties, and it reports that its distribution system was never damaged and never lost pressure, though two private water systems in the city were declared unsafe (Santa Rosa Water).
The fire risk hasn’t gone away. In the 2019 Kincade Fire, Sonoma County’s mandatory evacuation orders on October 27 included part of the city in Zone 6, which was listed as open again by October 30. The fire department has added two inspectors under Measure H (2024) to check defensible space on about 9,000 parcels in the city’s Wildland Urban Interface.
Water is the city’s other hazard. Santa Rosa Creek runs from Hood Mountain through town to the Laguna de Santa Rosa, fed by Brush, Matanzas and Piner creeks. After repeated flooding in the 1950s, Sonoma Water and the Soil Conservation Service built four detention reservoirs in the 1960s, including Spring Lake, which holds up to 3,735 acre-feet and has used its emergency spillway only once, in 1986 (Sonoma Water). Big storms still test the system. On November 20, 2024 the airport just north of the city logged 6.92 inches, its all-time daily record, and Piner Creek flooding on Industrial Drive shut Cleveland Avenue.
Permits & rebuilding
What permits does a Santa Rosa fire or flood repair need?
Usually a building permit. Santa Rosa requires one to repair, alter, demolish or change the occupancy of a building, and to replace any electrical, gas, mechanical or plumbing system, unless California Building Code Section 105 exempts the work. A single application can cover all four trades, and only licensed contractors or owner-builders can apply.
Lining up a Santa Rosa rebuild
- Book an in-person appointment with the Building Division at 100 Santa Rosa Avenue, Room 3, or call 707-543-3200; inspections can be scheduled at 707-543-3006.
- A residential alteration application needs a Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Verification form and a Water Conserving Plumbing Fixture form.
- Reroofing a house with solar? As of January 8, 2026, a reroof that removes and replaces the panels needs a plan of their layout and anchorage.
- In a special flood hazard, flood-related erosion or mudslide area, a development permit comes first, and a substantial improvement needs its lowest floor at least 1 foot above base flood elevation.
- Altering a house in one of the eight Preservation Districts goes before the Design Review and Preservation Board, which took over from the Cultural Heritage Board in March 2025.
Services in Santa Rosa
What does a Santa Rosa home need if smoke got in but flames didn't?
Cleaning, usually a lot of it. Soot settles on walls, ceilings and belongings, and the smell works into fabric and ductwork. We clean the surfaces, run odor removal, clean the attic if ash got in, and pack out contents that need cleaning elsewhere. If firefighting water soaked the house, we dry that too.
FAQ
Santa Rosa Questions
Do Santa Rosa's creeks still flood with the reservoirs in place?
They still can. Since the reservoirs went in, the USGS gauge on Santa Rosa Creek has logged 8,160 cubic feet per second on December 31, 2005 and 6,910 on October 24, 2021, and Brush Creek set its record of 2,480 in February 2025. FEMA’s newest map for the city, effective July 31, 2024, shows Zone AE with many regulatory floodway segments.
Who maintains the sewer lateral at a Santa Rosa home?
The property owner. City Code 15-04.035 makes the user responsible, at their own expense, for the entire sewer service lateral, its cleanouts and any backwater valve, all the way from the premises to the city sewer. The city may choose to make occasional repairs between the sewer and the back of the curb or sidewalk. From there, wastewater flows to the Laguna Treatment Plant.
Is Santa Rosa's tap water from the Russian River?
Mostly, yes. Santa Rosa Water buys it from Sonoma Water, which pumps it from wells about 100 feet below the riverbed, and two city groundwater wells add to it. Deliveries began May 24, 1959 through the 15.6-mile Santa Rosa Aqueduct to tanks near Lake Ralphine, and today about 6 billion gallons a year reach more than 53,000 homes and businesses.
Which RestoreX office serves Santa Rosa?
Our main office at 450 Lakeville St in Petaluma, about 17 road miles south of City Hall along US 101. That takes in all of Santa Rosa’s main ZIP codes, 95401, 95403, 95404, 95405, 95407 and 95409, in all four quadrants formed by US 101 and Highway 12. Call (844) 623-3946 with the address and whether it burned, flooded or leaked.
Nearby
What other cities around Santa Rosa does RestoreX cover?
Rohnert Park is the next city south on US 101, and Petaluma, where our crew is based, lies past it. We also cover Napa and, farther south in Marin, San Rafael. Each city has its own page with local floods and permits, and the phone line, (844) 623-3946, can confirm an address.
Talk to RestoreX
Fire, smoke or creek water in a Santa Rosa home?
Call (844) 623-3946. Our crew drives up from Petaluma.