Firefighter loses home to Glass Fire, community steps in to help

SANTA ROSA, Calif. - In his 15 years with the Santa Rosa Fire Department, Capt. Michael Musgrove isn't sure how many homes he helped save from wildfires, only that it's a lot.

"Over the years I'd have to say in the thousands," he says.

But neither Musgrove nor anyone else could save his home on St. Helena Road in rural Santa Rosa from the Glass Fire last week. It is a home he had owned for exactly two days.

"This loss, I have a lot of anxiety. I'm at a loss of what to do," Musgrove says.

Much of that is because he had no fire insurance. On Monday our main focus was to get fire insurance. But Sunday is when it happened," he said.

All this is occurring around the anniversary of the death of his daughter Olivia who died unexpectedly last year at the age of 20.

When the fire struck, Musgrove and his crew were in Oakmont, helping seniors evacuate and then helping protect other homes from the wildfire.

For Musgrove, it is the loss of a dream.  He and two other families, including his brother, had bought this 37- acre spread with three houses on it, in a foreclosure sale. It even had a few grapevines.

The plan was to return to the land with his teenage daughter.

"We were there to support each other and build a community. Raise our own animals, pigs, cows, goats, sheep. Grow our own vegetables. That was the dream."

But as he looked at the destruction his heart began to sink.

"As we walked through what was going through my mind was what is it going to take to rebuild. What it's going to take to rebuild the structures. Put the grapes back in. Put up the barn. And still, have that dream that seemed to be kind of slipping away," he said.
Musgrove now has a Gofundme page aimed at raising  $750,000.