Fire disaster hits 

home in CT

WOODSTOCK — In between classes at The Woodstock Academy Oct. 11, assistant football coach Greg Alexander stood in the hallway, watching the CNN coverage of the wildfires in California.

For many, it’s just another natural disaster in a short span of time: The water that inundated Houston, the wind that tore apart the United States Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and now, the fires that have ravaged the wine valley area of northern California.

Alexander knows that area of California well.

His hometown is Santa Rosa, one of the hardest hit areas.

“It’s pretty surreal,” Alexander said. “You see the block that you grew up on – all the houses are gone. The parks are gone, the elementary school that I went to is gone. You try to keep in touch with people at home and make sure everybody is OK and you begin to think, where do they go from here?”

Alexander is not sitting on the sidelines.

He and his wife, Megan, are putting together care packages including items such as hygiene products and clothing for a couple of designated families. They also hope to put together some general care packages that will be sent to shelters where those who have suddenly found themselves homeless now reside.

“If people want to help out, gift cards are great, clothes, or anything like that,” Alexander said. “As long as we’re collecting things, we’re going to ship boxes home.”

Alexander can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

“I’ve called my friends and they’re telling me that it looks like a war zone. There is nothing left. A lot of them are still in shock. Luckily, most of the people I’ve talked to, their family and friends are accounted for,” Alexander said.

Santa Rosa is about an hour north of San Francisco.

Alexander and his family moved to Santa Rosa when he was 3. He spent about 20 years in the city of approximately 175,000. He went to Santa Rosa Junior College where he played football in 2006-07 and later returned to coach after he graduated from the University of Hawaii.  

His parents were lucky.

They retired and moved to North Carolina a month ago.

His wife’s family still lives in Santa Rosa as do many of his friends.

The home where he grew up is no longer.

“A lot of my friends had just bought a house there and it’s gone. There are a lot of different emotions and memories. I can’t imagine what those people are going through,” Alexander said.

A friend sent him a photo of the street that he grew up on. He remembered it having 40-50 houses on it. “There’s nothing, nothing,” Alexander said.

Alexander said the threat of a wildfire is always there.

But, generally, those took place well to the south of Santa Rosa in the Los Angeles area.

There were some recent close calls, however.

Alexander recalled a recent fire, the “Valley Fire” in Middletown, Calif., about 90 minutes north that killed four in 2015 and was “pretty devastating.”

“In the city, though, you feel ‘insulated.’ You don’t think it will get to that point. Sure enough, it did. I think there was always a sense of, hopefully, this doesn’t happen to us, but you can’t control that,” Alexander said of dealing with a natural disaster like the one that has hit his hometown.

The effects of which may still not be fully evident.

“How do you pick yourself up and move forward? It seems insurmountable. Are they going back to work? Did their work(place) burn down? What are they going to do about income? Are they insured? There are so many different levels,” Alexander said.