No doubt North Bay will get back up

Editor’s Note: The following is a note of condolences to sports editor John Jackson from Petaluma High School assistant football coach John Crudo, a San Francisco Police Officer. He begins with words of condolence and support for the reporter and continues to put the size of the North Bay fire tragedy in perspective.

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I was one of hundreds of San Francisco Police Officers who signed up to work in Santa Rosa and assist in any way we could. As you know, police officers and deputies from around the state and firefighters from across the nation are rallying to offer aid and comfort in our communities struggling because of this catastrophe. Rick Krist’s (Petaluma High School head football coach) son, Robert, is among them as a volunteer firefighter. For first responders, this is almost instinctive. It’s easy. It’s the mission for which we all signed up: to help people in need. The ever-present PG&E workers deserve credit, too.

They are out in significant force, working in harsh and sometimes frightening conditions, to clear up electrical and power hazards and restore some normalcy. But it is people like yourself - the victims, the displaced, the grieving - who are truly heroic.

In truth, I was shocked by the devastation I saw.

Words … photos … cannot describe the utter destruction. It is difficult to truly grasp. If I responded to a fire that totally destroyed one, let alone two homes, I would reference that as tragic. To see entire blocks and subdivisions and neighborhoods wiped out raises this devastation to an order of magnitude that must approximate combat.

I only point this out to provide context. The people of Santa Rosa are amazing. More and more accounts are coming to light of neighbors risking their own lives to save their neighbors or protect their neighbors’ property or animals. In the aftermath, I was caught off guard by the resolve and cheer of the people who have been so harshly affected. I fully expected, and would understand it, to be a point of displaced anger, fear and frustration. You get used to some of that in our line of work. I found the people incredibly generous and appreciative of us, offering to share what they had with us. It was not uncommon for an officer to escort someone to a home that had been destroyed, and then have that resident, who had lost everything, offer the cop some comfort in the form of a bottle of water or a snack.

Residents waiting in line for hours for the remote possibility that they would be allowed into a restricted zone to check on property or look for a lost pet treated our officers similarly. When one of our checkpoint vehicles ran out of gas, evacuees provided the officers with gas before we could get it to them. People of the community dropped off baked goods, food, coffee at the command post. People carrying the weight of so much fear and loss smiled at us, waved to us, thanked us, helped us.

The grace and spirit of the community in the face of this pain was truly uplifting, and your article reflects that spirit.

Just to bring this to sports for a moment, it is as Vince Lombardi said, “It is not whether you get knocked down, it is whether you get up.” The SFPD uniform logo features a phoenix rising from the ashes; it is the symbol of San Francisco, representing the resurrection of the City following the 1906 earthquake and fire. Yesterday, there were leaflets distributed that read “From the ashes, we will rise.” The heroic spirit of courageous, selfless, and resolute people is inspirational; such spirit will be a necessary commodity in the challenging days ahead. From what I’ve observed, I have no doubt the North Bay will get back up.

John Crudo

Petaluma