Charred wood and cinder blocks are all that remain of the Paradise Ridge Winery in Santa Rosa, California.

Jon Marbut is temporarily out of a job, but he has a roof over his head for now.

Marbut, a Salem native and 1979 West Limestone High School graduate, now lives in Windsor, California, about a 75-minute drive north of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Devastating wildfires are burning all around him, but he believes his home is in a safe zone for now.

He believed the family would have to pack up some belongings and evacuate Wednesday evening but decided to stay after a neighborhood meeting.

“There’s a little fire above us and one below,” he said by phone Thursday, adding the closest fire is about six miles away. “The big one seems to be over in Napa (Valley), but the winds are supposed to pick up Friday.”

He doesn’t believe the winds will be a factor today simply because the fires would have to cross a river, mountain and a city before it reached his neighborhood. Still, the smoke has been prevalent.

“It’ll dry your mouth out and burn your eyes, but it hasn’t been as bad today,” he said of the smoke.

Marbut and his wife are both nurses at Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital, which was evacuated and closed Monday. He received the call at 2:30 a.m. that morning and was told not to come to work.

The 3-year-old hospital was spared by the flames, but Marbut is more concerned about more than 50 co-workers. He said many of them lived within walking distance of the hospital. While the fire spared the hospital, it destroyed many of these co-workers’ homes.

“They’ve lost everything,” he said. “You can’t help them because you don’t know where they are. I just see their (social media) posts.”

Marbut’s family, which also includes his wife Samantha and 9-year-old twin daughters, did take in a couple they didn’t know. After Samantha saw a Facebook post from the couple stranded in the parking lot of the local Wal-Mart, the Marbuts provided shelter.

“(The man) had a lung disease. They lost their house and evacuated,” he said. “They’ve since left and went one county north.”

Marbut has lived in California for 16 years, but he’s never seen anything like the wildfires. Two family friends who live in nearby Santa Rosa lost their homes.

“There are some good folks who lost everything,” he said. “I don’t know why our home was spared.”

When asked when the hospital might reopen, Marbut didn’t know.

California life

Marbut received his nursing degrees from Northwest-Shoals Community College. He began his life in California, after the Memphis-based staffing agency he worked for asked if he’d be willing to relocate.

“The guy was very smart, because he ran his company from Memphis but charged San Francisco prices,” he said. “He pocketed the spread, which was about $25 per hour.”

At that time, the hospital was opening a new catheterization lab and was looking for employees to staff it.

“I liked it so much — and the folks out there — so I just stayed,” he said, adding he would be visiting West Limestone next month.

Marbut conceded, however, it will take a long time for the area he now calls home to recover.

“I enjoy it here, and we have a very good life here,” he said. “I’ve just never seen anything like this.”