Nudist mecca Harbin Hot Springs still rebuilding after Valley Fire, two years later A look at how businesses rebuild, and how long the Wine Country Fires recovery may take

Harbin Hot Springs is still under construction after the Valley Fires in 2015. The property has undergone plenty of progress since it first burned down and the staff is looking to reopen its pools in 2018. Harbin Hot Springs is still under construction after the Valley Fires in 2015. The property has undergone plenty of progress since it first burned down and the staff is looking to reopen its pools in 2018. Photo: Courtesy Harbin Hot Springs / John Hoey Photo: Courtesy Harbin Hot Springs / John Hoey Image 1 of / 35 Caption Close Nudist mecca Harbin Hot Springs still rebuilding after Valley Fire, two years later 1 / 35 Back to Gallery

The deadly Valley Fire struck Lake County in 2015, but the memories linger after two years, and the recovery and rebuilding process that the popular clothing optional resort faced illustrate the long journey ahead for businesses destroyed in this year's Wine Country fires.

When fast-moving wildfires broke out last week, the staff of Harbin Hot Springs was on edge, carefully monitoring their phones for an evacuation notification.

"It was a week of no sleep," said Harbin Hot Springs' lead manager, Eric Richardson. "Very few people could sleep, because we would be getting these text alerts that would tell you whether to evacuate — so it's hard to sleep when you're waiting on these alerts to show up or not."

Middletown, where Harbins Hot Springs is located, was sandwiched between the Tubbs and Pocket fires. Some residents chose to heed an advisory evacuation that did eventually hit. The new fires split staffers into two reactionary camps: Some kicked into high gear and looked into protecting newly constructed areas of the retreat, hosing down various areas. Others just couldn't imagine going through losing a home again, or the prospect of couch surfing for months, according to Richardson.

"Emotionally, everyone was on edge," Richardson said. "People were triggered by memories of two years ago."

As of this writing, both the Tubbs and Pocket fires are nearing containment and are not seen as a current threat to Harbin; both fires reached within 10 miles of the springs, according to a Cal Fire map.

The news that the latest fires wouldn't affect the decades-old property was a relief; the springs are still in the middle of recovering from the Valley Fire. The space that housed workshops, massage studios — Harbin is credited with creating Watsu, a type of aquatic massage — and served as a relaxing space for its guests, was just one of almost 2,000 structures that was destroyed back in 2015.

The Chronicle caught up with the staff in 2016, one year into the rebuilding project. At the time, Sajjad Mahmud, senior vice president of Harbin, told the paper that in the aftermath of the fire "what we're doing, as they say in the cliche, is taking one day at a time."

"The mother ship was destroyed," said Mahmud. "We had so many people coming from so many places. There's been a great sense of dislocation."

Speaking on the more-recent fires Thursday, Mahmud said dealing with the possible evacuations felt like a sort of post-traumatic stress after dealing with the Valley Fire.

"When I take a look at the pictures now for Santa Rosa and Napa, it's exactly the same — that's what we experienced," Mahmud said. "And so we just feel so much for what's taking place right now with these fires."

Rebuilding

"The emotional impact (following the fires) was very, very heavy in the sense that we had 250 staff members which were dispersed overnight because our facilities were closed," Mahmud said.

"A lot of people had property in Harbin Springs ... we had almost an ecosystem, a lot of people had made Middletown their home because of Harbin Springs. And then we had the larger community of San Francisco and the greater Bay Area and all over the world, and so we lost everything. So I think the effect was pretty strong emotionally."

In the month after the fire, Richardson recalled returning to the site of Harbin as "surreal."

"We had to visit the property with dust masks, or specialty masks," Richardson said. "That was a surreal experience to see this area that was a vibrant community and cultural center reduced to a very small footprint. We realized there was so much that went on in this tiny little area; the fire kind of took away all of the obstacles of getting a sense of the size of the space.

"It was disorienting because the landmarks are gone, and everything just felt small," he added.

About 90 percent of the structures at Harbin were lost, by Mahmud's account, and construction began five months after the fire struck, once the debris was cleared.

The path to completing the construction hasn't been straightforward, according to Mahmud and Richardson, but the group is taking the process in stages. The buildings are now being built to suit codes and requirements that weren't in place when the last structures were put in place. The new pools are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. New electrical work was done, as well as new drainage for the site.

All of this progress now leading up to what the group has focused on as the first phase: the opening the spring-fed pools open for day use and camping.

For Mahmud, at least, seeing the pools open again will be a sign that the springs have made a comeback. Harbin's loyal guests are waiting for that day as well.

"Our guests have shown incredible support for us, incredible interest in getting us open," Richardson said. "They send us letters, emails all kinds of support to let us know that they still care — even if Harbin won't look the same."