Santa Rosa ring restoration for fire victims, free of charge

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (KTVU) - Many victims of the North Bay Fires are finding wedding rings and other jewelry in the rubble of their homes. Some can’t be salvaged, but many can. And in Santa Rosa, Mark Allen jewelers is restoring them free of charge.

Inside the jewelry shop, a woman who lost almost everything in the firestor is getting back the one thing she was able to salvage, a ring given to her 20 years ago by her godmother.

It’s now perfectly restored.
     
"Now I have a ring to pass on," said Courtney Revel.
     
Revel's ring was blackened and charred when she found it in the rubble that was once her home near Mark West Springs Road.
    
But the 14-karat gold diamond ring with white gold settings looks like new, after Mark Allen Jewelers spent hours restoring it. 
    
"When she first brought it in i wasn't even sure what the metal was. It was completely black," said store manager Nate Auerbach.
    
Revel says she felt lucky just finding the ring among the charred wreckage.
    
"It's amazing. Your whole home is in ashes then in 20 minutes we find this ring. It was almost a sign of hope," she said,
     
Mark Allen jewelers has been able to put the shine back on about 20 pieces of jewelry that survived the fire and we’re in rough shape – all on the house. 
    
"This is one little thing we can do,” said Auerbach. “I'm thrilled just to help."
    
The restoration process includes a lot of painstaking shaving and grinding to get the debris off and an acid bath soak. 
     
"When we give it back to them and it looks almost brand new their reaction makes all the time we are putting into it worthwhile," said Auerbach.
      
For those who lost so much, stories of people helping in big and small ways means the world right now.
     
"People are giving what they can and helping what they can and I appreciate it. And I know a lot of other people do as well," said Revel.