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After the fire

Jerome "Joe" Wier, 88, smokes his briar pipe and looks out at what used to be his 5,500-square-foot ranch-style home in Poway in San Diego County. The house, which he built himself, was lost in the October wildfires.

Jerome “Joe” Wier, 88, smokes his briar pipe and looks out at what used to be his 5,500-square-foot ranch-style home in Poway in San Diego County. The house, which he built himself, was lost in the October wildfires.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

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Pipe

Joe Wier is planning his new house, vowing to improve on the last one. “I’m visualizing things,” he says. “I take this as a challenge.” Fire took his and his wife’s home, and all their possessions, the night of Oct. 21.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Kiss

Marion Wier, 80, still dotes on Joe after 58 years of marriage, even as she needles him about being a tightwad and stubborn. Time is the enemy as they plan their home. “Remember the hummingbirds we had here, Joe?” Marion asks. “Oh, sure, nature will rejuvenate itself in a few years. But we don’t have a few years, Joe. That’s the sad part.”  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Shadows

The Wiers walk across the empty lot where their house once stood in Poway. These days they live in a rental house with their daughter and grandson.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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