Looting incident reported in Poway

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Poway:

About 70 homes in The Grove, a Poway development, burned today. Fire flamed on both sides of the very large, one- to three-acre lots, with horse stables. It’s the same area where the Cedar Fire raged four years ago.

Steve Hooker, 50, an 11-year resident, pulled into his house 15 minutes ago and saw a large big-screen TV in the driveway. His sliding-glass door had been smashed with a huge rock and the house ransacked,. There was no power, and he doesn’t know what’s stolen. ‘We were just getting ready to get the hell out of here but wanted to let our neighbors know [about the looters].’

‘That’s got to be the lowest crime on earth, to take things from people when they’re already down.’

His neighbor, Rita Rast, lived here for 17 years with her husband Bob Rast. They packed their car but are going to hold out as long as can. They were drinking wine and eating cheese and crackers by candlelight in their darkened home. ‘We’re not looking for trouble and we’re not heroes, but we’re gonna stay,’ she said. Earlier this evening, she was upset as fire burned up the ridge toward about a half dozen multimillion-dollar hilltop homes. ‘Where are they? Why aren’t they doing something?’ she said, noting a lack of fire crews.

-- Robert Lopez