Home Sweet Home : Returning Means Joy, Sleep, Work, Happy Pets

At 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Henry Armenta and Lisa Acuna sat in their comfortable living room taking stock of things.

The two had been evacuated Monday from the Placentia home they share with Armenta’s family and had spent Monday night in a Red Cross shelter at Katella High School in Anaheim. Tuesday night about 10 p.m., they were told they could return home.

In the morning they fed their parrot, Chencho, which survived the ordeal inside a cage in the living room. And they arranged to pick up their black Labrador retriever, Lady, from the animal shelter where authorities had taken her.

They also threw away open containers of cereal and pancake mix that had been exposed to fumes from the fire at an Anaheim chemical plant. Now they were wondering what to do for breakfast. “When we opened the house, you could smell the fumes,” Acuna said. “I’m so hungry right now, but I’m afraid to eat.”

“Fast food (restaurants) are going to get a lot of business today,” she predicted.

Looking back on the experience of being evacuees, Acuna and Armenta agreed they were relieved to be home. Two days of being in the media spotlight had taken its toll.

“At first it was fun because we were trying to get on camera,” Acuna said. “But now we know how celebrities feel. When you were eating, the cameras would be right up in your face. And every time three (photographers) would leave, another three would come in.”

“It might have been better if we could have gotten extra clothes,” said Armenta, who, like Acuna, had left the house on Monday with only the clothes he was wearing. Acuna added, “I wouldn’t be caught dead like that here (at home); I sure wouldn’t want to be on TV.”

Earlier, their 12-year-old neighbor, Carlos Gonzalez, said he was relieved to find his family’s chickens and 20 wild cats alive in their backyard. Animal control officials had said the chemical fumes might be lethal to small animals, but Anaheim police said Wednesday night they had received no reports of dead pets.

Two blocks away, on La Jolla Street, Anita Romo also said she was glad to be home, but that it would take her several hours to clean the house she shares with her daughter, Lydia Perez. “It’s a relief, but boy, have we got cleaning to do. We have to wash all our dishes and cooking utensils and change our linens, and that’s what I’ve been doing. I started about 7 and I’m still washing,” she said at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Children Liked Shelter

She said her three grandchildren were sorry to leave the Katella High School shelter, where they had spent the last two days painting pictures and playing with other children at a day-care center set up by local volunteers. “The kids liked it because it was something different,” she said. “It was like going camping, because you could play with people you didn’t know and everybody was real friendly.”

Romo’s grandson, Robert Gomez, 9, came home with her Tuesday night. “He put on the television to watch the news, but he had run around too much and been too energetic,” she said. “It knocked him out. This morning he said that, since he was in such a situation, he deserved breakfast in bed, so I made him pancakes.”

Down the block at Pee Wee’s Market, owner Oscar Abreu said he had had to throw out large quantities of bread, tortillas, milk and vegetables. He also said business Wednesday had not been very good.

“I used to sell a lot of things in the morning, but this morning, nobody came in,” Abreu said through an interpreter. “A lot of people don’t know the store’s open.” He said he expected the market to be fully stocked again by today.

Slept Soundly

Across the Anaheim city line, Howard and Mary Curtiss said they slept soundly Tuesday night after spending the preceding three nights in the reclining bucket seats of their silver Toyota Corona, parked in the high school parking lot. “It was still better than sleeping on the cots (in the shelter). They were so low and so close that if the person next to you threw out his arm, it would hit you,” Howard Curtiss said.

Barbara Nickel, manager of Anaheim Royal mobile home park on State College Boulevard, where the Curtisses live, also was grateful to return home. “It was the most wonderful feeling to get back in my own bed,” she said. “And sleep? Boy, did I sleep! It was an experience, believe me.”

Nickel was surprised to find that someone had watered the flowers around the mobile home park’s recreation area and replaced the water in the swimming pool. Nickel said she assumed police who had been guarding the area were responsible.

Residents of the park were also glad to be together again after some had taken up temporary residence at the shelter and others had gone to stay with relatives and friends. “We’re a crazy bunch here, and we have a lot of fun. I think everybody missed that,” Nickel said.