Friendship Forged Neighbors’ Effort to Save Homes in Fire

Glenn and Merle Murphy were watching their young grandson play baseball Sunday afternoon when word came over a fellow spectator’s radio that brush fires had swept up a finger canyon and ignited houses on Panama Place--the quiet Normal Heights cul de sac where the Murphys had lived for more than 40 years.

By the time the couple crossed police and fire barricades to reach the short street that led to their house on the canyon’s edge, black smoke had engulfed the lane, obscuring their home, which was among the 47 homes destroyed Sunday. Four other homes were badly damaged.

For many Normal Heights residents, it was only a matter of time before they discovered a similar truth: That part of the quiet, handsome neighborhood where most of them had lived for decades had been destroyed, in what authorities said was the most destructive fire in San Diego’s history.

The brush fire, primed by hot weather, roared out of a steep canyon and burned a path through the neighborhood. In addition to the homes that were destroyed and damaged, hundreds of residents were evacuated.

It took more than eight hours, for firefighters to get the blaze 95% contained.

The Murphys, who ran Glenn’s Cafe on Adams Avenue for 30 years before they retired 10 years ago, had built their home in 1941. “A guy over on 34th had been wanting to buy it,” Glenn Murphy said shaking his head.

“This was the only hazardous thing about it,” Merle Murphy added.

The pair, in light summer clothes and matching white Padres baseball caps, didn’t know what they were going to do, or if they would rebuild.

“So many things are gone, the only thing we have left is what we got on,” Merle Murphy said.

Throughout the day Sunday, neighbors in this close-knit community of families and elderly people overlooking Mission Valley worked to save each other’s homes.

Those who were home along North Mountain View Drive, which sits above the canyon, hosed down the homes of people who were absent.

As Mike Shaw furiously watered down his home of 20 years he looked across the street in disbelief at the charred remains of at least 10 homes in the 3100 block of North Mountain View Drive, one of the hardest hit streets.

“They are my neighbors. I can’t believe it,” said Shaw, whose house, which sits on a canyon, was amazingly spared.

Shaw’s son, Brian, 20, was home when the flames rushed up the canyon and burned their wood deck overlooking Interstate 8. But a gust of wind caused the blaze to leap over their home, leaving it virtually untouched, and burn the homes across the street.

“I was hosing down our house and those,” said the younger Shaw as he pointed to the 3100 block of North Mountain View Drive. “The fire just came up the canyon and burned those houses in a matter of minutes.”

Marie VanDyke and her brother David Swearga, both in their 80s, share a house on Panama Place, along the canyon rim. They were eating lunch at about 12:15 p.m. when they saw the flames and thick smoke.

“We were so happy, just having a nice lunch, thanking the Lord,” Swearga said. Police evacuated them before they had a chance to gather any belongings, he said. “We think our house is gone, all our clothes, our beautiful furniture, our jewelry.”

“The neighborhood went so fast. It seemed like everything was on fire. They took us out and sparks were flying about,” VanDyke said.

Amy Vonjenef managed to rescue her photo albums and fur coat when she had to evacuate at about 1 p.m. But soon after, she made her way back to her house, sneaking through backyards where neighbors helped her climb fences.

“I used to be afraid of climbing a ladder, but I was up and down hosing the roof,” Vonjenef said. “I ran in the house to page my roommate at the fair and three minutes later, when I came out, the house across the street was in a blaze.”

By 4 p.m. four houses across the street were destroyed.

Down the street four elderly women milled in front of their house.

The flames that destroyed houses across the street had ignited a palm tree on their lot and sent blazing fronds onto their driveway, smashing their car’s rear window and charring the white paint.

But the four sisters--Clara, Florence, Ann and Mary Romano and Florence Ballantine--wouldn’t leave the property where they had lived for 35 years.

Clara Romano, who evacuated with the deed to the house earlier in the day, returned with her sisters to find young men hosing off the roof of their home.

“The young fellas were hosing it off, but the fire department said they better quit because of the water pressure,” Romano said.

Across the street, firefighters were hosing down hot spots where only archways and chimneys marked the site of three houses now gone.

Close by, Virgie and Robert Hanby were trying to get to their home on 35th Street. They had rushed back from Long Beach Sunday afternoon, only to be told by police that they would not be allowed to enter the house.

“I hope my daughter got my pictures out of the house,” said Virgie Hanby, who has lived in the home for 44 years. “She called me in Long Beach and said ‘don’t panic, mom, but the canyon is on fire.’ ”

Stevin Henderson was driving from Hillcrest when he saw the plume of smoke.

“I virtually ran here because they wouldn’t let me drive in here,” said Henderson as he watered down the roof and windows of his house on West Mountain View Drive. “This is everything I’ve got. I (already have) lost my job, (and) my lover.”

Using an ax and a shovel, David Brister tore a hole in the roof of his mother’s house, on the 3100 block of North Mountain View Drive, to douse the fire smoldering in the attic.

“It happened so fast,” Brister said. “The chunks of embers were flying over here from across the street . . . I couldn’t see 30 feet in front of me.”

“I could see the smoke as I was rushing home from work,” said Doris Pulvers, whose 35th Street home abuts the canyon. “And as I got closer, I could see just how close the flames were.” Her garage was gutted, but firefighters successfully fought to save her house as she looked on from the corner.

“I already cried and I’ll cry later, but I got my pictures,” she said.

Times Staff Writer Lorena Oropeza contributed to this story.