Baldwin Hills Tragedy : A Street of Strangers--Tourists Ply Fire Site

Standing in the driveway of what had once been his home in Baldwin Hills, James L. Bennett watched Sunday afternoon as cars, one after another, slowly moved up and down Don Carlos Drive.

More than three months since the arson that destroyed or damaged 66 homes in Baldwin Hills last July 2, the devastated streets have become something of a tourist attraction.

For more than an hour early Sunday afternoon, expensive cars, compact cars and even motorcycles filed past at the rate of about one a minute. The 74-year-old Bennett called it a “slow day.”

Tour Buses

“I’ve been up here and seen tour buses go through,” Bennett said in a tone of voice that was part amused, part resigned. “I’ve spent the night up here and seen people coming through all night. The headlights wake me up.”

Residents such as Bennett had noticed the influx of visitors even before a second fire, also arson, struck the hilly enclave last Thursday and damaged six more homes. Some said they were touched by it, some mystified, and some angry.

Bennett often visits his property, he said, even though right now there is no more to see than a chimney, foundation rubble, blackened trees and a red lily that his wife once planted. It had survived and was blooming Sunday.

He and his wife are staying with their son in Inglewood until their home is rebuilt. “I come up here about three times a week,” he said, “to reminisce, and to cry.”

Other victims of the fire do, too, and while he was there Sunday, a neighbor, Polly McKinney, drove by with her 13-year-old daughter, Mary, to briefly look at their property.

“I do it all the time,” McKinney said quietly. Now renting a house in nearby View Park, she added, “This is my home and it makes me feel good to come back here.”

But now they share their street with strangers.

Most of Sunday’s drivers, several with three or four passengers, paused at the end of the street, where a wreath still commemorates Marie Gladden, one of three killed in the fire.

Photo Sessions

Occasionally, the visitors got out to take pictures of each other or to stare at the spectacular view of the city below.

A few, like Barbara Lang, said they live in Baldwin Hills. On this occasion, she was showing Don Carlos Drive to a friend from South Pasadena. But she had driven through before, she added, to remind herself how vulnerable all the residents of the area are to fire.

“It could have been me,” she said.

Hazle Mitchell of Los Angeles said she came because, “This is like a phoenix rising from the ashes. From this, people are going to rebuild, and I wanted to see it.”

A friend with her, Melvin Harris of Los Angeles, gazed out the car window and mused: “It looks like an ancient ruin.”

Some fire victims said they do not like the attention. Trevia Russell, who now lives with her husband and sons in a rented home in South Los Angeles, recently described the scene as “a circus, people just driving up and down the street. Some days I get so angry. Nobody came to help us when we were on fire.”

But McKinney said: “This is something people will never forget. I think it’s a way of expressing sympathy. “

Bennett doesn’t mind the gawking, he said: “Let ‘em look.” But some decorative rocks he owned had been stolen, he added.

Police Patrol

While a Los Angeles Police Department patrol car Sunday guarded the area where the homes struck in Thursday’s fire are located, the homes damaged or destroyed in the July blaze no longer receive special protection from vandals, according to Lt. Marion Helenkamp of Southwest Division.

A 13-year-old boy has been booked on suspicion of arson in connection with Thursday’s fire. The youngster, who had been playing with matches, according to a Fire Department spokesman, has been released to the custody of his mother pending a juvenile court hearing.

The July 2 fire is still under investigation. So far, three lawsuits--involving a total of 34 fire victims--have been filed against Pepperdine University, owner of the grass-covered property along La Brea Avenue where arson investigators believe the fire was started.

None of the homes have yet been rebuilt, and some of their owners said they found the financial burdens enormous.

“It’s been a very traumatic situation and I haven’t done anything yet because I don’t have all my money from the insurance company,” Nancy Kennedy said in a phone interview. Her home on Don Carlos was destroyed along with all possessions but a set of keys.

“They’re talking about $50 and more per square foot to rebuild, and then you have to think about furniture,” Kennedy, now living with her daughter in Palos Verdes, said. “That money you get from insurance has got to spread a long way.”

Record Spending

“I have never spent as much money as we have in the past couple of months,” Russell said. “We’re paying double expenses--I still have a mortgage and loans on the house that burned, and now we’re paying rent. And then we had to buy all new furniture.”

Bennett said Sunday he had learned that one neighbor across the street was not going to try to rebuild and was selling the lot as is. His own rebuilding plans would be delayed at least six more months, he said, before his financial arrangements are finalized.

Bennett has been trying to contact other neighbors to see if they could cut costs by using the same contractor, he said. But since people are scattered throughout different communities, he has been unable to locate them.