Firestorm Victims Slowly Rebuilding Homes, Lives

The rusting form of a burned-out car, a naked hillside, blackened brick and barren lots remain a part of the landscape in a San Diego neighborhood laid waste by fire six months ago.

But amid the damage from the worst residential fire in city history, there are pockets of life.

Daily, construction workers can be seen swinging hammers, wielding power drills and saws, and mixing cement in a rebuilding effort of the ravaged Normal Heights neighborhood. The first trickle of fire victims returned to their rebuilt homes in time for Christmas.

Others await completion of home reconstruction or clearance of their blueprints by the city. Still others, discouraged by their loss or too old to start over, cleared their lots of debris and put the land up for sale.

“It’s going to take five years for the black to be gone, the bloom to return and the canyons to look pretty like they did,” said Kay Haines as she sat on a rented sofa in the living room of her rebuilt 1950s-style stucco home.

The nomadic existence that Douglas and Kay Haines endured after they lost their home ended on Christmas Eve.

Their new home, built with nearly $190,000 in insurance money and $50,000 of the couple’s own money, is surrounded by dusty lots once the site of majestic residences that commanded a view of the lush Mission Valley.

“This block was really beautiful. Now, it’s so barren, so desolate. It just makes me ill,” said Kay, a retired dental assistant. “I do believe that after awhile, I’ll feel like it’s home again but I don’t now. It’s just like being in a strange place.”

The couple’s new home is a duplicate of the Cliff Place house they lived in for 23 years before the fire.

“We had been remodeling since we’d been there. We had it just the way we wanted it, and poof! In five minutes, it was gone,” she said.

Restoration efforts are not confined to Normal Heights, the first of three arson fires in a week’s span last year that destroyed nearly 150 homes and damaged scores of others statewide. The loss totaled about $22 million.

64 Homes Destroyed

The June 30 firestorm in Normal Heights destroyed 64 homes, damaged 20 other homes and structures and caused an estimated $8.6-million in damage.

In the Los Angeles neighborhood of Baldwin Hills, three persons died in flames that incinerated 41 homes and damaged 25 others July 2. The damage: $6.8 million.

The Los Gatos area in Northern California was the site of a $7-million fire July 7 that leveled 42 homes, 18 of which were built without authorization. The blaze scorched 13,800 acres of mountains and hills in Santa Clara County and parts of Santa Cruz County.

Like the Haineses, seven-year Normal Heights residents Gwen and Bill Yontz rebuilt their home and moved in Christmas Eve. The two couples were the first of the more than 100 residents displaced by the fire to move back into the neighborhood.

“It still chokes me up to think about it,” Gwen Yontz said, recalling the sheet of flame that destroyed her home and possessions, including her mother’s antique china set and a Bible that was a family keepsake for generations.

Sam Angello, who lost his Spanish flattop style home in Normal Heights, is presiding over the rebuilding of his home, which he expects to complete in mid-March.

“To a degree, it’s been some fun rebuilding the house,” said Angello, a retired bank officer. “But it’s been traumatic . . . It seems like a period of your life that’s at a standstill until you get everything where it was.”

Several burned-out Normal Heights lots are for sale, including the lot owned by Hugh Hay, 82, and his wife, Ada, 81.

“Basically, they are in fairly good health, but there’s no way they could replace what they acquired over 59 years of marriage,” their son, Bruce Hay, said of the decision not to rebuild.

After settling with the insurance company, the elder Hays moved into a retirement home near their son’s home.

Bruce Hay said “only a few globs” were left of his parents’ home, classical piano, jewelry and antique and art collection.

During the salvage effort, Bruce Hay recalled his father standing among the ruins and saying, “There aren’t going to be any more termites, there aren’t going to be any more termites on this street.”

“What else do you say when there’s nothing else there?” the younger Hay said.

One good thing did come out of the fire, Bruce Hay said.

“My mother was really having problems with her memory. All of this turmoil has really brought back her mind and she’s a lot better,” he said.

Seventeen permits for reconstruction of demolished homes in Normal Heights have been issued and two have been completed. Twelve permits are pending, said Roger Taylor of the San Diego Building and Inspection Department. Another 17 permits have been issued for damage repairs, with 10 of those jobs completed.

Plans Reassessed

“Some people may be reassessing what they want to do, whether they want to stay in the neighborhood or move away,” Taylor said. “I anticipate that half of the houses will be rebuilt over the next few months.”

About 25% of the homes destroyed in Baldwin Hills are either being rebuilt or the owners are awaiting plan approval by the city, said Ozie Hunt, an aide to Los Angeles Councilwoman Pat Russell.

“We haven’t had any homes completed,” said Hunt, whose office arranged assistance for many of the 110 persons displaced by the Baldwin Hills blaze. “One is just about ready to go. We still have the (burned) foundations and chimney structures standing. It’s an unbelievable sight if you’ve been there before and knew the homes were there.”

Hunt said he knew of two Baldwin Hills fire victims who decided to move elsewhere.

“We didn’t run into too many people who were not willing to rebuild,” Hunt said. “They were just concerned that the necessary fire prevention be taken so that it doesn’t happen again.”

Fire-Retardant Foliage

Los Angeles officials are working with Pepperdine University, owner of the brush-covered hillside plot where the blaze started, to plant fire-retardant foliage.

The city and Pepperdine University were named in 156 damage claims, all of which have been rejected, said William Regan, an investigator for the Los Angeles city attorney. He said the claims likely would be consolidated into one court action.

The claims allege negligence on the part of the city and the university, which had been ordered to clear the brush from the hillside property, but then asked for and received an extension from the city to do the cleanup work, Regan said.

Like their counterparts in San Diego, Los Angeles firefighters were criticized by some residents for the way they handled the fire. The firefighting effort was analyzed internally and, “We are very satisfied with the way the firefighting end of it took place,” Los Angeles fire department spokesman Ed Reed said.

“You’ve got to remember (the fire) was very quick, very intense and there were so many homes involved that were a distance away from the point of origin, it did take a while to reach some of them,” Reed said.

Rebuilding in Los Gatos

Residents left homeless in the Los Gatos fire are gearing up for the rebuilding, said Angello Chancellor, fire inspector with the Santa Clara County Fire Protection District.

He said two permits have been taken out so far, but the rebuilding effort there has been complicated by the discovery that many of the destroyed structures were illegally built.

“Forty-two residences were destroyed, 18 of which were a complete surprise to just about everyone involved, including the assessor’s office,” Chancellor said. “No one knew they were up there.”

To speed up the rebuilding process, Santa Clara County planners waived some of the paper work to acquire a permit but not on-site requirements. Planners also added a water supply requirement to prevent a repeat of water supply problems experienced by firefighters who battled last summer’s blaze, Chancellor said.

All Normal Heights permit applications are given a red flag priority for processing, said City Councilwoman Gloria McColl, whose district includes Normal Heights.

Some Have Hard Feelings

Some residents, however, still have hard feelings toward the city and the San Diego Fire Department, claiming water pressure in the neighborhood was inadequate and that fire crews were not properly trained in fighting a canyon fire. The lack of air tankers to fight the fire also were blamed.

Those claims have been disputed by city officials, who on Nov. 25 rejected a $50-million claim filed on behalf of the fire victims by an attorney whose home was damaged in the fire.

Attorney Judith Abeles has six months from the date of rejection to file a suit. She said she plans to file the suit soon.

McColl denounced the planned suit as opportunist, and praised San Diego firefighters for doing “an outstanding job.”