‘At this stage of our lives, I don’t look forward to starting all over again.’--Richard Blue, 67 : A Year Later, the Agony Lingers in Baldwin Hills

Treva Russell spent last July 2 watching her life go up in smoke in the Baldwin Hills fire that destroyed 48 homes, damaged 18 others and left three people dead. She lost her house, two dogs, a cat and all her possessions.

Today, little more than a year after she fled her burning home, Russell is in New York on her first vacation since the devastation. She is joining a group in celebrating the restoration of the Statute of Liberty and hopes to return ready to renew her search for a new house outside the Los Angeles area. After much soul-searching, she and her husband, Howard, 66, decided they could not bear to return to the fire-singed lot on Don Carlos Drive.

“Emotionally and actually, we lost a lot up there,” Russell said. “I want to put this year behind me and start fresh.”

Hospitalized Four Times

Hospitalized four times for what her doctor said were stress-related problems brought on by the fire, such as phlebitis, Russell is one of several victims who have decided not to return to Baldwin Hills. It has been a hellish year for the entire neighborhood, but the problems have been hardest on the older residents.

“At our age, there’s no need to return to the scene of all that pain and suffering,” said Russell, 53, a former nurse whose husband is a retired traffic consultant. “I can’t move back there. We lost things that will never be replaced--trophies and ribbons and pictures. I can’t put a new foundation over those treasured things.”

For Geraldine White, 59, it has been an even more unsettling year. Her husband died in February after suffering a stroke. She has been living in a small apartment with her daughter and, because of her husband’s death, has had to reapply for a loan to rebuild her home on Don Milagro Drive.

She is finding that her age interferes with her ability to cope with the details of rebuilding.

“I tend to forget things,” she said. “There’s so much to keep track of.”

‘Gotten a Little Closer’

Despite the shocks, White said some good has come from the experiences of the past year. “I feel Baldwin Hills has learned something. We’ve all gotten a little closer. The neighbors have gotten to know each other.”

It took another older resident, Richard Blue, 67, almost the entire year to make the decision to rebuild his home on Don Felipe Drive, although his insurance is sufficient to cover the construction costs.

“At this stage of our lives, I don’t look forward to starting all over again,” said Blue, a retired systems engineer whose plans to begin a new business have been delayed by the turmoil. “I’m concerned that I may not live long enough to see my house completed.”

These stories are consistent with research findings in the literature on older adults in transition, said Cheri Anthony, a USC gerontologist. Older adults generally experience more trauma than younger adults at the loss of “contemplation items,” such as family pictures, brought about by catastrophes and the need to move, she said.

“For one thing, younger adults haven’t gathered as much to lose, such as possessions given to them by a dead spouse,” Anthony said. “They tend to value action-type objects that are replaceable.”

Not that the losses have been easy for any of the victims. For the residents of the largely black, upper-middle-class neighborhood that overlooks the city, it has been a frustrating year marked by delays in rebuilding and some squabbling over the future face of Baldwin Hills.

Some have had to relocate as many as four times because they did not anticipate the delays that they would encounter in dealing with insurance companies, banks, contractors and the city’s Building and Safety Department.

Robert Harder, assistant chief of the building agency, pointed out that the city has expedited the blueprint review process for Baldwin Hills, as was promised shortly after the fire. However, residents may have experienced difficulty getting their plans approved if they planned to build larger homes, as many of them did, said Norm Takafuji, plan check supervisor for the department.

70% Under-Insured

The primary reason for the construction delays was that nearly 70% of the residents were under-insured, said Charles Lewis, chairman of an architects group assisting the homeowners.

Pine skeletons of new homes fill what were once barren lots, signs that some progress is being made. On Don Carlos Drive, the street hit the worst, seven homes are almost finished, with 18 lots still vacant. Abbie Lou Word, a retired diesel mechanic, 83 and blind, hopes to move into his new home as soon as next week.

By comparison, in the Normal Heights area of San Diego, also ravaged by a brush fire last summer, 10 homes have already been rebuilt.

The best guess of most Baldwin Hills residents is that it will take another two years to fully restore the neighborhood. But even if all the homes are rebuilt, it is unlikely that the neighborhood will ever be the same.

For one thing, a joint task force of the American Institute of Architects and National Organization of Minority Architects, which formed to aid fire victims, has proposed that security gates be installed at the entrances to the area.

“It’s no guarantee against arsonists. The only thing you can do for that is keep the hillside clean,” Lewis said, “but it would make the neighborhood more secure.”

A Different Look

The new Baldwin Hills will look different, too. Most of the new homes are larger and have second stories. This has raised real estate values as well as the ire of some members of the Baldwin Hills Estates Homeowners Assn.

Real estate agent Lynwood Davis, who has sold property in the area since 1958, said the new construction has raised the value of the average home in the area by at least $13,000. The new, more luxurious homes being built will be worth about $330,000, compared to the $250,000 homes that they replaced.

The rise in real estate values, in turn, is attracting prospective white home buyers to the area.

“We’ve been seeing lots of people up here looking for houses--not just blacks and Asians,” Davis said.

In some cases, the addition of a second story has pitted neighbor against neighbor. One sued another for obstructing his view of the city. “My wife used to watch their kids,” the defendant said, “but we’ll never talk to them again.”

In another case, the homeowners association lost a lawsuit against Ima Jean Lawrence for allegedly violating the area’s conditions, covenants and restrictions by building a foot above the maximum 22 feet, association treasurer Joseph Gardner said. The association intends to appeal, he said.

“It doesn’t matter if it was one inch, one foot or two or three feet,” Gardner said. “It’s like any other rule. If you allow it to be circumvented, someone will build 10 feet higher. The whole neighborhood would turn into a hodgepodge of lean-tos and skyscrapers.”

$15,000 in Legal Fees

Lawrence and her son, Vincent Hollier, said they have already spent $15,000 in legal fees to fight the suit, which delayed construction on their new home for six weeks.

“The only people that made out in this thing were the lawyers,” Hollier said. “But we’re fighters from way back, and we’ll keep fighting if we have to.”

Also involved in litigation are 70 residents and insurance companies that are suing Pepperdine University, which owns the land where the fire was started.

Attorney James H. Davis, who is handling the bulk of the cases, has filed a motion in Los Angeles Superior Court to expedite some of the cases because of the advanced age of a number of the plaintiffs. State law allows plaintiffs over 70 years old to have their cases come to trial within 120 days instead of the average trial time of five years, Davis said.

Since last July, few new leads have been generated in the arson investigation. Police at the time received reports from witnesses who said they saw a man and woman get out of a white automobile to start the fire near La Brea Avenue. Police found road flares on the hillsides that they believe were used to started the fire.

“This is a really strange case,” Los Angeles Police Detective Hank Petroski said. “We usually have lots of people calling in with clues. It’s enough to make you wonder if it really was arson.”

A $35,000 reward is still being offered by the city and state for information leading to a conviction.