Fire Victims Return to Pick Up the Pieces

A wind-whipped fire that blackened 3,200 acres of brush and charged through a northern San Fernando Valley neighborhood came to a smoldering end Saturday while many of the residents whose homes were destroyed or damaged returned to pick through the rubble.

The scenes that often accompany a fire disaster of this magnitude--public displays of grief, the mobilizing of social services--were mostly absent. In this solidly upper-middle-class neighborhood of Porter Ranch, residents had little need of public help.

“We lost a lot, but we saved ourselves,” said Tom Hillman, an employee of Pacific Bell whose home was destroyed. “That’s all that’s important.”

‘They Had Insurance’

“People who were involved in this fire had a lot of friends, family they could turn to,” said Red Cross worker Penny Williams, who was posted at the almost-deserted disaster shelter set up by the agency at nearby Temple Ahavat Shalom. “They had insurance.”

Some families did turn to the temporary shelter Friday for emergency kits of toiletries, sandwiches or, in a few cases, treatment for smoke irritation and eye inflammation. But only two families took up the Red Cross’ offer of free accommodations at the Airtel Plaza at Van Nuys Airport. None used the food and clothing vouchers or the emergency rental allowance the agency makes available.

The fire, which gutted 15 homes and damaged 25 others as it swept from Granada Hills to Porter Ranch early Friday, moved northward into the rugged Limekiln Canyon in the Santa Susanna Mountains where it was contained by 2:30 p.m. Saturday, authorities said.

Santa Ana winds that had gusted up to 70 m.p.h. Friday and pushed the fire into the Porter Ranch neighborhood, where many homes are in the $400,000 range, had calmed considerably Saturday, giving firefighters the break they needed to trap it inside a fire line dug by hand crews and tractors, authorities said.

Like many residents whose houses were devastated, Hillman and his wife, Sandy, found that unexpected pockets of possessions had survived as they picked through the debris Saturday. Even though the downstairs of their house was a charred ruin, a cedar hope chest there somehow made it through with little damage. Inside, Hillman found pictures of himself as a boy and of his children. “I didn’t even know they were in there,” he said with a smile.

Recipes Discovered

A friend of the Hillmans, Linda Pogachik, suddenly cried out, “Sandy, look at this,” as she dug through the kitchen wreckage. “I found your recipes.”

“You know,” said Sandy Hillman, “that was one of the things I was thinking about at 2 this morning. Maybe now we’ll have Christmas cookies.”

In the the Grosslight family’s home, which was likewise destroyed, Gary Grosslight walked through the collapsed walls and wreckage to find a wooden dining room cabinet upright and intact. Inside, seemingly undamaged, was the family china, silver and pewter.

“I have no idea how that happened,” he said, shaking his head.

Grosslight, who heads a plumbing supply office, moved his family from San Diego just three months ago. “We still have a house down there we are trying to sell,” said his wife, Felicia. “If only that had burned instead.”

Their son, Casey, 17, gloomily dug through the debris of his room, hoping to salvage his CD player and golf clubs. He did not even try to reclaim any of his baseball card collection. “I think he had about 4,000 of them,” said his sister, Jennifer, 14. “It is so sad.”

Art Rocco first heard of the fire when a neighbor reached him in Hawaii where he had taken his family on vacation. They arrived Saturday at 3 a.m. to find the house a total loss.

“I guess I can look forward to a substantial reduction in my house taxes,” he said as Los Angeles County Tax Assessor John Lynch walked up his driveway to explain how to file a calamity claim.

His neighbor, Cammie Edwards, said she wished that her badly damaged house had burned completely to the ground.

“I got out the basic things that I wanted,” she said. “The pictures of the kids, things like that. Everything else could go. I’m not too materialistic.”

‘Rather Started From Scratch’

Now, however, there is the massive cleaning and repair job ahead. “I don’t know if we could ever get all the smoke smell out. All the water damage, the smoke damage. I would have rather started from scratch, from the beginning.”

Thirty-six of the homes destroyed or damaged by the fire are located along two blocks of Beaufait Avenue, on a ridge above Aliso Creek.

Cautioning that hot embers could still ignite smaller blazes, city and county fire departments said they will keep firefighters on patrol in the smoldering area, looking for flare-ups throughout Saturday night and today. An investigation of the cause of the fire is also continuing.

Earlier Saturday, with the fire drifting away from populated areas, the nearly 1,000 firefighters amassed Friday to battle the fast-moving blaze were sent home, replaced by about 300 fresh firefighters.

“It’s down to just smoldering,” said county Battalion Chief Jerry Meehan, his eyes weary after nearly 36 hours directing crews on the fire line, a trench dug deep enough and wide enough to stop the blaze. “We stopped it. I think I’m going to catch up on some sleep now.”

In its final advance into Limekiln Canyon, the fire briefly threatened Southern California Gas and Getty Oil installations nearby but moved by all structures and equipment on the properties without damaging them, authorities said.

Fire officials credited the cooperation of county and city fire departments along with departments from Ventura County and as far south as Santa Fe Springs with helping to avoid a larger disaster.

“We feel bad that we did lose some homes,” Meehan said. “We wished we could have stopped it, but with these winds it was tough.”

Fire officials upgraded the estimate of damages to $4.3 million but conceded even that estimate is conservative. Fire Department Inspector Ed Reed said the losses were based on replacement costs, not the actual market value of the destroyed or damaged homes.

2 Sought for Questioning

Two men being sought for questioning by arson investigators had not been located Saturday, authorities said.

The fire began about 4:30 a.m. Friday just south of the Sunshine Landfill near Granada Hills, fire officials said. The two men being sought for questioning were seen walking on a road from the landfill at about the time the fire was reported. Authorities said the men were not suspects but were being sought because they may have seen something that will help investigators.

The exact cause of the fire might not be known for several days, Reed said.

Third Fire in Week

The blaze was the third fire whipped by Santa Ana winds that destroyed homes in the Los Angeles area last week, prompting Gov. George Deukmejian to declare a state of emergency. The other two fires occurred Thursday in Baldwin Park and the La Verne area, leaving 22 homes destroyed and nine others damaged.

Outside the Porter Ranch neighborhood Saturday, police and city parking officers set up a roadblock to steer away the outsiders and sightseers who had come to gawk at others’ misfortunes.

Motorists and pedestrians were required to show proof they lived on Beaufait Avenue in order to go there. Repairmen, contractors and insurance agents had to be escorted by residents to gain access to the street or show proof they had appointments with residents.

“We are only allowing people in who have legitimate business there,” said Police Sgt. Hans Rollenhagen. “No sightseers. No people trying to make business off of these people.

“Unfortunately, we have had a lot of people who just want to come in and see other people’s pain. Those are the kind of people we are running off.”