Elsinore Homes Saved as Flames Scorch Fences

Ray Hohmberg and a friend watched from the roof of his mother’s Lake Elsinore house Wednesday night, armed only with a garden hose to fend off an approaching firestorm that had made its way over the mountains.

Defying evacuation orders, the pair sprayed the roof wherever they could, hampered by low water pressure, and watched as backfires set by firefighters eventually subdued the encroaching flames within a few feet of the neighborhood.

“I kept thinking, ‘What a way to go,’ ” Hohmberg said Thursday. “At one point my friend said, ‘Let’s go now.’ I was ready to agree with him.”

Residents of Quail Knoll, a quiet street overlooking Lake Elsinore in Riverside County, cleaned up Thursday after firefighters contained the eastern edge of the 7,500-acre Ortega fire raging through Cleveland National Forest.

Although some back-yard fences were singed and many homes showered with ashes, residents were spared the degree of destruction found in nearby Decker Canyon, where the two-county blaze destroyed six $200,000 homes.

Susan Davis, a Quail Knoll resident, said the fire had been 12 miles away at 1 p.m. Wednesday, but by 4 p.m. was threatening the street, ultimately making its way to her back-yard fence.

“Fire gives you the most helpless feeling in the world,” Davis said, surveying the blackened slopes behind her house. “If there’s a flood, you go higher, but with fires you’re at the mercy of the wind. Until it affects you, you can’t understand the terror.”

Spot fires continued to burn on the mountains above Lake Elsinore, and the city’s 15,000 residents kept a watchful eye throughout the day. From Ortega Highway to Corydon Street, residents evacuated Wednesday from the western side of the lake.

Evacuees were allowed back by 9 p.m., but some did not go home until Thursday morning.

When Davis returned, she found a scarred back fence, ashes in her above-ground pool and burn marks in a patio carpet. Footprints of firefighters were also visible on a slope of the back yard, evidence of their successful effort to save the house.

Relieved that the fire spared their homes, several residents praised firefighters for their quick actions. Fire trucks were parked at every home during the night, they said, with crews ready to pounce on rekindled flames.

Fire is a constant threat for those who live in Lake Elsinore, residents said, although this is the first time any could remember flames coming so close to homes. The city and lake are nestled between dry mountains and Interstate 15.

“It’s like living on an ocean and having a storm come in,” said city spokesman Dick Watenpaugh.

When residents got the word to evacuate, they had little time to gather possessions. Davis said she had trouble figuring out what to take.

“My husband was angry because I forgot his toothbrush,” she said.

Others just took the children and pets and fled.

“If it goes, it goes,” Sally Carlson said of her home as she stood next to a charred field behind her neighbor’s back yard. “You take what you can’t replace and hope for the best.”

Residents of normally peaceful Quail Knoll said the smoke was thick. At one point, said Myrtle Lane, “You couldn’t see the houses across the street.”

Lane, who commutes 103 miles a day between Lake Elsinore and her job at Rockwell International Corp. in Newport Beach, was able to joke after flames were extinguished within 30 feet of her back yard. “Oh, well, that’s why I carry insurance,” she said.

Residents said the mountain view that had attracted them to the neighborhood has now lost all signs of life.

Gail Schmutz, a former Tustin resident, moved to Lake Elsinore for the “country atmosphere” and to get away from smog and freeway congestion.

“This is the price you pay for living here,” she said, armed with a cloth to clean the house of its fine film of ash.

The threat of fire was still prevalent Thursday. Smoke loomed over the mountains and helicopters continued dropping water on the last stubborn flames.