Families Almost Lost Homes Again--This Time to Park Fire

Lori Capobianco was driving home when the news came over the radio: A brush fire was raging through parts of Featherly Regional Park in Yorba Linda, forcing about 200 people from their campsites.

“The thought of losing my home a second time was a little frightening,” Capobianco said Saturday, standing in front of the tents where she, her boyfriend and 6-year-old daughter have lived since April. “Can you imagine driving home and hearing on the news that your house was on fire?”

Frightening Reminder

All but one campsite escaped damage in the Friday afternoon fire, and park officials allowed people to return to the sites that evening. But for the estimated 50 to 75 people who live in Featherly Park, a gathering place for the homeless, the blaze that came within 40 or 50 feet of some campsites was a frightening reminder of the hazards that accompany their life style.

Sheriff’s Department officials cruised the campsites about 2 p.m. Friday, telling people they had two minutes to pack their belongings and get out of the park.

“Tents, air bags, everything--we just chucked it all in the trunk,” said Keith Cook, who has been staying at Featherly off and on for several weeks with two friends. “We looked like the Beverly Hillbillies.”

Waited 5 Hours

The evacuees spent about five hours under the freeway overpass at Gypsum Canyon Road before they were allowed back in the park. Firefighters contained the blaze about 9 p.m., after it had scorched about 200 acres, and they were on the scene again Saturday monitoring the smoldering brush. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

The 700-acre Featherly Park, which borders the Riverside Freeway between Weir Canyon and Coal Canyon roads, includes 128 campsites. The campsites, scattered among buildings containing bathrooms and showers, cost $10 a day for a maximum of 15 days. After that, visitors go home and the others move on to another campground.

The campsites of the people who live there are distinguished by touches of home: an iron on a picnic table, clothing hanging from makeshift lines strung between trees, and suitcases in the back seats of cars.

Most residents in the park avoid describing themselves as homeless. Claude Wyman, who has a truck-driving job in Santa Ana, said he is staying in parks for a few weeks to save money.

Wyman and a friend arrived at their campsite about 9 p.m. Friday and found their belongings packed by the side of a campground road. Wyman, unaware there had been a fire, stormed to the campground office and demanded an explanation.

“You come back and see your whole house disrupted, you get pretty mad,” Wyman said Saturday, sitting on a log in front of his car. “The sheriff’s people had moved it all, trying to save the stuff.”

Wyman’s campsite was among the closest to the blaze, perhaps 50 feet away. He spent part of Saturday reorganizing his area, placing laundry baskets back on a cement bench and stashing other items in the trunk of his maroon car.

“They had five crews patrolling all night long,” he said, glancing at a nearby slope dotted by blackened tree stumps and blanketed by pale gray ash. “We didn’t really notice how much had burned until this morning.”

Across the way, Wayne Blanas, Brenda Starner and Frank McClane sat in the shade of a tree and recounted what happened during the fire.

When a sheriff’s deputy sounded the two-minute warning to evacuate the park, Starner said she threw suitcases, food and a cooler into the car and jumped in the front seat.

“And the car wouldn’t start,” she said.

Meanwhile, Blanas said, the fire “was towering over the trees.”

“It would snap,” Starner added. “That bamboo was snapping.”

Eventually, the car started and they were able to leave the park. But on Saturday, all but one bathroom was without showers because the firefighters used up all the water fighting the blaze, Starner said.

The three said they are on their way to Lake Elsinore this week when their 15 days at Featherly are up.

Capobianco, whose campsite is next door to Starner’s, is also preparing for a trip. She and her daughter, evicted from their last apartment, are going to Rhode Island to live with Capobianco’s parents.

“I’m going to get my Barbies back,” Heather said. “They’ve been in storage.”

But the family with whom Capobianco shares a campsite will be remain at the campground. The Daniels family was at the beach when the fire started, so they missed all the excitement, said 14-year-old Chris Daniels.

Chris explained that his family ended up at Featherly after someone reneged on a promise to get them a house. Chris, his parents, a 13-year-old sister and their dog have been living in parks for about two months.

“Until Mom and Dad get up enough money,” Chris Daniels said, “we’re here.”