A Step Ahead of the Flames and Only Time to Survive

Suddenly, time was their most precious possession. And there was precious little left, frequently not enough for mementos, photos, jewelry, even clothing.

In the face of Sunday’s firestorm, residents who fled the Parkwoods Apartments, a 433-unit complex off Highway 24, focused on one overriding fundamental--survival.

“Our whole family history is down the drain,” attorney Harold Friedman said Monday after talking with a State Farm insurance disaster team.

Friedman and his wife of 35 years, Renee, clutched a handful of family photographs, the only mementos of the couple’s penthouse in the Parkwoods. Friedman’s parents met and married in Oakland, where they had migrated after their family homes in San Francisco burned to the ground in the conflagration that followed the 1906 earthquake.

The Friedmans said their loss included Renee’s mother’s antique jewelry from Czechoslovakia and all the client files from Harold’s law practice. But they nonetheless considered themselves lucky. They, at least, were insured and healthy.

Gregg and Stephanie Chow joined a nearly gridlocked procession of panicky tenants attempting to escape from the apartment complex, which eventually was destroyed, by funneling through the narrow exit at the open end of a horseshoe-shaped canyon. At one point, the cars had to be halted so that fire engines could make their way in to fight the blaze.

By that time, the flames were beginning to lick at the cars. “We felt the heat of the fire,” Stephanie said. “It was so hot it felt as if the roof of the car was on fire.”

Fearing that they would be roasted in their car, the Chows decided to run for it. “A Caltrans worker put us in the back of his pickup and saved our lives,” Stephanie said.

As of midafternoon Monday, the 1,000-plus Parkwoods tenants had not been allowed by fire officials to return to the complex near the Caldecott Tunnel to sift through ruins in the hope that something--a diamond ring or an autographed baseball--that might have escaped incineration.

Most, however, assumed that all was lost, and they cringed at the thought of attempting to replace, without the assistance of insurance, clothes, books, sporting gear, furniture, cappuccino machines.

Gerry Karczewski and his wife, Carmel, said they had no time to gather extra clothes once they realized how near the fire was to their apartment.

“There was no alarm system,” said Gerry, an Oakland attorney. “We were lying in bed and heard some guy yell out to evacuate. We got up, threw on some clothes and by then the flames were right next to the building, just yards away.”

Carmel, a buyer for the Safeway grocery chain, said she remembered to pick up the album of photos from their wedding five months ago but forgot her two-carat diamond engagement and wedding ring. When she tried to return for it, the blaze drove her back.

The Karczewskis’ belongings were not insured. With tears welling up in his eyes, Gerry stood in the jeans, T-shirt, sneakers and 49ers cap he had escaped in, and looked at a six-page list of items presumably lost--a baseball card collection started when he was 7, several autographed baseballs, wedding gifts and pictures from their Caribbean honeymoon.

Tenants who phoned a Newport Beach number for Regis Management Co., managers of the complex, were told Monday that they could expect a refund of their security deposit and a portion of October’s rent. James Thomas, a Regis vice president, said the company planned to set up a temporary office in the area and post a sign at the Parkwoods site to tell tenants how to get refunds.