2 New Quakes Jolt North Coast : Destruction: Fire razes Scotia’s only shopping center. More Ferndale homes are knocked off foundations by aftershocks. Damage is put at $40 million.

Two mighty aftershocks Sunday slammed a Northern California coast already reeling from a major earthquake, triggering fires and finishing off some of the homes and buildings that had survived the first jolt.

Just as they started to pick themselves up from Saturday’s 6.9 shaker, residents in the tiny lumber and farming towns of Ferndale, Petrolia and Scotia found themselves battered anew by 6.0 and 6.5 quakes within a few hours of each other early Sunday morning.

Throughout Humboldt County, a remote coastal area of redwood trees and lush hillsides, 88 people were treated at hospitals for mostly minor injuries that included broken bones and cuts. By late Sunday, all but nine had been released, said Sheriff David A. Renner.

The main quake was centered Saturday about 35 miles southeast of Eureka, near the farming community of Petrolia. Sunday’s two aftershocks--a 6.0 at 12:42 a.m. and a 6.5 at 4:18 a.m.--were placed 20 miles west southwest of that, in the Pacific Ocean. Both aftershocks were felt as far away as San Francisco, 200 miles south. Officials said the temblors were among more than 40 aftershocks registering more than 3.0 in magnitude.

Gov. Pete Wilson declared the area a state of emergency.

Much as the main quake had done, Sunday’s aftershocks knocked Victorian-era houses off their foundations, toppled chimneys throughout the area, cracked one bridge and jostled residents from slumber, sending them fleeing into the streets.

In Petrolia, Pete Cook, an out-of-work logger, watched in dismay as the home he had built 30 years ago with his father inched a little farther off its foundation with each movement of the Earth. When the last aftershock came, the house was knocked completely onto the ground.

“I’ve been in a lot of earthquakes in this area, but this is the worst one in my lifetime,” Cook said. His home, he said, has “got a lot of sentimental value.”

In Scotia, a picturesque company town owned by the Pacific Lumber Co., the first aftershock sparked an electrical fire that destroyed the only shopping center. A grocery store, hardware shop, pharmacy and coffee shop--virtually the town’s entire business district--were burned to the ground. The lumber mill across the street was spared.

Firefighters, hampered by a lack of water in the hydrants because of a ruptured water main, watched helplessly as flames shot 100 feet in the air and engulfed the stores. Eventually, they were able to draw water from a nearby pond, but it was too late.

Mary Bullwinkel, who works for Pacific Lumber, said she awoke in the middle of the night with the first aftershock, hopped out of bed and stood in a doorway. Once the ground stilled, she went back to sleep. Then, she was thrown awake again by the 4:15 temblor. At that point, she gave up on sleeping and went to a friend’s house, where they watched the shopping center fire on television.

“I was in shock,” she said.

The bartender at the century-old Scotia Inn had just closed for the night when the first aftershock hit; she crouched and watched nervously as the inn’s ornate wooden pillars swayed precariously above her.

About 30 homes were badly damaged in Scotia, according to Renner, the sheriff.

Across the Eel River in Rio Dell, the jolt shortly after midnight knocked Tim Sarlund’s trailer forward a good two inches, and it blew out the hot water tank. A lumber stacker who was born and raised in the area, Sarlund grabbed his pregnant wife and high-tailed it to his parents home in Scotia.

“We always have small ones. . . , “ Sarlund said. “This is the first one that’s got me shaking like a leaf.”

But reflecting a determination common in Humboldt County, one of the most seismically active regions in the state, Sarlund said he had no intention of leaving.

“We’re staying,” he said. “This is home.”

The North Coast Railroad line through Scotia--the only one through that part of the region--was closed after Fossil Bluff collapsed, causing a rockslide. The line was expected to reopen in three or four days.

Saturday’s quake had shattered storefronts in Ferndale and knocked at least two dozen of the town’s well-preserved Victorian homes off their foundations. Also on Saturday, a quake-triggered fire destroyed Petrolia’s single general store and post office--damage similar to what Scotia suffered Sunday.

Another half-dozen of Ferndale’s historic homes that had emerged relatively unscathed from the main quake were badly damaged by Sunday’s twin shocks.

Among these latest victims was the Ferndale Inn on Main Street. A portion of the Inn, which has served as a bed and breakfast for a century, shifted off its foundation and wound up leaning over a back retaining wall close to a creek.

Guests at the vintage 1859 inn ran out of the two-story yellow building after the second aftershock and slept the rest of the night on the front lawn. Flower-patterned quilts and two cages holding four cockatiels remained on the dew-moistened lawn early Sunday as the haggard guests sipped coffee and munched leftover spaghetti.

“What am I going to do?” moaned owner Danielle Gyurik. “That’s life. Life is life and we’re all OK. Everyone in town is OK. . . . It’s just wood, it’s just a house.”

This portion of the California coast is a hotbed of seismic activity because of the convergence of faults. Three tectonic plates--the Pacific, the North American and the Gorda--intersect near here, and 10 strong quakes have rattled residents in the last 20 years.

Despite the power of this weekend’s shakers, damage, although intense in some areas, did not represent widespread devastation. The Sheriff’s Department put the damage estimate at $40 million.

But recovery might not be so easy.

Many of the communities hit hardest by the quakes already were suffering from economic recession and the decline of the lumber industry. Even cattle and sheep farmers have seen their livelihood threatened by a resurgence of coyotes, mountain lions and other predators.

“There are a lot of people here who don’t have homeowners’ insurance, let alone earthquake (insurance),” said widower Frank Carrasco, 83, of Scotia. The string of quakes knocked his home off its blocks, split it in half and ripped two porches from the exterior walls.

“The way I feel right now I just want to walk away and leave it.”

Paul James, who operates a lumber sorting machine, and his wife Ronda, a beautician, were born in nearby Fortuna and live in Scotia. Like many other rattled residents, they vowed to stay.

“This puts you in a shock, but not enough to leave,” Ronda James said.

It took this string of quakes to break the more fragile gifts from their wedding 12 years ago and give their cat a nervous disorder. But, they said, disaster unites the town of 1,700.

“Everyone in the town was up (during the night),” Paul James said. “Everybody was asking how everybody was. . . . It just draws people together.”

Rio Dell and Ferndale were without water, and authorities expressed fear that gasoline had begun leaking into the Ferndale sewer system. Ferndale volunteer firefighter Carl Gossien said 20 residences were evacuated early Sunday afternoon, but the occupants returned after it was determined that no gasoline was filtering into the system.

Meanwhile, at the Humboldt Bay power plant and nuclear storage facility, no cracks, leaks or other damage was reported, said Bob Prigmore, spokesman for Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

The plant, three miles south of Eureka, generates electricity and stores 390 fuel bundles of spent uranium fuel rods, held under 26 feet of water.

“They’re safe,” Prigmore said. “It bounced around a little bit; you get wave action on top of the pool, but it settles down.” There was no release of radioactivity, he said.

Times staff writers Virginia Ellis and John Hurst contributed to this story.