These Are the Times That Try People’s Souls : Fiery tragedy and human triumph underscore region’s latest trauma

For those who lost homes to fire this week, from Laguna Beach to Altadena and beyond in the latest round of California disasters, our hearts and hopes for a new beginning go out. At times, it seems that we as a region have been summoned by our moment in history to deal with one catastrophe after another, as if challenged to meet some epochal test of a people’s character.

Many instances of heroism can be found in recent days, with Southern Californians showing their mettle in selfless actions great and small: the firefighters seriously injured fighting flames in Chatsworth, resolute efforts to save parts of Laguna Beach, the comfort and assistance that neighbors and strangers everywhere gave each other.

What a wild and sometimes horrible ride it has been for most of us in the last few years. Without much more than a moment to catch a breath, we have found ourselves catapulted through a series of disasters. Many of us have been burned out or “downsized”; directly or indirectly we have witnessed terrible injustice and brutality. These certainly are the times that try people’s souls.

There is a sinister side to the week’s tragedy, beyond the random capacity of nature to exact an enormous price from humans. The number of fires--and the rapidity with which they ignited across the region--was deeply disturbing for what it suggested about the unthinkable phenomenon of copy-cat arson. What special place in hell could await anyone who with a single malicious act would destroy what people worked years to build?

Fortunately, Wednesday’s fires did not produce the loss of life and homes or the vast dislocation that has occurred in some other disasters across the nation. For that, we can thank not only the fickle wind and weather changes that eventually helped but also the firefighters and police officers who did all that was humanly possible and then more. Mutual aid agreements were not just in place but actually worked, drawing firefighters from other communities to the region.

It wasn’t just the civilian authorities who did it. The Marines sent two squadrons from El Toro and Tustin to assist the Orange County Sheriff’s Department in searches for anyone trapped in Laguna Beach. And two Marine helicopters flew throughout the night to help firefighters with command and control. We need more cooperation of this kind between agencies.

Many thanks also to President Clinton and Gov. Pete Wilson for quickly promising to help; we can expect some assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which demonstrated in last summer’s Midwestern floods that it has improved its ability to respond in a mass disaster.

But even with these efforts, we need to remember that most of the important work in limiting the damage from large-scale brush fires must be done before, not after, the destructive flames begin. Orange County Fire Capt. Dan Young said it well Wednesday night as Laguna Beach burned: What makes some of our favorite corners of the Earth so charming is also what makes them so dangerous--the shake-roofed homes close together, the rich vegetation. We must constantly temper our romantic view of our surroundings with common sense: Roofs need to be fire-resistant and brush should be cleared in those scenic areas where structures can, in seconds, become firetraps.

So it goes in Southern California, where we live in an Eden of coastal hills and desert--a sunny but sometimes hostile environment. Earthquakes do level homes and shops. Mountains and canyons do burn. And, please, may it not rain hard soon, because charred hillsides do slide.

Perhaps no one word could sum up what Southern California has gone through these past 48 hours, but after seeing all the suddenly scorched earth, Gov. Wilson described what he had viewed during his tour in a single word. “Heartbreaking,” he said. That just about says it all.