Once Again, California Tries to Get On With It : Another test of resilience in the aftermath of fiery devastation

Stricken families are poking through fire-scorched debris in more than a dozen locales in Southern California and vowing to rebuild from the ashes, phoenix-like. It’s a healthy attitude that can help them work through their grieving. Still, there are reasons for caution as they make adjustments in their lives and begin rebuilding.

STARTING OVER: Insurance companies have sent agents into the ruins, promising to do better than they did in the Oakland Hills fires of 1991, when homeowners complained of being stonewalled and low-balled on their claims. There is plenty of room for improvement. The state Insurance Department fined Allstate Insurance $1 million for mishandling claims after that disaster, and state officials have warned rightly that they will not tolerate another shoddy performance.

The 1991 fire offers other lessons of history too. Those who watched their homes go up in flames in the Oakland Hills area made many of the same hasty, painful decisions in evacuating that were made here this week.

People have found that while their possessions were less important than their lives, the belongings did have value and were a part of their identities. Tragedies wreak emotional havoc, and people need to pay attention to the psychological side and also beware of making premature decisions as they reconstruct lives and homes.

Children need special attention, not an easy task for parents trying to cope. Being yanked from the safety of a home is bad enough, but when schools close or burn, another familiar shelter in the experience of young people is lost. Laguna Beach, for example, was spared the devastation to its schools that had been feared, but one middle school was severely damaged. Administrators forced to transfer pupils must ease the transition to temporary facilities and try to get students back to familiar surroundings quickly.

PARADISE REDUX: The Laguna Beach City Council’s impulse to cut red tape in issuing new building permits was a good one, but as in the case of rebuilding lives, rebuilding structures will require special care and attention. Because of the devastation in that city, some planning decisions are going to be made that the city will live with for a long time.

One thing the council should do is require fire-resistant vegetation. The city already meets or exceeds state fire safety standards, and prohibits wood-shingle roofs or siding not treated with fire-resistant material in new or remodeled homes. Good. But it also ought to insist now on rooftop sprinklers in new structures.

By the way, officials in Laguna Beach must stop dithering about a reservoir that has been proposed for years. If it cannot be built because of possible environmental damage, other sources of water must be found. Firefighters ran out of water in some cases Wednesday.

BETTER COORDINATION: In the scramble to put out the fires this week, two National Guard planes that can dump thousands of gallons of chemical retardant on a blaze within seconds were grounded for a day. It happened because of bureaucratic problems and because there was nobody to mix specialized chemicals and load tanks. The state needs to have trained personnel on call during the fire season, ready to go.

And since the threat of brush fires is a constant in Southern California, we ought to have available a Canadian-made plane called the CL 415 “Super Scooper.” As a piece of firefighting apparatus, it has had remarkable success in limiting damage, including test flights in Los Angeles City and County in the 1970s.

THE CRIME OF ARSON: Preliminary investigations point to arson in several of the week’s fires. While it is difficult to think of a proportionate penalty for someone whose actions destroy vast tracts, level hundreds of homes, injure scores of firefighters and cause hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, it is time to re-examine the sentences that now are on the books. Existing maximum penalties for state and federal offenses are much too lenient.

QUEST FOR CALIFORNIA GOLD: A long and anguishing period of rebuilding lies ahead. But many will stay and carry on, accepting the danger of fire, mudslides and even earthquakes.

Those looking for silver linings should remember that while much has been lost, much, much more has been retained. Southern California long has been thought of as a place where people start over, from changing their names to reconstructing their dwellings.

For all its problems, millions of us like it here and with very good reason. It’s wonderful. Somehow, those of us who need to will rebuild and get on with our lives.