Laguna Fire Victims Seek Help --Government Vows to Deliver : Aid: Hundreds jam disaster center seeking aid, hope. Gov. Wilson and Insurance Commissioner Garamendi tell them it’s coming. Clinton also pledges support.

Disaster relief workers, charity organizations and two of the state’s top officials converged here Saturday as hundreds of anxious residents jammed the city’s makeshift disaster relief center and emergency shelters seeking help, homes and hope.

Under a hazy sky and a backdrop of scorched hills, the city began to chart a course of recovery on a day that was remarkably relaxed for the site of Orange County’s worst fire disaster.

As tourists and gawkers mingled with shopkeepers and locals, Gov. Pete Wilson and state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi made separate stops here and reported great cooperation among insurance companies in approving fire-related claims.

Wilson, during his second visit to the city in three days, said he had met with insurance industry representatives and that some checks had already gone out to homeowners. The governor also attended a meeting with state and federal officials that included a conference call with President Clinton, who urged them to provide whatever assistance was needed.

“We’re going to get these people the help they need as quickly as possible,” Wilson said, adding that those who need assistance “will receive it immediately--not tomorrow, not next week, but now.”

The Laguna fire destroyed 366 homes, with 41 others suffering some damage. Total damage is estimated at $270 million.

Wilson said that a $50,000 reward has been posted for information leading to the capture of any arsonist connected to the Southern California fires. Arson investigators have said they are trying to determine whether the same person set both the Laguna Canyon and Villa Park-Anaheim Hills fires.

Laguna Beach police reported Saturday that looters stole more than $60,000 worth of jewelry and personal property, including a rare 17th-Century tapestry, from fire victims who had to be evacuated. Police also said they turned away gang members trying to get to the Top of the World area on Wednesday and Thursday.

Victims of the fire gathered outside the relief center hours before doors opened Saturday. During the afternoon, Wilson shook hands with residents inside the city’s recreation center, where relief agencies set up shop, and met with federal and state emergency officials.

Meanwhile, Garamendi--clad in blue jeans and handing out business cards--trekked through the charred sections of Mystic Hills, one of the worst-hit areas of Laguna Beach.

After visiting with Charlie Franciscus in the ash pile that once was her Skyline Drive foyer, Garamendi handed over his business card and chuckled, “That number, I think, is still good.”

“Mine is out of order,” Franciscus quipped.

Republican Wilson and Democrat Garamendi are run in next year’s gubernatorial election.

California’s insurance regulations “are the toughest in the nation, they should be tough enough,” Garamendi said. “If not, then we’ll come back and make them tougher.”

Laguna Beach Mayor Lida Lenney said she will make a formal request at Tuesday’s City Council meeting to the state’s Office of Emergency Services for a report analyzing what happened in the fire. The state agency provided a similar report after the 1991 Oakland hills fire, Lenney said.

“I think it would be a valuable service. This is a very significant historical event in the life of the city,” she said. “Part of the value is that it asks people who have had unique experiences with the fire to make a record of that, either a written record or an oral record. . . . The stories that people are telling me are just incredible. I want to see these stories collected. What we learn from such an analysis will also be helpful for us in terms of zoning.”

If the analysis turns up any wrongdoing in firefighting procedure, Lenney said, it could lead to a state investigation.

With all of the 14 major fires that had ravaged the region either extinguished or largely contained, officials firmed up loss totals, and the news was grim.

Capt. John Bryden of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said more than 167,500 acres in six counties were burned, and at least 731 homes or other buildings were destroyed or damaged. Nobody was killed, but up to 81 people were hurt.

Elsewhere in southern Orange County, weather conditions were helping firefighters battle the Ortega fire, which has consumed 20,500 acres and destroyed 22 structures, fire officials said. As of late Saturday afternoon, that blaze was 50% contained. No neighborhoods are threatened.

The lack of Santa Ana winds Saturday allowed firefighters to increase their fire lines around the blaze by a third, said Mike Wirtz, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman.

Even if Santa Ana winds pick up, fire officials said the winds would likely blow east to west, effectively directing the fire back into itself. Wirtz said such a situation could benefit firefighting efforts.

While the Ortega Highway fire was dwindling and residents of nearby Coto de Caza began to relax, the mood in downtown Laguna Beach on Saturday was almost upbeat.

Shoppers browsed. Mothers pushed baby strollers. Bicyclists chugged up the city’s steep hills. And at Main Beach Park, overlooking the ocean, basketball and volleyball games commenced as they do every weekend.

The city, though weary of the fires and their impact, showed great civic pride. Some people sported “I Laguna” buttons. Others wore T-shirts that said, “I survived the Califerno. October 26, 27, 28.”

On the side of a Laguna Beach fire truck, someone had scribbled, “Homes Saved” with the number 1,423 registered as the bottom line. Beside the numbers was the simple drawing of a house with a smiling face inside.

At the relief center, fire victims had an assortment of services to choose from. Experts in Social Security, property taxes, income taxes and psychological assistance shared downtown Laguna with the American Red Cross, insurance representatives and officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Outside the recreation center, students at UC Irvine’s School of Social Ecology quizzed victims of the fire to gather information about the impacts of the disaster for a research project.

Inside, fire victims snaked through a noisy room crowded with tables, waiting for their turn at each of the assistance stations.

They learned of the federal agency’s emergency housing aid and of the plans for rebuilding small businesses. They took pamphlets about insurance regulations and Medicare and veteran’s services. Orange County mental health workers roamed the room, offering M&Ms; and counseling.

By day’s end, 85 victims had visited the center, which will be open for at least a week. They left loaded with forms and, most said, feeling relieved to be on the road to recovery.

“It’s very helpful, very positive,” Lynn Lindsey said. “Even the police that said, ‘No, you can’t go there’ (during the fire) said it nicely.”

But some said the events of the last few days had taken their toll.

“You’re so tired, you don’t have anything, and you have to wait in line,” said Barbara Lane, who lost her Skyline Drive home. “You wait in this line, you wait in that line. . . . I’m so tired. I haven’t slept in so long.”

At the Laguna Presbyterian Church, more than 400 volunteers gathered to sort through items donated to fire victims and to prepare hot meals for those in need. About 125 passed through the church courtyard Saturday.

Bridget Hoff, 33, sifted through a pile of clothes looking for some T-shirts. Lost in the blaze was the artist’s studio and thousands of dollars’ worth of material for making jewelry in the Canyon Acres house she and her husband rented. They had no renters insurance.

“We lost our livelihood,” she said. “We’re worrying about money.” The couple had just applied for financial assistance, but Hoff isn’t too hopeful that it will come anytime soon.

At the American Red Cross Center, where 1,200 have sought shelter countywide since Wednesday, Bob Richardson and his sister, Bea Schweder, sat outside the emergency aid room waiting for an appointment with a counselor. Richardson lost his cabin in Sievers Canyon on Ortega Highway that had been in the family since 1943.

Looking through Polaroids he took of the burned lot that morning, Richardson said he is afraid federal restrictions will prevent him from rebuilding on the lot. The thought of living anywhere else is too much to bear right now.

“I don’t want to live in an apartment complex filled with screaming kids,” he said, getting up as his name was called for an appointment.

“The cabin is the last foundation,” explained Schweder, who said their mother died four years ago. “I just can’t tell you how hard it’s been. We’re feeling a little insecure right now.”

Other fire victims shared sad stories as they sought loans, grants, housing assistance and other aid.

Wayne Larson stayed inside his home until the moment it caught fire. He ran out with two pairs of pants and two shirts. Left behind in the burning house were his computers, business papers and the personal effects of 30 years of marriage.

After three nights in a hotel, he and his wife checked out, unable to afford their room another day. Larson, 57, had no idea where he was going to stay Saturday night.

Far from being depressed, however, Larson was rather upbeat.

“We’re going to rebuild and restart our business,” he said. “It’s a clean slate, a fresh life. It’s all brand new. We’re going to be newly married. I’m sort of excited and sort of scared. It’s a whole new world.”

Standing outside the relief center Saturday, Doug Wood related how he found out about the fire. He was on a business trip in New York when he got word. He telephoned his wife, who assured him their home was safe. But 15 minutes later, when Wood switched on the television, he saw his house burning.

His wife, Rebecca, grabbed the wedding album, insurance papers and their cat. His greatest treasure--an autographed baseball Willie Mays gave him in 1963--was destroyed.

City leaders said they were pleased with the progress of the recovery effort.

“I think the rebuilding process is moving along splendidly,” Laguna Beach Mayor Lenney said.

Lenney said she was also pleased to learn about valuable discoveries residents have made while literally sifting through the rubble. One woman recovered a diamond bracelet, she said, and another found her mother’s wedding band.

Councilwoman Ann Christoph said the city will be sensitive to those who want to try to re-create the look of their destroyed communities.

“I am sure the city is going to try to facilitate getting the neighborhood back and preserve the uniqueness that was there,” Christoph said.

Among those on hand to help fire victims were members of the Oakland-based United Policyholders, a nonprofit group formed in 1991 by a former State Farm Insurance disaster supervisor Ina DeLong, who quit when she became frustrated with the way the company was handling fire claims.

DeLong has worked to help disaster victims from California to Florida. “Whenever there is a disaster, I always just respond to see what I can do,” she said.

DeLong drove from Northern California, arriving in Laguna Beach about 6 a.m. Saturday. With her was George Kehrer, who lost his home in the Oakland hills fire two years ago.

Kehrer said watching the Laguna Beach fire on television Wednesday brought back horrid memories. “We saved our dog and lost a cat. We lived in a hotel for 107 days,” he said.

Kerher said he and other Oakland fire “survivors” have volunteered to help Laguna Beach residents by passing on what they learned.

“There is hope,” he said. “There’s going to be some great difficulty, but there is hope. And there’s a way to play this game.”

Kerher said his first step after the Oakland fire was to define 50 “positive things” about being in the fire. Then, he said, he tried to understand his homeowner’s insurance policy, “and that was harder.”

United Policyholders intends to link Laguna Beach and Oakland fire victims via the “buddy-up system.” People with similar living arrangements and insurance companies will be introduced. The Oakland residents will help Laguna victims get through the recovery process partly by making sure they get the most from their insurance policies.

Also on Saturday, the Orange County Bar Assn. held a special session at its Santa Ana headquarters to train lawyers about dealing with the host of legal services that will be needed by fire victims.

Michelle Reinglass, the association’s president, said the local Bar was putting together a panel of lawyers to help victims with insurance claims, landlord-tenant issues and FEMA applications. “We hope to be able to learn as much as possible from the Los Angeles and Alameda experiences so we could avoid a repeat of the problems they’ve had,” Reinglass said.

Reinglass said the association was requiring its members to sign a release stating that they could not accept as future clients fire victims whom they assisted.

Scott Wylie, a lawyer who heads the Public Law Center in Santa Ana and a leading member of the State Bar of California disaster relief task force, warned that fire victims could encounter “frustrating delays” in getting their claims processed.

Wylie, who helped to coordinate legal services for victims of the Los Angeles riots, said the most important lesson Orange County’s fire victims can learn from other recent disasters is “that it is very difficult to deal with the bureaucracy of FEMA.”

“For an agency that is designed to provide emergency service, we’ve had cases where it took six months and people had not received any emergency assistance,” he said. “It doesn’t do you much good if you can’t get food, clothes and housing after six months.”

But Wylie said he had recently learned that FEMA, under the Clinton Administration, was responding quicker to requests for assistance.

Wylie predicted a slew of fire-related lawsuits.

“Many of the homes burned down were owned by people of means,” Wylie said. “There will be large sums of money at stake, so you can imagine with the insurance claims, there will be some litigation. . . . “

Perhaps the worst indignity of the past three days was the talk of looters.

Police Capt. William Cavenaugh said that burglars broke into an evacuated house and took a 17th-Century tapestry worth $40,000 that was described only as 7 feet by 7 feet; a $20,000, 10-karat sapphire man’s ring, a $3,000 man’s gold bracelet and $500 in cash. The home, in the 1600 block of Eleanor Drive, was not damaged in the fire.

Another fire victim told police that more than $5,760 of his property and belongings were stolen after he and an acquaintance loaded up a pickup when he was asked to evacuate from his residence in the 21000 block of Raquel Road.

The owner asked his friend to drive the truck to a residence in Lake Forest, Cavenaugh said. But when the owner arrived in Lake Forest, he found an empty truck. Gone were his valuables that included four parrots valued at $4,000, a $700 home stereo, and $900 in tools.

Two transients who had helped a woman evacuate her property from a business she owned in the 1000 block of North Coast Highway are suspected of taking her purse and forging her signature on a $128 check, Cavenaugh said.

“These guys were extremely friendly to the woman when they walked up to her business, and in the rush of evacuating, offered to help her and then stole her purse,” Cavenaugh said.

Cavenaugh also said a resident whose home was destroyed by fire returned to recover an upright safe. But he was unable to open it and returned later with a cutting device only to discover that someone had unsuccessfully tried to pry open the safe with an ax. Nothing was taken.

“We’re stretched thin,” Cavenaugh said, “but we’ve doubled up. We’ve got detectives in uniforms and all our reserves out there too. We need more people out there and we still have to perform normal functions. It’s tough.”

Throughout the Southland, people moved on. There was much to be done. In the Kinneloa district above Pasadena, residents held “parties” to clear rubble and sift through the ash. Some homeowners hired laborers to do the work.

At Pasadena’s Oak Grove Park, the command center for the Altadena fire, red, yellow and white fire engines lined the streets ready for the trips back to their home bases.

Firefighters, many just awakened from a few hours sleep in small domed tents that filled the park, swapped T-shirts bearing their department logos. One especially popular one was emblazoned, “Firestorm 93” in bright script that resembled flames.

Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief Larry Miller, who commanded the fight against the Altadena fire, said: “The fire is extremely stable. As far as structural threat, there is none right now. We have spent since Thursday mopping up around the houses. L.A. County is going back to routine operations.”

Earlier in the day, Miller had apologized to his fellow firefighters for the mistaken weather reports that had predicted strong Santa Ana winds that were sure to whip up flames. Preparing for those winds, firefighters had run several thousand feet of fire hose into the hills above Sierra Madre overnight.

But they never had to turn the water on.

James McCutcheon, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides weather information to The Times, said the only winds blowing in Southern California on Saturday afternoon were sea breezes along the coast, and some gusts of up to 28 m.p.h. in desert areas.

He said the Santa Anas could develop again Tuesday or Wednesday, but fire officials said they were confident that by then the danger of new fires will have passed. By late Saturday, there was a feeling among many firefighting crews that a chapter had been closed. And they were very glad for that.

An exhausted Robert Reysden, a firefighter from Monterey Park who had fought the flames since Wednesday, said: “I haven’t seen a bed for days. I’ve been trying to sleep on the top of the engine.”

Times staff writers Jodi Wilgoren, David Reyes, Davan Maharaj and Jenny Brundin contributed to this report.

A Way to Say Thanks

The fires brought out the best in Orange County residents, many of whom helped their neighbors under the most difficult of conditions. There were acts of heroism by firefighters and acts of assistance by law enforcement officers and others. If there are people you would like to thank for their help during or after the fires, we would like to hear from you--with the objective of publishing your comments. To offer words of thanks to someone who helped you, a loved one or a friend, call Times Link at (714) 808-8463, then press * 8330 to leave a recorded message. Please provide your name and a phone number where you can be reached, as well as any information you have on the person who helped.