Southland Wildfires

* When the fire came right over Park Avenue and headed toward Temple Hills, I quickly stuffed my old Saab with my two children, my mother, my grandmother, my two dogs, my cat, a number of my neighbors’ dogs, the computer disks and two paintings from our art collection.

The whole menagerie--which grew as we made our way out of Laguna--stayed at my friend’s house in Laguna Niguel. The next day my husband and I drove to the emergency shelter to find my neighbors, hoping to present them with their pets. The place was practically deserted. A volunteer told me to try the Ritz Carlton down the road. The place was packed. I found my neighbors. Dogs were happily reunited with owners.

This is Laguna Beach. Friends are helping friends. Insurance companies are coming through big time. Homes will be rebuilt, and new cars, china and wardrobes will be bought. I know a lot of people lost a lot of things and for some, those things represented the accumulation of a lifetime.

But as I was slowly inching my way back to Laguna Beach afterward, saddened by the incalculable loss, I spotted a migrant woman with her possessions in a small pack tied to her back. She never lost anything in a fire because she has probably never had much of anything. And so in the very midst of the terrible destruction and ruin, a person can come to know gratitude.

God bless the firefighters--heroes all! And thanks to the goats. It might have been worse.

JENNIFER HORSMAN

Laguna Beach

* The fires carry a silver lining. Rather than pay into some inefficient program of fire and earthquake insurance policies in California, tornado insurance in the Midwest and hurricane insurance in the Southeast, the federal government might add national property insurance to the national health care package.

The Laguna fire should return those areas protected for gnatcatchers and coastal sage scrub to their proper “unprotected values.” The construction industry in this area should boom.

BRENT HOWE

Orange

* I feel a special need to pay tribute to the firefighters who have been warring the blazes in Southern California.

I retired in March after 31 years as a Los Angeles Police Department detective. I was in the fires of the 1965 and 1992 riots, and have seen several structure and field fires in those three decades, all of which have taken a serious toll on life and property.

I can tell you that the bravest of people are those in flame-protector clothing, helmets and masks. They are willing to risk their lives for the citizens of this community from a monster whose dimensions are always unpredictable.

STAN NELSON

San Pedro

* As I write this (Oct. 27), huge columns of smoke are on both sides of this beautiful valley and the flames are running wild! Why anyone would purposefully do something so reckless and irresponsible defies all logic.

Considering arsonists’ fascination with fire, perhaps a fitting punishment would be to burn them at the stake after their conviction. I know that’s primitive but it would sure guarantee that the punishment would fit the crime! Arsonists care little for the results of their actions.

Why should we care how they may suffer? It would be their karmic result!

LELAND P. HAMMERSCHMITT

Ojai

* How ironic that a transient, who built a campfire to keep warm, was the cause of the Altadena fire resulting in the destruction of so many homes and thereby creating a temporary population of coerced homeless. Perhaps we can use this tragedy as a metaphor to teach us that for practical, if not moral reasons, we need to strengthen our efforts to help people in need to be integrated into society at large for their own good and for ours.

ELLIOT SEMMELMAN

Los Angeles

* If the Santa Ana winds don’t fan the arsonists’ “flaming” desire for attention, the television media will! (And I thought Beavis and Butt-head were stupid.)

PAT MAVAR

San Pedro

* The people in the fire-endangered areas give thanks to the firefighters for their tireless and heroic work to control the fires and save their homes. And so should all of us give thanks to them, for they protected us as well.

We also express our thanks and admiration to the news-gathering personnel who have done such a remarkable job of covering the firestorms. Especially, we are grateful to the local television stations and their courageous, enterprising and enduring news crews. The television stations earned our praise the old-fashioned way; they worked for it!

DOROTHY and PATON MARSHALL

La Mirada