Emotions Flare at Laguna Council Session : Government: First meeting since fire unleashes words of anger, pleas for cooperation in recovery.

In the first public gathering of its besieged City Council since a wicked wildfire consumed 360 homes, a hurt and divided community Tuesday night alternately clashed with city leaders and urged that everyone pull together toward a speedy recovery.

Both raucous and somber, the 4 1/2-hour meeting crystallized a range of feelings from the past six days since a fire swept through Laguna Canyon, changing lives and landscapes.

Nearly 300 people packed the council chambers--capacity 115--and spilled outside the building for a chance to take part in the debate, which has split the city in the wake of the damage. Some sat on the floor. Others stood on chairs. A few huddled outside by windows, straining to hear.

The council came under criticism because of its unwillingness to support a 3-million-gallon reservoir, which fire officials say would have helped quell the flames. To many, the decision was the last straw and another indication that the council had placed environmental concerns over those affecting crucial city services.

Walker Reed, a local realtor, called for the entire five-member council to step down.

“I think we have a lame duck council sitting in front of us,” he said to a huge cheer. “It’s time to put forth a concerted effort to take back our city.”

Mel Owens, a former linebacker with the Rams and onetime council candidate, demanded that the reservoir be approved Tuesday.

“Last Wednesday, I looked at the face of the fire out of my bedroom and hoped . . . it was a nightmare, but it wasn’t a nightmare,” he said. “It singed our lives . . . and sent our dreams up in smoke.”

At the start of the meeting, each council member spoke about the fire and his or her own experience.

“Very frankly, the biggest number of phone calls I’ve been getting are ones that are pointing the finger,” Councilman Wayne L. Peterson said. “Pointing fingers is not going to be very good right now. The town is a little crazy sometimes but it’s a good, strong city. We’ll rebuild and rebuild quickly.”

Looking weary, his voice cracking, Councilman Robert F. Gentry, who lost his home in the fire, spoke to a hushed crowd.

“I, like you, have lost everything I own,” he said. “I, like you, am wearing someone else’s shirt. I, like you, for the first time in three days, am wearing clean underwear.”

Gentry said he was proud of the city.

“I have sifted through ashes with you and I have shed tears with you,” he said.

When fire officials spoke about the firefighters who stuck to their posts and made a stand at Temple Terrace to turn back the fire, the room broke into applause for a full 30 seconds.

“Through it all, thank God, we did not lose a soul,” said Laguna Beach Fire Chief Richard Dewberry.

During the meeting, city officials announced that they had eased regulations to hasten rebuilding efforts. For instance, building permits will be issued immediately for those seeking to rebuild where their homes burned. However, officials said the homes should not be bigger than the originals.

Planning and building fees that cost $5,000 to $10,000 will be waived for the next six months for fire-damaged homes.

“We’re going to put some flexibility in the rules,” Peterson said.

The city also has asked the state’s Office of Emergency Services to examine the way the city and county fought the fire.

But, for some, the city’s actions aren’t nearly enough. The biggest cheers and outburts of applause at Tuesday’s meeting came when angry speakers assailed the council.

When Mayor Lida Lenney interrupted Reed, the realtor, and told him his three minutes allotted per speaker was up, people shouted from the back of the room: “Let him speak!” “He can have my three minutes!”

At the same time, when a man in a pink shirt approached the microphone and verbally assailed the council, some in the crowd hissed. He wheeled and shot back: “Please shut up!”

Mayor Lenney quickly stepped in, threatening to end the meeting if people could not contain their emotions: “We’ve done a very good job of running a meeting with a certain amount of decorum and I’d like you to help us see it through.

“Because this is not going . . . to degenerate. Because if it does, I’m going to dismiss the meeting.”

The meeting took a calmer turn after that.

Hours before the council session, the county Board of Supervisors heard the results of a preliminary report on the fire by the county’s fire services director. In it, problems were discussed that contributed to the Laguna Beach conflagration: wood shake roofs, long overhangs on homes and lumber decks in heavily wooded hillsides.

The proximity of brush and houses, a crisscross of narrow streets and too much brush also made the fire worse, said Larry Holms, the county’s top fire official.

Efforts to clear dried-out vegetation in the city “had been limited or restricted,” Holms wrote, “resulting in the continued presence of risk factors within the area.”

Holms said it has been at least three years since crews have cleared out the fuel brush with controlled burns. Such fires require the proper humidity levels and weather conditions, which have been just right only during the protected Californian gnatcatcher’s spring egg season.

Had the area been cleared, Holms said, “it certainly would have taken a lot of heat out of Emerald Bay. It would have (still) gone through Emerald Bay, but the intensity of the fire would have been greatly reduced.”

Holms’ report to the county supervisors concluded, however, that in the end, “even an army of firefighters with the most advanced equipment could not have prevented destruction.”

The fire report provided a step-by-step detail of what led to the fire and how it was finally contained.

Dry and hot Santa Ana winds--gusting up to 80 m.p.h. at times--combined with low humidity to created a cyclone of embers that torched dry vegetation and brush, ultimately whipping 100-foot flames across the canyon and driving ground temperatures up to 1,800 degrees.

Holms said firefighters were on the scene six minutes after the first report came in Wednesday at 11:50 a.m. Fifteen minutes later, 23 firefighters arrived at the scene.

At eight minutes past noon, county firefighters realized the blaze was out of control and requested air tankers. At the same time, they began evacuations and called in 90 fire engines to form a blockade between homes and brush.

The Laguna Fire Department evacuated El Morro Elementary School at 12:36 p.m. One minute later, the fire had consumed 200 to 300 acres and was within three miles of downtown. At 1:24 p.m., the request for fire engines grew to 125 as the fire grew closer to Emerald Canyon. By 1:37 p.m., the fire jumped a fire break. Air tankers were ready three minutes later, but fire had begun to advance on homes and retardant couldn’t be dropped directly on top. By 1:44 p.m, fire had advanced into Emerald Canyon.

One county supervisor, Roger R. Stanton, partly blamed the endangered gnatcatcher’s protected status for blocking attempts to clear away excess brush in Emerald Canyon, one major area where the fire raged.

“If they had been able to get in there and do what they wanted to do (clear the brush), there is a high probability the fires would not have gone as fast or as far,” Stanton said.

Later, he added: “These efforts were blocked because they would disturb the gnatcatcher’s egg-laying. Well, they’re going to be laying even fewer eggs up there now that they’ve been burned out.”

One official with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, an agency involved in efforts to protect the gnatcatcher, disputed the claims of county officials.

“This is sort of typical advantage-taking of circumstances,” said Dick Zembal, deputy field supervisor for the agency’s Carlsbad office. “People need to recognize that we are as concerned at the loss of property and lives as anyone else in Southern California.”

A county plan is being devised for reseeding the fire-ravaged area before the rainy season arrives with the threat of erosion and mudslides, officials said. The proposal should be ready next week.

Other county agencies announced Tuesday taht they would help fire victims by lowering the cost of replacing government documents, such as birth and death certificates, and deferring the gate fees at county landfills for public agencies carting off fire debris.

On another front, the Laguna Beach arson investigation team, flooded by tips from people who think they saw something, was to get reinforcements today.

As of today, 10 full-time investigators from the Orange County Fire Department, California Department of Forestry and the Laguna Beach police and fire departments will be on the case, their sole charge being to nab the culprit in the Laguna blaze.

Smaller, separate squads have been marshaled to investigate four other Orange County fires from last week.

Times staff writers Jeff Brazil, David Haldane, Len Hall and David Reyes, and correspondent Geoff Boucher contributed to this report.

More Fire Coverage

WILDLIFE AFFECTED: Traumatized Laguna Canyon animals are roaming in all directions in search of food. A3

MALIBU: The land of surf and stars is no stranger to disasters. Celebrities scrambled to escape the firestorm. A22

BURN VICTIMS: Two men on rescue missions--one to save a cat and one to save the other--are badly burned. A25

GRIDLOCK: Firefighters were stymied on Pacific Coast Highway as millionaires and ranchers fled the fire. A25

AMPLE RENTALS: Those displaced by the Laguna Beach fire are finding an ample supply of rental units. D1

NEWSWATCH: B1