Panning for Heirlooms : Prospecting Club Helps Fire Victims Reclaim Cherished Mementos From Ashes of Homes

They were once trinkets in a house filled with ancient Chinese artwork, antique jewelry and silverware.

One is a lumpy clay pencil holder covered with blue hearts; the other a ceramic four-leaf clover. Exhumed from the blackened rubble of Sigrid Kielty’s fire-blasted Laguna Beach home, they are now treasures of the heart for the fire survivor.

“Look at these,” said a smiling Kielty, holding out the charred knickknacks made by her children several years ago. “These are memories that cannot be replaced. My daughters will be so excited.”

Finding lost valuables is a specialty of the West Coast Prospectors and Treasure Hunters Assn., whose members have spent the last week helping Laguna Beach residents dredge family heirlooms from the ashes of their destroyed homes.

With patience gained from countless hours spent digging through Old West ghost towns, they sift spadefuls of ash through metal screens, closely inspecting each blackened lump that does not fall through the grating.

“This is a real treasure hunt,” said former club President Sandy Crawford, who is from Los Alamitos. “That we’re doing it for other people doesn’t matter to us at all.”

So far, five homes have been searched by the club, which has about 100 members scattered throughout Southern California.

They have found missing coin collections, jewelry and other family heirlooms that otherwise might have been lost. Often the gold and silver has melted into a blob of precious metal.

Club members are scheduled to work at another four houses this week and will keep on delving into the ashes as long as residents request their services, which are provided free. They are willing to spend hours, even days, hunting for items.

The operation in the aftermath of the Laguna Beach fire, which destroyed 366 houses, is the first major search and recovery campaign coordinated by the amateur prospectors, according to club members. A few members helped out in the aftermath of a blaze in Glendale three years ago and one person volunteered in Oakland after the 1991 fire.

Members have gradually learned how to adapt their prospecting skills to fire recovery and protect themselves from hazards, such as asbestos, that may be contained in devastated houses.

“What we do is really pretty simple,” Crawford said. “It takes a lot of patience, but we’ve got that plus about 45 people who are willing to spend time out here.

“Homeowners aren’t very well prepared, they just start plowing through the ashes,” she said. “Although our metal detectors don’t do much good--there’s too much metal junk out here--most of us have our own sifters. It’s slow and methodical but that’s the right way to do this job.”

For security reasons and to provide a guide to where valuables were located, the organizers require that the owner or a trusted friend or family member be present during the dig.

Crawford said the number of requests from fire survivors has not been overwhelming, partly because many do not know about the services, but also because of privacy issues. Disaster relief workers in the city agree that some property owners are reluctant to let strangers go poking around.

“Even the idea of a few strangers on their property is pretty overwhelming to some,” said Lisa Sauls, who supervises relief efforts for the Laguna Presbyterian Church. “But that may change after they hear from some of their neighbors (who work with the club) and get more comfortable with the idea.”

Looking at the piles of burned, twisted wood and shattered concrete at her Temple Hills Drive home, Kielty shook her head and grimaced at the task of finding anything.

“This is impossible,” she said.

But five volunteer prospectors began pulling burned-out water heaters and bathtubs out of the way. They got out their sifters and began to work.

Within an hour, Kielty had a small pile of charred, partially melted jewelry and watches growing in front of her--each with a memory attached.

Picking out a red brooch, she recalled how “my mother used to have a black velvet dress with long arms that she wore this with. I used to admire this (brooch) so much when I was young, I thought she looked so beautiful wearing it.”

Looking at her house, Kielty said she felt “better now that I’ve come back and found these things. I couldn’t let it go without looking.

“I thought it was a nearly impossible job,” she said, “but these people have so much enthusiasm. They’re amazing.”

As Kielty walked off with her family heirlooms, Crawford blinked away a little moisture that had formed in her eyes.

“These people have gone through so much,” she said. “Sometimes, I think the treasure we’re looking for are the memories these things hold for them.”