Fire Victims Say Visit by Clinton Was Inspirational

A group of families whose homes burned in the wildfire that raged through the foothills above Altadena and Pasadena say their meeting Sunday with President Clinton not only boosted their spirits about the rebuilding task they face, but allowed them to raise their concerns with a man who genuinely seemed to care.

The President met with about 30 people in a room at Pasadena Presbyterian Church before attending morning services with them.

Terry and Sue McGough, whose Pasadena Glen home was destroyed, termed their time with Clinton “uplifting.”

“I only wish every person who lost their home could have been in that room,” said Sue McGough, a schoolteacher.

Seated on a couch in front of the large fireplace in the church lounge, Clinton listened for about 45 minutes to stories of rescues and other heroism, concerns about rebuilding the 123 homes lost in the Oct. 27 blaze, and anxiety about the danger of mudslides barreling down barren hillsides during the rainy season.

Fire victims told the President they were generally pleased with the federal response.

Afterward, Clinton said he admired the people’s courage and told them how he had watched television coverage in horror as the wind-borne inferno consumed homes with devastating speed. He promised them that the federal government would do everything it could to help.

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Lorraine Shield said the families also told Clinton about the need to cut through red tape to speed the rebuilding process. Until last week, her family took in neighbors who had lost their homes.

Terry McGough, a general contractor, told Clinton that Pasadena Glen, where 27 of 62 houses were destroyed, was an old neighborhood where many of the homes were built in the 1920s--before current building codes. In rebuilding them, he said, it would be hard to comply with new standards.

“I don’t know if I can do anything, but I will try,” Clinton said.

The contractor, who stayed through the fire and saved two neighbors’ homes, said he was also trying to explain to the President how federal agencies have offered to build barriers to protect Pasadena Glen from floods and mudslides, but that a local agency is still needed to maintain such facilities.

“He’s not your typical kind of politician,” McGough said. “He’s not like the person I thought I was going to meet.”

“He was a genuine person who made eye contact and responded to your concerns,” Sue McGough added.

The McGoughs gave Clinton a charred lapel button--one of about 100 they picked up after the fire--which once bore the name “Best Pal,” a racehorse Terry’s neighbor trained. Clinton pinned the button to his lapel.

The McGoughs said the fire victims had not expected the media to attend their session with the President and were somewhat intimidated by all the hoopla. As they sat next to Clinton at the church service, the couple asked him how he deals with such close scrutiny.

“He confessed it was very hard for him because he’s such a private person,” Sue McGough said.

Later Sunday, Clinton, pointing to the button on his lapel, told congregants at a church school in Lincoln Heights on Los Angeles’ east side, “This is just a charred reminder of the courage and the heroism” of people who survived the fires.

“I hope their decency and courage in an emergency will inspire all the rest of us to do better.”