Fillmore Summons the Bulldozers : Rebuilding: Councilman’s home is first to fall as rain slows demolition. Meantime, a tent to house merchants is taking shape.

Fillmore City Councilman Roger Campbell had the dubious distinction of owning the first building in town to be demolished after the earthquake. His house, torn down early Friday, was first on a list of 14 buildings scheduled for demolition, including a handful of businesses along Central Avenue.

City officials had hoped to tear down four other quake-damaged buildings on Friday, including the Fillmore Hotel. But a steady rain slowed the effort and, by day’s end, just two homes had been destroyed.

“The first day is always tough,” said Mark Kirkland, who manages the Gardena-based demolition team hired by the city to tear down the hotel, Campbell’s home and other structures. “It’s taking us a lot longer than we thought it would.”

Kirkland said the demolition crew will probably tackle the hotel on Monday.

Kirkland is being paid $11,600 to take down the Fillmore Hotel, city officials said, and $2,300 for each of the three homes the city has ordered him to demolish.

As workers began tearing down earthquake-damaged buildings throughout town Friday, others spent the day setting up a huge metal-framed dome tent in the city’s Central Park to house merchants displaced by the quake.

The city plans to construct a $1.3-million, two-story building for use as an interim site for earthquake-damaged businesses, City Manager Roy Payne said. A federal grant will pay for construction, with the building expected to be completed in about a year, Payne said.

He added that after downtown merchants return to permanent quarters, the building will be used as a new City Hall.

“If you look at (quake-hit) cities like Santa Cruz, the recovery typically took three or four years,” Payne said. “We’re hoping we can shorten that time, but in the interim, we’ll have a building ready for them.”

In the shadow of the domed tent, business owners scrambled to salvage items from buildings marked for demolition.

At the Fillmore Hotel, owner Eric Marsh directed the retrieval of washers and dryers from the bottom floor of the crumbling structure. On Thursday, former hotel residents were allowed to re-enter the building for the first time to retrieve possessions.

The residents, mostly farm workers, spent their time searching for immigration papers and other important items, Marsh said.

A block and a half away, members of the Masonic Assn. gathered outside their doomed building, which is scheduled to fall to the wrecking ball on Monday.

Early Friday, association members notified merchants renting storefronts on the first floor of the red-brick building that they had one last chance to pull out their belongings.

“We still have a small safe in there and our computers,” said a visibly shaken Jerry Atkinson, who with his wife owns Donna Tours. He was worried that valuable items would be destroyed before he could retrieve them, but later he was able to remove the safe and computers.

Councilman Campbell and his wife Cathy also pulled most of their belongings out of their house before it was demolished Friday.

The Campbells and their son Mike, 16, watched in a steady rain as the blade of a bulldozer bit into the house. When the bulldozer finally was able to push the listing wooden structure down an hour later, Cathy Campbell let out a “whoop” of approval. But Roger Campbell seemed saddened at the sight of the pile of splintered wood.

” . . . We had 21 years in that house,” he said. “But we’re both excited. We’re going to rebuild a nicer and newer home.”

The Campbells plan to start rebuilding on the site next week.