A Fire’s Toll: Empty Lots, Empty Hearts : Rebuilding: The October wildfires have scarred the one-block community of Buena Vista Way. Nearly half the residents who lost their homes have chosen not to return.

The sun slipped slowly into the Pacific as a loose knot of people stood in the middle of their desolate street last week, ticking off the names of the neighbors who once lived among them.

The Carys? Gone. The Williamsons? History. Jim and Rob? Gone, too. So was Joe, who had decided not to rebuild a month or so back.

“It’s just terrible,” lamented Jackie Allen, standing on Buena Vista Way with her husband, Jim, and neighbor Thomas Homan. “Here we thought we’d have a real coming together after the fire, and I wanted to have this block party when we all got back in. But there won’t be anybody left on the street to come to my party.”

Five months after the October firestorm incinerated nine houses along this narrow, winding street, nearly half of those who lost homes have chosen not to return. Their decisions to build or buy elsewhere ensure what once seemed only a possibility: In the wake of the fire, this one-block street on a hillside commanding a sweeping ocean view will never be the same.

With the departure of at least four homeowners-- including Don and Jo Williamson, who had lived here for 37 years--the scope of the fire’s impact on Buena Vista Way has struck home as never before.

“It’s heartbreaking to see the neighbors go,” said Sheila Patterson, who is planning to rebuild. “I really liked these people. I liked the age mix, I liked the different interests. I can’t believe they’re all going.”

On a street where residents had long lived in contented isolation from one another, the wildfire had brought them together, forging new relationships as they struggled to rebound.

Now, for many, that newfound spirit of community will be dashed.

“It just breaks my heart,” Jackie Allen said. “Our street is just falling apart.”

Several of those who remain wonder whether the other lots, still dotted with blackened trees, will lie empty. And they worry that their property values may be affected.

The homeowners’ reasons for leaving vary, ranging from a reluctance to endure the inevitable headaches of rebuilding to concerns about reports that geologists have found possible signs of an ancient landslide under some lots in the area.

Laguna Beach City Manager Ken Frank said the city has not received any written reports about geological problems in the Buena Vista or Temple Hills area, although residents raised the issue at a recent City Council meeting.

“There are rumors of ancient landslides all over the city,” Frank said.

Even so, the percentage of Buena Vista residents who have chosen not to rebuild appears to be high when compared to the rest of the city, he added.

The rumors have intensified since the council’s controversial decision two weeks ago to delay rebuilding for some property owners in the nearby Mystic Hills neighborhood while geologists try to determine whether an ancient slide lies beneath a number of lots there.

Frank said he did not doubt that geologists may have found such evidence under Buena Vista Way, but that the city could take no action without written reports.

The Williamsons decided they cannot wait, either for geologists to complete their tests or for the city to act. Based on preliminary advice from a geologist, Don, 80, and Jo, 78, made the wrenching decision to move from the neighborhood where they have lived for decades.

“Both of us feel a little like traitors to the street,” said Don Williamson, standing on the new lot the couple has purchased in Bluebird Canyon.

The Williamsons said their geologist, Fred Pratley, told them he had located disturbing, if preliminary, signs that an ancient slide might at least delay their plans to rebuild on Buena Vista. The city requires geological studies before it will issue building permits.

“We don’t have that much time,” said Jo Williamson, who held her husband’s hand tightly as she walked slowly across the uneven ground of their new lot.

“I don’t blame the city and I don’t blame the geologists,” said her husband, an architect who has designed their new house. “Jo and I, though, are at the age where we don’t care to wait around.”

Pratley, of Coastal Geotechnical of Laguna Beach, could not be reached for comment. But Allen Bell, another geologist working in the area, confirmed that his firm and others have found preliminary evidence that an ancient landslide may exist. He stressed that the tests are incomplete.

Bell, president of Petra Geotechnical of Costa Mesa, was reluctant to discuss the early findings, but said geologists and city officials are planning to meet soon, possibly this week, to decide what to do.

Even if a slide does exist, he said, it does not necessarily mean that homes cannot be rebuilt in the area.

“My advice (to residents) would be to stay calm and let the process work its way through,” Bell said.

The Buena Vista residents, several of whom learned only last week about the potential problems, said they could not help but worry about the impact on their hopes to rebuild.

“The first consequence is that everybody’s ultimate dreams have been put on hold,” said Christian Werner, who has lived on Buena Vista for 22 years and hopes to rebuild there. “The situation is somewhat unraveling.”

The Allens are going forward, armed with a geological report that will allow them to rebuild. So is Patterson. George Cary and Marlene Wright, who lived next door to the Allens, are not proceeding, but said their decision had to do with their desire to provide a better play area for their young daughter, Christina.

Cary said he and his wife reached a settlement recently with their insurance company that allowed them to look around at other property. They decided to buy a much larger, flatter lot at the top of a hillside.

“Since we were starting from scratch anyway, we felt we might as well see what the other opportunities were,” Cary said.

Thomas Homan, who has lived on the street since 1985, is among those planning to rebuild. The architectural plans for his new house are complete, he said, with a design review hearing set for this month. Homan has not arranged for a geological study of his property, but said he will do so quickly.

Meanwhile, Homan and the Allens met on the street between their devastated lots one evening recently and tried to console themselves over the loss of so many neighbors. Laughing and lamenting by turns, the three joked about their status as members of a dwindling group.

“It’s like the 10 little Indians,” said Jim Allen. “There were nine and then there were four.”

Homan grinned. “Hey, sooner or later, God willing, all these lots will sell and nice people will move in and we’ll be back in business, right?” he said, waving his arm down the barren street. “Then we’ll just have to break them in.”