Laguna Under Construction : Near 3rd Anniversary of Firestorm, Half the Houses Destroyed Are Rebuilt

As the third anniversary of the October 1993 firestorm inches closer, nearly half of the 286 homes that were destroyed within the city limits have been rebuilt.

In all, 83% of the families that lost houses here have applied for permits to rebuild them.

By comparison, Malibu homeowners, who lost 268 houses in a blaze that occurred a few days after the Laguna Beach disaster, have reconstructed only 46 homes so far.

“They’ve completed 17% versus our 46%, so I’m very pleased and gratified to see as much rebuilding as has occurred in that three-year time period,” Laguna Beach community development director Kyle Butterwick said. “I would certainly think that by October, we would be over the 50% margin. There are a number of houses under construction now.”

The Laguna Beach fire erupted at 11:50 a.m. on Oct. 27, 1993, in brush near Laguna Canyon Road and the San Diego Freeway. The fire, which officials say was started by an arsonist who was never caught, burned into the city and the adjacent Emerald Bay community. It was not declared 100% contained until 5 p.m. the next day.

In all, flames consumed 16,864 acres and damaged or destroyed 441 homes, including those in Emerald Bay, with a total property value loss of $528 million. Emerald Bay Community Assn. general manager Bill McCrea said that of 63 homes destroyed, 50 have been rebuilt or are nearly rebuilt.

As the shock wore off and the rebuilding process began in Laguna Beach, some trends became apparent.

For example, fire victims generally opted to rebuild larger houses. Only 28 of the households submitted applications to rebuild homes about the same size as those that burned. And 115 households have or plan to build homes that are 10% to 50% larger than the homes lost.

“Almost nobody built back exactly what they had,” said John Gustafson, the city’s top building official.

Lewis and Nancy Lane, who moved back home to Skyline Drive earlier this month, decided on something different indeed, an “Italian Tuscany farmhouse.”

“We chose the Tuscany style because we’ve done a lot of traveling,” Nancy Lane said. “It happens to be our favorite area, and we wanted that kind of feeling.”

The Lanes, like many others, lost virtually all their belongings in the fire, managing to retrieve only their cat, two dogs, a photo album and a bicycle. Later, they pulled a few pieces of silver from the ashes and repolished them, Nancy Lane said.

“I had a houseful of family heirlooms from three generations back,” she said, “and there were just a few pieces . . . left.”

For many fire victims, the largest unexpected expense has involved meeting geological requirements that forced them to rebuild homes with sturdier foundations, Gustafson said. Many of the burned homes were originally built before geological reports were required.

“Almost nothing was built with a conventional-type footing, at least in the hillside area,” Gustafson said.

Geological concerns have also caused headaches in Malibu, which, like Laguna Beach, has a history of landslide problems.

Sarah Maurice, Malibu’s community services specialist, said the effort to ensure that the rebuilt homes have secure foundations has slowed the rebuilding process there more than any other factor.

On 47 lots in Laguna Beach--some with “For Sale” signs--property owners have made no move to rebuild, for a variety of reasons.

“Many of them sold,” Butterwick said. “Some might still be negotiating with their insurance companies for all I know.” And some older residents simply did not want to start over again after losing their homes.

Fire Chief William Edmundson said that those who did rebuild are now living in a safer city.

Laguna Beach has invested about $100,000 to outfit all city fire engines with fire retardant foam that can be squirted on homes to help protect them from approaching flames or can be sprayed directly on the fire.

And the Fire Department has increased the use of goats to clear vegetation from hillsides. The animals now munch year-round, eating away more than 700 acres of brush a year.

Also since 1993, the city has hired three more full-time firefighters and an emergency services coordinator, who is rewriting the city’s emergency, fuel management and weed abatement plans.

Further, the City Council deemed the entire city a “severe fire hazard zone,” meaning that fire-resistant materials must be used in construction--wood roofs are not allowed--and that the Fire Department can require homeowners to create a 30-foot clearing around their houses if they live in areas next to open spaces, Edmundson said.

“We’re much more aggressive than what we were in the past,” he said. “The community is definitely safer.”

Public awareness being what it now is, Edmundson said, residents have been very responsive.

“Very few people have shrugged it off,” he said.