An Eerily Familiar Day for Residents of Laguna Beach

Three years ago, as firefighter Roy Sendele battled a blaze in the upscale Emerald Bay community, his own two-bedroom cottage in the rustic Canyon Acres neighborhood burned swiftly to the ground.

On Monday, when Sendele awoke to familiar winds, an eerie feeling crept over him.

“It’s been a nervous morning for me,” Sendele said. “It just felt the same way it did then. I guess I’ll always have that feeling when the Santa Ana winds blow.”

Six days short of the anniversary of the Oct. 27, 1993, firestorm that damaged or destroyed 441 homes here, a wind-driven blaze swept through the Lemon Heights community Monday, demolishing 10 homes and damaging 16 others.

While this latest Orange County fire unnerved residents throughout Laguna Beach, Fire Chief William Edmundson said the city is far safer than it was three years ago and has advanced on many fronts to reduce the risk of another major blaze.

Enlisting herds of goats to gnaw away dry brush, the city has expanded a firebreak around the entire city limits. While goats were used before the fire, the animals now work year-round to maintain the fuel break, clearing 700 acres of brush a year.

“They’re beautiful, they work 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” Edmundson said. “They just keep chomping away.”

Also since 1993, the City Council has declared the entire city a “severe fire hazard zone,” which means fire-resistant materials are required in construction and wood roofs are not allowed in new homes.

Laguna Beach also has invested about $100,000 to outfit fire engines with fire retardant foam that can be squirted on homes when a fire threatens, or on the blaze itself. The city also has hired three more full-time firefighters and an emergency services coordinator to rewrite the city’s emergency plans, including fuel management and weed abatement.

Also since the disaster, firefighters have inspected 1,400 homes near open space areas, educating residents about fire safety, Edmundson said.

And this summer, in what some consider a crowning achievement, the Laguna Beach County Water Department built a 3-million-gallon reservoir in the Top of the World community. Since the water tank is located at one of the highest points in the city, the water can be directed by gravity in the event of a power failure. A dedication ceremony for the tank is scheduled for Sunday, the three-year anniversary of the fire.

In response to the city’s efforts, the California League of Cities earlier this month used Laguna Beach as a role model at its annual conference to show how communities can work in collaboration to reduce the risk of fires.

Some government agencies have followed Laguna Beach in tightening fire prevention regulations. The county, for example, now requires tile roofs on all new homes in high-fire zones and even mandates fire sprinklers on some larger structures.

Cities, such as Irvine, have also worked with community associations and homeowners on a voluntary retrofitting of wood-shake roofs, which easily catch on fire.

Even as the Lemon Heights fire burned Monday morning, residents here recalled their own disaster, a blaze that consumed 16,864 acres and caused a total property value loss of $528 million, leaving the city in a state of collective shock.

“I feel a need to get in my car and go to Lemon Heights and hold and hug these people,” said Robert F. Gentry, a former city councilman who lost his home and a rental in the 1993 firestorm. “It’s so important to have somebody there to say, ‘Take a deep breath, don’t try and solve everything today.’ ”

Monday’s fire also churned up a wellspring of emotion for Lida Lenney, who was mayor during this city’s firestorm. The home where her grandson and daughter-in-law lived also burned.

“It was horrendous,” she said. “I woke the morning after the fire curled up like a fetus, crying. It was very, very hard.”

At the downtown fire station Monday morning, Sendele said there was a “heightened anxiety” as firefighters tended to details, such as seeing that their canteens were filled and that they had a hearty breakfast, just in case.

“Today we check and recheck,” he said. “Every town has their day, I guess. This is Lemon Heights’ turn.”

Police Chief Neil Purcell also felt the strange similarities in the two October mornings.

“This morning, when I got up, it just had that feel, that smell, that taste in the air,” Purcell said. “When I saw what was happening in Lemon Heights, I thought, ‘Oh God, this is so much like three years ago.’ It sent chills up and down my back.”

Purcell said the Lemon Heights fire “appeared to be on the brink of taking off but it looks like they got a break in the wind.”

The Laguna fire, which erupted at 11:50 a.m. in brush near Laguna Canyon Road and the San Diego Freeway, was not declared 100% contained until 5 p.m. the next day. Officials said the blaze was started by an arsonist who was never caught. City Manager Kenneth C. Frank said Monday that the investigation is still open but inactive.

Frank said Laguna was “prepared pretty well” for the fire three years ago but was a victim of more severe weather conditions than experienced in Lemon Heights.

“We had ferocious winds for hours and it was a lot hotter than it was [Monday] and a lot hotter inland,” Frank said.

City officials point with pride at their accomplishments over the past three years, including the extension of a 300-foot-wide firebreak to 60 continuous miles so that it now rims the entire city. Also, road improvements for emergency vehicles are being built in Bluebird Canyon and Canyon Acres.

In addition, firefighters now get additional training to battle blazes in heavy brush, Edmundson said.

City building codes also are being tightened, Frank said. For instance, wood siding can be used on the outside of homes, but only with drywall boards added underneath.

In addition to building the reservoir, more fire hydrants have been installed near open space areas and new water lines now allow different reservoirs to feed to one another or to feed a hydrant from two directions, Edmundson said.

Edgy residents have helped push the city toward fire safety, Edmundson said, calling regularly to report dry brush or dead trees.

“I would say [calls from the public] have probably increased tenfold since the fire,” Edmundson said. “It’s unfortunate it took the incident, but many people are much more aware now than prior to our fire in 1993.”

And some in Laguna Beach had hopeful words for Orange County residents who lost homes in Monday’s fire.

“My life is richer now because of the fire experience in a lot of ways,” Gentry said. “It was a traumatic experience to go through, but it was not moribund, it wasn’t the end.”