Laguna Beach Fire Victims Still Struggling to Rebuild

From his hilltop property, Ken Wandel surveyed his new home, its lush landscaping and bricked walkway.

“We had everything we wanted before the fire,” Wandel said, with emphasis on the fire.

In fact, Wandel, 71, had wanted to retire in 1994 from a long and successful career as a representative for an oil products manufacturer. But that was before Oct. 27, 1993, when a wind-whipped arson fire tore a wide swath of destruction through Laguna Beach, leaving hundreds like Wandel and his wife, Mary, homeless.

Called one of Orange County’s worst disasters, the blaze damaged or destroyed 441 homes, consumed 16,864 acres and caused a total property loss of $528 million.

Today, Wandel is semiretired, forced to work to help pay off added construction costs and property taxes that have tripled. Still, he said, pointing to an empty lot across the street, “I’m one of the lucky ones. We’ve rebuilt and we’re already moved in. I feel sorry for my other neighbors who haven’t.”

Some residents have faced long delays fighting insurance companies and contractors. Some have given up, sold their lots and moved.

But most of the victims have returned, said Kyle Butterwick, community development director. Of 286 homes lost in the fire, 179 have been rebuilt and 52 are under construction.

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On Skyline Drive, Caribbean Way, Tahiti Avenue and Pacific Avenue, a cacophony of carpenters’ hammers and whining power saws breaks the usual quiet of the hilly canyons.

“We liked the community,” said Edward Drollinger, 72, a neighbor of Wandel’s who was among the first to move back. “I always said they were going to have to take me out of here feet first. It never really occurred to us not to rebuild.”

The same is true for Adrienne Agnew, who lives on Bounty Way, a hilltop street where the fire destroyed all 13 homes.

“A lot of us have been here 30 years or so,” Agnew said. “We’re happy here.” Yet as each new home goes up, the appearance of the 1960s-era Mystic Hills subdivision is changed. Residents who once were content with single-story houses are now building larger, multilevel homes.

However, city codes instituted since the ‘60s have created building problems for some.

One of Wandel’s neighbors has had to spend much of his insurance money on sinking pilings deep into bedrock and building two large concrete walls to meet new construction codes. The cost so far is an estimated $150,000 and climbing.

“He still has a foundation to pay for and a home to build,” Wandel said.

Landslides since the ‘60s have forced the building code changes, said John Gustafson, city building official. Foundations now must be on solid bedrock, meaning that contractors must put in expensive concrete pilings and, in some cases, containment walls to hold back dirt.

The rules have changed, too, since the fire.

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.

The city also has built a 3-million-gallon reservoir, bought a new fire engine, hired more firefighters and employed a herd of goats year-round to clear brush.

For its efforts, Laguna Beach has been praised as a role model for other cities. Earlier this month, legislative teams from Sacramento and Oregon toured Laguna Beach to see what it has accomplished, said Capt. Scott Brown, a spokesman for the Orange County Fire Authority.

High on the visitors’ agenda were the new county helicopters, available to Laguna Beach, which can dump up to 4,000 gallons of water an hour, Brown said.

“One of the controversial issues at the time of the Laguna fire,” Brown said, “was that there was simply no aircraft [available] at the time the fire broke. Assets controlled by the Department of Forestry were committed to other California fires.”

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Yet with all the changes, Agnew said it doesn’t take much for residents to get nervous. Two months ago, a fire near the El Morro Trailer Park and another in Laguna Canyon jangled nerves anew, she said.

“We just freaked out because they never caught anybody for the fire in Laguna,” Agnew said. “It’s weird; when the Santa Anas kick up, you swear you can almost smell smoke.”

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Taking Precautions

The Laguna Beach fire became a wake-up call that brought new measures to help prevent such devastation from ever happening again.

* Residents ended a long-running debate about the aesthetics of a proposed 3-million-gallon water tank and approved its construction in 1996. The lack of water to fight the fire when hundreds of homes burned turned the debate in favor of the $6-million project.

* The Fire Department’s new equipment includes higher-capacity hoses and engines capable of carrying foam as well as water. Its latest firetruck is customized for the city’s notoriously narrow streets, with a shorter wheel base and higher ground clearance.

* Three new firefighters have increased the city’s force to 60.

* Building code changes require fire-resistant roofs on new construction, with no openings under the roof-line eaves and drywall under any siding.

* Sporadic use of 600 goats to control vegetation has been expanded to a year-round program.

* Under a new inspection program, firefighters have rated 1,500 homes for brush clearance and overall fire prevention.

* The Board of Supervisors has approved purchasing two helicopters, each able to dump 4,000 gallons of water per hour. They are part of a program providing air support to cities.

Sources: Laguna Beach Fire Department, Orange County Fire Authority; Researched by DAVID REYES / Los Angeles Times