Tearful Homecoming for Florida Evacuees

At 82, Hugh Conklin never dreamed he might one day be shuffling through the ashes of his retirement home in search of a few mementos of his life. But using a shovel as both a cane and a tool, he was doing just that Monday in all that was left of 144 London Drive.

“I found a few coins,” said Conklin as his 81-year-old wife, Geraldine, looked on, tears welling in her eyes. “Not valuable. But I saved them.”

All over Flagler County, residents returned to their homes after state officials lifted a mandatory evacuation order issued Friday as a firestorm roared in from the south. All roads through the county, including Interstate 95, also were reopened.

North and central Florida have been under siege from wildfires that have raged since Memorial Day, and the total acreage scorched now exceeds 475,000. Estimated losses are put at more than $250 million.

Last week, the threat to Flagler County--a heavily wooded area between Daytona Beach and St. Augustine--grew so severe that all 45,000 residents were ordered out. They returned to a landscape that looked in places like ground zero of a nuclear attack. “The agony of not knowing what was happening,” said Sharon Kessler, 59, who returned to find her home intact. “I hope it’s over.”

Although officials expressed optimism that wholesale disaster had been averted, they warned that major fires still blazed in several counties, including Flagler, Volusia, St. Johns and Brevard.

Several inches of heavy rains are needed to extinguish the tinderbox conditions, and afternoon thunderstorms that pounded the area around the Kennedy Space Center Monday seemed a promising start.

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In Washington, the White House announced that President Clinton would survey the damage in a visit Thursday to Volusia County.

The Conklins, who had been staying with their daughter Faye in St. Augustine, knew when they left that their home was endangered. They grabbed the cat, a few valuables and drove through smoke and flame on the way out--leaving so quickly they didn’t have time to put their pet cockatiel, Chico, in the car.

Still, they hoped that both Chico and the house would survive.

“It’s a shock,” said Geraldine Conklin, leaning on a cane and shaking slightly. “We haven’t found much to salvage. A few pieces of porcelain, but it’s discolored from the heat.

“Oh!” she exclaimed. “There’s the microwave.” She nodded toward one of the few recognizable shapes in the mound of gray-black ash.

“We heard last night that our property had been declared ‘not livable.’ That’s an understatement.”

Although the Conklins’ house was destroyed, most of their neighbors’ homes--indeed, most of the houses in this town--were virtually untouched. Officials estimated that 200 homes and about 60 other buildings were destroyed or severely damaged by wildfires that continue to plague the drought-stricken state.

Across the 10th fairway of the Matanzas Woods County Club, for example, fire crept up to the sides of John and Annie Ostoich’s house, causing no apparent harm to the structure. But $15,000 worth of landscaping was fried, and the tall pine trees surrounding the property stood dead and blackened, like totem poles to disaster.

Ostoich said his three-bedroom house had just been listed for sale--asking price, $189,000. He said he was due to begin a new job in Allentown, Pa., in two weeks.

“Now who the hell is going to buy this?” he asked angrily. “No one is the world is going to want this house.”

“We should be grateful, John,” his wife reminded him. “We’ve got our lives.”

Ostoich looked as hot as the smoldering stumps. “What are you going to do when I go to Pennsylvania, Annie? Are you going to fix this yard up? We’d be better off if the house had burned down.”

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As scattered showers and rising humidity allowed more than 4,000 firefighters to get the upper hand, many residents cried out of joy and relief, thankful for their luck and for the legions of volunteer firefighters who have worked around the clock to save lives and property.

But there was a lot of heartbreak in this part of Florida too.

Thousands of returning Palm Coast residents passed this message on the signboard at Buddy Taylor Middle School: “Tough times require both courage and character. We will get through this.”

South of Bunnell, Linda Czupryna, her husband, Timothy, and her brother, Terry Grindle, pulled into their property on County Road 4003 and found that the two-story home they had built by hand 12 years ago was gone. In the ashes were the frame of a metal bunk bed, a charred stove and refrigerator, and a few antique plates twisted from the heat.

“We built this house for our parents, who were both sick with cancer,” said Linda Czupryna, 42. “They lived here until they died. And then we moved in.”

Her brother expressed frustration over what he called inadequate warning that the fires were drawing near and the shortage of firefighting help when they did threaten late last week. “We lived with this for four weeks,” Grindle said. “We’d call the Forestry Service every day, and they told us the fires were contained.”

Czupryna turned away from the ruins. “I can’t look at this,” she said. “Building that house helped keep our mom and dad alive. It was such a part of them. And they wanted to leave it to us. That’s what hurts.”

Much of Florida remains under drought conditions, and new blazes were reported Monday east of Naples in Collier County.

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Times researcher Anna M. Virtue contributed to this story.