Laguna Family Flees as Home Slides Down Hill

A hillside home slipped from its foundation at dawn Sunday and collapsed into a ravine.

Owners Paul Gunther, 36, and his wife Kitmen, 34, escaped with their two young children just minutes before the house sank into the canyon.

“I was jolted awake by a large popping sound, almost like a balloon exploding,” Paul Gunther said. “When I walked around the house to investigate, the whole structure was creaking and popping. I woke up my wife, we grabbed the kids and ran.”

In their haste, the family left all their belongings behind.

“I didn’t even have time to grab shoes,” Gunther said, standing in sneakers borrowed from a neighbor.

The remains of the 3,600-square-foot, five-bedroom home at 1413 Cerritos Drive gave no clue as to what had caused the ground to shift beneath the foundation.

But the house in Rimrock Canyon is just a block above a landslide that destroyed two houses three years ago. The Dunning Drive landslide, on March 25, 1995, was determined to have occurred on the site of ancient landslides that began moving again because of unusually high levels of ground water.

Sunday’s slide was the latest incident in Laguna Beach, which has suffered through some of the worst storm damage of the winter. Mudslides last month killed two people, injured dozens and battered or destroyed 300 homes.

Police Capt. Paul Workman said a 911 call came in at 6:42 a.m., when a neighbor reported that the Gunthers’ house was splitting in two.

Five minutes later, the first of several fire engines arrived on the scene, but the crews, along with the Gunthers, could only watch as the home slowly cracked open. Within 45 minutes, the house and garage had caved in and ripped loose from the metal-and-concrete foundation.

“Once we ensured that no one needed rescue, there was nothing else we could do,” Fire Capt. Jeff LaTendresse said. “It was a helpless scenario.”

Authorities evacuated the two homes adjacent to the Gunthers’ until geologists can determine whether the earth has stabilized. Tests were done through the afternoon to find the cause of the slide. All three families are staying with friends or relatives.

The Gunthers’ home, valued at $600,000, was not among the 18 houses that had been tagged earlier by city officials as dangerous.

Next-door neighbor Jason Paransky, who was evacuated, said he and his girlfriend, Joan Bauer, were asleep when the noise shocked them out of bed.

“It was a loud thundering sound as [the home] slid down the hill,” he said. “Thirty seconds later it was gone, and the dust was rising.”

Bauer, clutching a geologist’s report done on their home before they bought it in November, said, “We’re hopeful the ground’s stable, but you can’t tell. Obviously it’s a concern when you’ve had a landslide next door.”

In the aftermath, neighbors gathered to offer shelter and assistance to the family. Kitmen Gunther, 3-year-old daughter Natasha and 1-year-old son Christian were given refuge at a friend’s home. Others came by to offer hugs and condolences.

Among them was Mayor Steve Dicterow, who embraced Gunther and said, “I’m very grateful you’re alive. If there are things I can do to help, please let me know.”

Dicterow said he simply wanted to reassure the family that the community is behind them and that “I don’t want you to be scared off.”

“We’ve had a lot of bad luck recently, but we’re a community, and I want us to stay together,” Dicterow said. “In the long run, this place is no more dangerous than anywhere else.”

Under sunshine and blue skies, Gunther pointed to the shimmering ocean view that the family had enjoyed for the past three years and said, “I’d like to stay.”

Gazing over the edge of his sidewalk down into the rubble of his home, Gunther added, “ I’m planning to rebuild right here. I can stay calm right now because I know I’ve got a strong support system of family and friends.”

In Los Angeles County, a stretch of Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu was expected to remain closed to all traffic, including pedestrians, until Tuesday because of rockslides, authorities said.

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Tini Tran can be reached at (714) 966-5635, or by e-mail at tini.tran@latimes.com