Mechanic Loses RV and Classic Car Collection to Flames

As flames roared through his recreation vehicle, Douglas Roy Jr. made one last effort to save a prized possession--not his family photos or money stashed in his dresser--but a new generator.

The lifelong mechanic knew it was too late to rescue the 60 or so show cars, vans and trucks he had been collecting for three decades. He had already grabbed his Boston terrier, Boo, who was yelping in a Dodge van that Roy had parked at the bottom of the hill, along California 126.

But when he ran up the hill Sunday evening to retrieve the car generator, he was forced back by the flames and thick plumes of smoke caused by the Fillmore brush fire.

“It was night, but this place was lit up like it was daytime,” Roy, 47, recounted Wednesday. “Things were exploding. Everything was on fire. I thought, ‘Oh, I made a mistake by coming back.’ If I hadn’t parked a car down the road, I might not have made it out alive.”

On Sunday afternoon, Roy was working on a car with his mechanic buddy, Bill Brussow, at an auto repair shop in Camarillo. Before nightfall, they heard on the radio about a fire in the Piru area. The announcer said winds were pushing the flames toward Fillmore.

Up a dirt road off California 126, between the two cities, is the orchard where all of Roy’s life possessions were situated.

Roy and Brussow headed to the orchard in an effort to save the uninsured classic car collection. They asked a firefighter en route how long it would be before flames swept through the area.

“He said we had about four hours,” Roy said. “But then the winds kicked up. The next thing we knew, it was blazing.”

Before the fire engulfed the 540-acre orchard, scorching rows of avocado and lemon trees, the two were able to drive a motorcycle and a 1971 Corvette to safety.

“Then Doug said, ‘I’m going back one more time,’ ” Brussow, 41, of Ventura, said. “I told him not to, but he wouldn’t listen. I booked and waited for him at the bottom of the hill.”

Roy walked through the charred remains of his beloved car collection Wednesday, stepping over broken glass and melted chrome and metal. He pointed out a once mint condition 1940 Cadillac La Salle.

“This was one of my favorites,” he said, his arms crossed tightly over his chest. “This is tough. Believe me, it’s real tough.”

He passed by what was left of a 1933 Plymouth coupe, a 1953 Volkswagen bug, and a 1955 Metro van he once drove across the United States while searching for old cars he could soup up.

“This was my whole life,” said Roy, as a few chickens scampered around him and a helicopter dumping fire retardant whirred overhead. “Cars were my whole life. And anybody who knows me, knows that.”

Roy’s father was a mechanic who began teaching his son the trade when Roy was 4 years old. By 16, Roy had his first job in an auto shop. While married and raising two children in Santa Paula, he owned an auto repair shop called Doug’s Place.

He has been living in his RV in various places in the Santa Paula and Fillmore areas since shortly after his divorce in 1990. Roy said his dyslexia has kept him from running an auto shop on his own. While he was married, he said his wife oversaw the business end at Doug’s Place and he worked on the cars.

He moved to his friend’s orchard two years ago after the owner allowed him to stay there in exchange for guarding his crops from thieves.

Now single and working occasionally for other mechanics, Roy said he has chosen his cars over steady girlfriends.

“The last girlfriend I had said it was either her or the cars,” Roy said. “I told her I would miss her.”

Roy said he will attempt to rebuild the collection. He has triumphed over fire before. In 1982, while driving his family to a camping trip in Texas, he swerved to avoid a dog and rolled his van.

The van caught fire and he and his family, who were trapped inside, were badly burned. His hands are severely scarred from that blaze.

“That was physical pain,” he said. “This is purely emotional. It almost feels worse.”