Neither Careful Planning Nor a Fast Escape Stave Off Tragedy

Nancy and Steve Morphew had an emergency plan for fires.

His job was to keep flames off their Valley Center house. Hers was to save their prize Arabian horses.

The house and horses survived the flames that lapped their property Sunday. But Nancy Morphew, 51, burned to death in the early-morning darkness.

Morphew was one of 12 people who died as fires hit San Diego County on Sunday. Another victim, Ashleigh Roach, also lived in the same community, northeast of Escondido.

The Morphews hadn’t wasted time. After Nancy Morphew woke to smoke just before 2 a.m. and they saw the glowing sky, Steve Morphew said he headed to the hoses out back, she to get the horse trailer out front.

“That was always the plan,” he said Monday. “If I knew what I knew now, I would have thrown the plan away.”

The next time Steve Morphew saw his wife of 31 years was a little after dawn, when a friend helping him spot fires saw her body. The friend tried in vain to keep Morphew from looking. A sheriff’s deputy who showed up advised against it too.

Nancy Morphew was so badly burned that her husband could recognize only her tennis shoes.

The couple had 10 Arabians on their 11-acre property. She managed properties, trained horses and taught riding.

She was moving a horse trailer into position Sunday when she accidentally drove her truck into a ravine. As she tried to climb out of it, the fire overtook her, Steve Morphew said.

He said he assumed his wife was busy with the horses. So did their daughter, Micaela, 24, who walked a pregnant horse of theirs four miles to safety. She said her mother’s last words to her concerned that horse: She threw Micaela a halter and told her to get the horse out.

Fire wasn’t new to the Morphews. They’d been through fires in 1991 and 1996. When they moved to Valley Center 12 years ago from Point Loma, they wanted the country life. But they knew the fire risks.

Steve Morphew, a general contractor, built the large log house himself and installed a 1 1/2-inch water line for fires. Until 5:30 a.m., he said, he fought flames as high as 120 feet, putting out blazes on the roof, the deck, the stairs. At one point, he watched flames leap from a ridge behind the house to a nearby gully, where he would later find his wife.

On Monday, Morphew stood outside his house, a large, lanky man, unshowered and covered in soot. He hadn’t eaten despite being a diabetic. His wife used to make sure he did.

“I only saved the house for her,” he said. “I don’t care now. It’s not my home.”

Ashleigh Roach, 16, died in a car, trying to escape the fast-approaching flames that swallowed her home.

A little after 8 a.m., 10 minutes after authorities had told everyone in their Valley Center neighborhood to leave, the two-story Roach house caught fire and exploded, said next-door neighbor Robb Hogarth.

Hogarth jumped into his car to head down the narrow canyon road. Ashleigh’s parents, John and Lori, were in their car, right in front of him. Ashleigh’s s brother, Jason, 22, drove a Mustang right behind him, with Ashleigh and her sister Allyson, 20.

Some neighbors said the Mustang hit another car and veered. Others say the smoke was so thick that Jason lost the road. Hogarth said of the kids, “They were coming through the gate, and the fireball came up behind them and got them.”

On Monday, the charred car sat crashed into a tree beside the road, near the remains of the Roach house.

A Web site, www.irish-cottage.net, said the family had been active in the Irish community. Ashleigh had been an Irish dancer since she was 3 and did well at a recent San Diego dance competition. She and Allyson had recently been elected to the organization’s royal court. The Web site said Ashleigh “dreamed of attending Trinity University in Dublin, Ireland.”

“God bless you, Ashleigh, we all love you and will miss you,” the Web site said.

The Web site for the House of Ireland, a San Diego organization aimed at promoting Irish culture, posted a story on the Roach family Monday, saying that Jason, 22, had suffered second-degree burns and that Allyson, 20, was hospitalized at the UC San Diego Burn Center, with burns over 85% of her body. The hospital said Allyson Roach was in critical condition Monday evening.

John Roach is a construction supervisor, and Lori Roach worked at a local hospital, neighbors said.

Robb Hogarth, 40, and his wife Peg, 42, also lost their house Sunday. They don’t know where most of their 40 animals are. Everyone has animals in the canyon, they said. On Monday, only fences remained, some still decorated for Halloween.

Peg Hogarth said that by the time she made it down the hill to safety, 12 houses in the area were gone. But she quickly put her loss in perspective.

“This is nothing compared to what those parents are going through. We are all safe,” she said.

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Times staff writers Nita Lelyveld, Richard Winton and Daniel Hernandez contributed to this report.