Thursday, November 1, 2007

The long road (block) home—residents found a frustrating return to RSF

Ian S. Port
Assistant Editor

The line stretched over 40 cars deep, from the intersection of Calzada Del Bosque and Via De Santa Fe over a bridge and back towards Fairbanks Ranch. At the northern end, behind signs sternly warning “road closed,” stood three National Guard troops shouldering assault rifles.

Having been forced from their homes over three days earlier, the crowd was irritable. But the troops were helpless — under orders.

Twenty minutes earlier, the Rancho Santa Fe Fire District had announced via its Web site that Rancho Santa Fe was open to repopulation, that the evacuation of 21,000 residents from the Witch fire was over. A few minutes later, that message was taken down. The roadblocks set up by the National Guard were still in place, because of a snafu among higher-ups in command of the fire response.

But almost no one sitting in their cars waiting to return home that Thursday morning knew those details — or cared much about them. The frustration and anticipation among homesick residents was palpable. People wanted to know if they had a home left.

“We’ve all been operating with this high level of anxiety now for four days,” said Annemae Kelleher, sitting in her black Mercedes SUV a few minutes before the Via De Santa Fe checkpoint opened. “You try to temper your frustration with patience, but even the most patient person is tested right now.”

The delay in opening the roadblocks — which was caused by a serious disagreement between the Sheriff’s department, who managed the National Guard presence, and the RSF Fire District, Patrol and Association, who wanted to let residents in — lasted about two hours.

The delay may have put a bad taste in residents’ mouths as they reentered Rancho Santa Fe. But for the owners and residents of 18 homes in the Covenant (and more outside), the ache of a frustrating return was deepened by pain and shock of finding rubble where their home used to be. Save for a chimney and a pile of blackened soot and metal, some found nothing in the place they’d left everything.

One of those was Via Monalex resident John Rikkers. He moved his family to Rancho Santa Fe from New York City two months ago, and they were happy with a newer home they bought overlooking a small canyon. Having evacuated to Laguna Beach, Rikkers heard initially that his home was safe — only to get a call some hours later saying it had been completely destroyed.

“My guess is that they were just so outmanned and unable to summon any other resources in, and everything available was dealing with other things in that area,” Rikkers said. “That canyon looks like the moon right now.”

On the other end of the luck spectrum was a Rancho Del Rio resident named Theresa, who returned to find the exterior of her home burned — just barely — and her yard scorched black. Her neighbor, Scott Jacobs, tore a burning pile of firewood and a flaming deck chair away from her home when he was supposed to be evacuated. Four homes on their street were lost completely to the Witch fire. With a strong arm and a garden hose, Jacobs saved Theresa’s.

“I am so lucky. You do not know how happy I feel,” said Theresa, as she made arrangements Wednesday, Oct. 24, to cook dinner for her neighbor and his family. She and her husband bought the house on July 29, 1969 — the day Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon. “And now it looks like a moonscape,” Theresa chuckled, looking over her pitch-colored yard.

Jacobs, who lives across Rancho Del Rio road from her, had goodwill to spare the day he saved his neighbor’s house. He’d seen television crews reporting from his street while evacuated, though he could see only the burned tops of the palm trees in his front yard. He returned — on his birthday — to find his land blackened, but his house completely unharmed.

“That’s what I got. I got a house for my birthday,” Jacobs chuckled.
Others’ fire returns brought a mix of glee and sadness. Realtor Patrick Galvin returned Oct. 26 to find his own house completely untouched — but his two rental properties completely destroyed.

“I suppose we’re not as emotionally involved, as it’s a rental property,” Galvin said. He estimated the houses’ worth at around $2.5 million each. “But the land is still there.”

And finding his own home intact was a relief. Galvin also had seen news reports from Rancho Santa Fe that described the houses destroyed. When they gave the number of his home, Galvin’s heart sank. “I thought it was ours. I said holy shit – there’s our life gone.” But the house on the news was on Camino Selva, and Galvin lives on Paseo Arbolado.

“It could have been a lot worse,” he said.

Then there was Kevin Arms, who spent much of Thursday reluctantly scraping through the remnants of his rented home on Zumaque. He found fused glass and lots of blackened wood, but the only possessions he uncovered were an old license plate and an antique bicycle, its pedals melted nearly into the single remaining wheel.

“My mom gave that to me,” Arms said softly. “I’ll tell her where to find it.”

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