Peter Henderson and Chad Terhune
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Karen Myles, 66, emerged from her Altadena, California home in the middle of the night in her pajamas to face a forest of red and orange trees on fire and live wires from downed power poles sparking in the street. . Her son, who woke her from a deep sleep, led their way to safety.
A fire destroyed her neighborhood this month, and she’s not coming back.
“I will not rebuild. oh no Hell no. That fire took everything out of me. I will fly somewhere, somewhere nice. Maybe Colorado,” said a retiree outside a disaster recovery center. She lived in the house for more than 40 years and will miss her friends, she said, but “the fire left me no choice.”
On the other side of Los Angeles on the coast, Pacific Palisades residents Sonia and James Cummings lost the home they bought in 1987 and renovated ten years ago.
“It was with the intention of staying there until we were above ground,” James Cummings, 77, said.
Now they see desolation.
“I worked non-stop for two years building our ideal home,” added Sonia. “We were at a moment when everything was perfect. I don’t want to do it again.”
Victims of one of the most devastating wildfires in California history are struggling to decide whether to rebuild, facing a bewildering array of challenges, including huge construction costs, years of effort and the question of whether close-knit communities, particularly Altadena’s middle class, will rise again.
10,000 BURNING OBJECTS
One problem for many is the toxic ash and other pollutants that blanketed devastated neighborhoods, stretching block after block. The fires killed around twenty people and destroyed more than 10,000 buildings.
“Think of ash as a fine, hazardous dust that can be inhaled deep into the lungs and can cause major problems wherever it lands. It’s not just dirt,” warned the LA County Department of Public Health advisory.
Mark Pestrella, director of public works for Los Angeles County, said he is establishing a free program for homeowners to remove hazardous waste.
“We will properly dispose of the material and deliver it to you ready for construction,” he told citizens recently, adding that the county will also allow private contractors. State and local officials are promising to cut red tape to speed up rebuilding.
Many who are thinking about rebuilding don’t expect it to be so easy or quick.
Altadena resident Shawna Dawson-Beer, 50, renovated her venerable home into what she calls a “forever home.” She did not recognize her street when she returned after the fire.
“We want to return home, and our homes are gone,” she said. “Only God knows when the cleansing will be done. Only God knows if the cleanup will be done right. And then you’ll be around construction and then luckily you don’t have a community all this time. It’s gone. We are all uprooted and scattered to the wind.”
Her husband, Marcus Beer, 54, notes that they had good insurance on the destroyed house.
“If we go back, can’t we insure ourselves? Because we weren’t in the ‘burn area,’ but oh man, hello, are we now,” he said. Realizing they are in the burn zone also makes the idea of rebuilding even more stressful.
Jewelry designer Charlotte Dewaele, 48, is lucky in one way: her house survived because her husband stayed to defend it as the fire approached. It is rented, but their lives were lived in it, she said.
What now, she wonders. Will the landlord keep the house? Does she want to go back, surrounded by desolation? Will years of construction keep asbestos, lead and other toxic chemicals in the air?
“You are in the middle of this wasteland,” she said. “Am I going to make my child wear a mask outside for the next four years?”
Many homeowners fear they won’t collect enough insurance money to cover what they expect to be skyrocketing construction costs. Pacific Palisades real estate agent Adam Jaret, 49, suspects it could be an opening for major developers and investors to change the site in what he believes will be a decade-long construction process.
However, it is difficult to leave the community. Dawson-Beer and her husband were on the verge of signing a one-year lease on a house about 100 miles (160 km) away to give them time to think, but she couldn’t do it.
“The idea of leaving everything I know gave me a panic attack,” she said.
