Sifting Through the Ashes...And Planning Ahead

Scott Kinney and Jacob Bartlett use a screen to sift through the ashes.

Story & Photos by Ruth Lepper

Scott and Debbie Kinney
gathered up a few important belongings, found a temporary home for their dog and headed for Borrego Desert, along with sons Jacob Bartlett and Ian Kinney.

It wasn’t a vacation; they were evacuees from the Cedar fire.

Now they are sifting through the ashes of what’s left of their
2 1/2-story home in Pine Hills.

Scott King and Barbara Keresztury look at objects found in the ashes of the Kinney home.

"It was our home, it was the first home I ever owned," Scott said, as he looked at a few of the objects he has been able to identify. "We moved in in 1992."

Glancing over at a pile of rubble,
he pointed
to a stack
of charred
picture frames that once
held cherished photographs.

"We have heard of people finding photographs as they pour through the ashes." Kinney said. "It’s like a gigantic version of ‘Where’s Waldo.’"

Coils of wire from the many notebooks for the plays the Kinneys have produced over the years at Pine Hills Lodge & Dinner Theatre lay nearby. All that remains of a china doll are the head, arms and legs. The body burned away in the fire. It had been a gift from an actor in one of their plays.

They had the foresight to send their collection of video tapes of the productions at Pine Hills Lodge to a friend’s house before evacuating. But that wasn’t the case with all of their show business memorabilia.

"Twenty-one years of drawings and renderings, 21 years of building and designing sets, were lost," Scott said.

Much of the props and costumes for the Kinneys’
current production of "Forever Plaid" had been rented from another theater company. The show had originally been scheduled to close at the end of October. When it was extended until Dec. 20,

Scott Kinney decided to build his own sets and Debbie Kinney started searching for props and having costumes made. The rented supplies, stored at the Kinneys’ house while waiting to be returned, were destroyed in the fire.

The Kinneys are searching through the rubble hoping to make a list of personal property for their insurance carrier. It will take time.

"We’re trying to keep everything sorted by rooms," said Jacob, who lived in a guest cottage next to the main house.

The ruins, however, did not necessarily fall into categories by room. A large mass of melted pink glass fused together with several pieces of silverware. The skeletal frame of a table lamp could have come from any of the rooms. The washer and dryer were easily found and identified, as well as an innerspring from a sofa or mattress.

A terra cotta rooster guards what was once the main entrance to the house. Other pottery and flower pots are there but the flowers are gone. A birdbath sits under a blackened tree.

It will be a long and tedious job to sift through all the ashes. Friends and family are helping the Kinneys as they continue
making their inventory.

But as they stop and look around, they are making plans for their next home. They will rebuild on the site that holds so many memories.

"I’m thinking about building a Southwest-style house, something that doesn’t have eaves," Scott said. "This apparently went because of the sparks that were coming off of the ridge, the winds were blowing 80 and 90 miles an hour. It was the flying sparks that actually caught my house on fire."