HOW DID IT HAPPEN?

Fire scenes on Mussey Grade on October 26.

Angry Fernbrook/Mussey Grade Residents Want Answers

by Jim Evans

"We were totally ignored," said Dan Huffman angrily. "They took care of Country Estates, but they let us burn!"

Such was the emotional attitude of the almost 100 Fernbrook and Mussey Grade residents who showed up at a special meeting with Supervisor Dianne Jacob Nov. 19 at the historic Kitty & Ira Walter Café in Fernbrook, to discuss the aftermath of the Cedar Fire.

Huffman, a Fernbrook resident, refused to evacuate and fought the fire to save his own home, only to watch in frustration as his neighbors’ homes burned down around him.

"There were no firetrucks and there was no aerial support until late afternoon on Sunday (Oct. 26)! We pay our taxes for fire protection just like everyone else, but no one came to help us!" he said.

"We want to know how this happened, and we want to know why this happened," said spokeswoman Diane Conklin between tears.

Conklin, who organized the meeting with Jacob, wore her heart on her sleeve as she spoke to the gathering.

"Out of the 220 homes lost to the fire in Ramona, we lost 129 homes along Mussey Grade," she said, "and we want some answers. Two out of every three homes in our community are gone. In the meantime, we need money for the victims in our neighborhood — money that has been
collected in our behalf by the different
charitable organizations."

Jacob outlined a three-point plan.

"First, let us know how we can help," said Jacob. "Tell us what you need so that we can help you through the process of recovery.

"Second, we need to change public
policy, putting the protection of life and property above environmental protection," she said. "Currently, it requires an environmental permit to clear the brush and
vegetation from your own land, and it takes three years before the permit can be issued! We have to find ways to cut through the bureaucracy and use some common sense.

"And third, we have to find ways of improving the notification process to let residents know in advance of any impending danger, and improving our overall
communication resources so that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing — or not doing."

Jacob also traced the timeline of the
fire for residents to demonstrate her own frustration at the system.

"On Oct. 24, the county was under red-flag conditions for the threat of fire, and all fire personnel should have been on high alert, but they were not," she said. "At 5:35 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 25, the first report was called in about the fire. One minute later — 5:36 p.m. — was the official cutoff time (30 minutes before sunset) for CDF aerial support. At 5:37 p.m., the first request for aerial support was received — and denied because it was past the cutoff time. And, at 5:40 p.m., still another request for aerial support was received and again denied with the response that the pilots had already gone home.

"Meanwhile, the aerial support equipment was sitting at the Ramona
airport! This is exactly the kind of policy we need to study to see how we can do better in the future."

Jacob kept her remarks short so she could listen to residents’ concerns, and over the next hour she heard about the personal trials and tribulations of residents who suffered some of the worst losses of the fire and continue to struggle to rebuild their lives.

Resident Brent Biliunas expressed his dissatisfaction with the recovery efforts.

"My neighbor saved our house, but we can’t move in yet because of the smoke damage," he said. "But because I started to clean things up so that we would have a place to live, the insurance company told us that — despite the smoke damage — we were not eligible for any loss benefits."

Biliunas and his wife Amber, who is
confined to a wheelchair, and two children lost their car and other personal belongings in the fire.

"I volunteered my time to the Red Cross to help other people, but where is the Red Cross now when we need them?" he asked.

A facility guide for the Neighborhood House Association (Head Start), John Sparcer’s home was one of 129 lost in the fire. He, his wife Ann and son Ben, 9, are now living in a temporary RV on their
property.

"We lost everything, but we have our lives, and we will start over," Sparcer said. "The most difficult thing — aside from the physical loss of our home, of course — is sifting through the complex process of rebuilding with all of the required plans, permits, and licenses and trying to find a builder. It’s overwhelming."

For Georges and Kris Deboelpaep, rebuilding will be even more overwhelming. The Belgian couple had recently finished construction of their new home on 57 acres along Mussey Grade only to see it razed by the fire. Even worse, they were unable to obtain property insurance, so their entire investment has been lost.

"We saved for nine years to be able to build this home, and now it’s gone," said Georges. "The insurance company said they wouldn’t issue us a policy until we added the roof, but after we added the roof, they said we had to clear a 50-foot perimeter around the house, and after we cleared the 50-foot perimeter, they said we had to clear a 200-foot perimeter.

"We were in the process of clearing the 200-foot perimeter when the fire struck,
but it probably wouldn’t have made any
difference if it was 500 feet, the way the wind was blowing."

The Deboelpaeps own a Belgian import business, but their new office, located at the bottom of their property, also was destroyed by the fire. They have temporarily relocated their business operations to an office in downtown Ramona and are living with friends in the Country Estates while they try to put their lives back together.

"What choice do we have?" asked Georges. "We must make the best of what we have and go forward from here."

John Basset, a former firefighter in Oregon, was another one of the few who stayed behind to brave the flames.

"I’ve lived here for 13 years, and when no one showed up to fight the fire, I knew I couldn’t leave," Basset said. "I saved at least six homes over a period of three days, and I still don’t understand why there was no one here to help. Several of these homes could have been saved with even minimal fire assistance."

Many residents spoke openly of starting a volunteer fire department to ensure that the community is protected in the event of future fires.

"We may just have to look out for ourselves if the county’s resources and manpower are not up to the mark, and I have two acres that I would be willing to donate for the land," said Dennis Speck. The retired electrician said his home was spared by the fire, but he lost several outbuildings, and his son Jeff’s RV was destroyed in the blaze.

Jacob, head of the county’s fire and
emergency Task Force, will make a special
presentation to the Board of Supervisors Dec. 2 to initiate the elements of her three-point plan. She will also push for an independent investigation to determine how and why Mussey Grade residents were abandoned to their own fate.