http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...NGMDQLP631.DTL
RAGING TAHOE FIRE'S ROOTS: 150 YEARS OF FOREST ABUSE
RESIDENTS PULL TOGETHER: Many families homeless -- but no one is all alone
Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
As the wind blew away from the modest casinos on the south shore of Lake Tahoe and the smoke cleared, three types of people emerged: those who lost homes, those who were spared and those who still didn't know and were trying feverishly to find out.
Randy Burton walked into a tiny meeting room at Lake Tahoe Community College at 5 p.m. Monday and scanned nine letter-size sheets of white paper that meant everything.
Titled "structure assessment," each list featured addresses of homes, which were either "OK" or had "minor," "moderate" or "major" damage -- the latter indicating, in most cases, that only a home's brick chimney was still standing.
Burton's home wasn't listed at all.
"What if my street's not on the list?" the construction worker shouted at no one in particular.
"What street are you on?" Fred Wise, a local contractor, shouted back.
"Koru," Burton said.
"Koru? I live on Koru," Wise responded. "You're all right. You're good."
And so it went, from morning to night Monday, for the residents of a fire-ravaged piece of paradise.
More than 1,000 people had been evacuated and 178 homes had completely burned by late Monday. Residents had not been allowed to return, so they traded information about the damage and queried friends in law enforcement. And they consulted the damage lists laid on a table in the community college.
"Not knowing is the worst part," Burton said.
Residents whose homes were not damaged will be allowed to return starting this morning at 8 a.m. A list of damaged properties has been posted at
www.edso.org.
The Yingling family was among the unlucky. Steve, Jean and their two boys visited the college Monday morning and looked up Cone Road.
"All," the assessment read. "Major."
"I'm kind of dazed," said Steve Yingling, the sports editor at the Tahoe Daily Tribune. "It sinks in every 30 minutes or so, when we think of things we lost. When we get up there and see the house, that's when it will really sink in."
Yingling and other residents said they understood the risk of living here among the towering pine trees, but they said it was worth it.
The area -- known to outsiders for its mountain and lakeside cabins, its casinos and the Heavenly ski resort -- also is teeming with signs pointing out the fire danger. They advise residents to create "defensible space" around homes by clearing brush. Some ask, "Would your house be saved?"
Although many people own second homes in the area, South Lake Tahoe also is a tight-knit community. All over town on Monday, people stopped each other to offer help, and at an emergency shelter a stream of cars pulled up to drop off food, blankets, clothing and medicine.
"That's why we live here. In a small town you're going to get this kind of outpouring of love," Yingling said. "They realize it could just as easily have been them."
At 2:30 p.m. Sunday, everything was normal in Yingling's life. He was driving to his job from his home of 16 years when he heard sirens. In his rear-view mirror, he saw smoke.
He called home to his wife and boys, who packed up and left in minutes. Jordan, 15, and Connor, 14, grabbed some of their sports memorabilia. Jean Yingling packed clothes, her coin collection and the top two drawers in the filing cabinet.
They got their dog but couldn't find their cat, a wild pet of advanced age named Midnight that they hope is using its cunning to survive.
Sunday night, they slept at the Motel 6 in South Lake Tahoe -- or at least tried to sleep.
"We slept for maybe an hour," Steve Yingling said. "My wife and I kept looking at each other and trying to hold out hope."
Soon after the deflating trip to the community college, Steve Yingling said he was insured and plans to rebuild.
But he was having trouble stomaching the loss of photos and videos of his boys when they were younger. Some footage showed them spending time with their grandfather, Wendell Yingling, who died 10 years ago.
"You can't replace stuff like that," Steve Yingling said, his voice breaking.
Also pondering life without a home was Brian Gogue, who was working at a car dealership Sunday when ash rained down on the Toyotas, Dodges and Jeeps.
The salesman figured it was no big deal, but he phoned his wife, Katrina, who was swimming with their two children at a friend's nearby pool. She drove home -- right into the path of the exploding wildfire.
"I got there, and it was windy, almost black from the smoke. Ash was falling everywhere, and the neighbor's yard was on fire," said Katrina Gogue, an emergency room nurse.
Ten minutes later, she said, police officers drove through, shouting evacuation orders over loudspeakers. She packed the family's two dogs, her wedding rings and some key documents.
As the couple recounted their story Monday, they didn't know whether they had lost the home they bought in November. But they were almost certain they had.
"A firefighter called me and said, 'I'm sorry about your house,' " Katrina Gogue said. "I'm guessing it's gone."
The Gogues are lucky, they said. Their children, 7-year-old Sierra and Dillon, 9, are safe. They have fire insurance. And they are staying at a friend's vacation home -- the one with the pool -- on the shore of Lake Tahoe. They'll soon move into another house owned by their family.
"It'll work out. It always does," Katrina Gogue said.
E-mail Demian Bulwa at dbulwa*AT*sfchronicle*DOT*com.
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
© 2007 Hearst Communications Inc.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks