Volunteers Assist in Fire Cleanup

Bulldozers roared and beeped as they razed homes. California Conservation Corps members marched from home to home picking up rubble. A group of volunteers walked about with metal detectors, searching for coins, silverware and jewelry. Others cleaned homes that were water- or smoked-damaged, but not burned.

Mountain View Drive had begun to pick up the pieces.

Scores of people descended on the Normal Heights street Friday to remove debris and level eight homes and one apartment building destroyed in Sunday’s fire.

The operation was organized through the city’s Emergency Management Office, said Bill Wolf, coordinator of the office. “We wanted to get rid of the debris so people don’t have to keep looking at it,” he said. “It’s psychological help, more than anything.”

The cleanup operation was a combined effort. Heavy-equipment companies donated five bulldozers and the men to run them. Marines from the Miramar Naval Air Station drove dump trucks to and from the Miramar landfill. San Diego Gas & Electric volunteered some men and equipment, and about a dozen people from Cox Cable served as a mini-cleaning agency.

“This is probably the worst disaster the San Diego California Conservation Corps has ever seen,” said corps member Mario Ortiz. “Just looking at the damage, it hurts you so much.”

About 35 members from the San Diego branch of the California Conservation Corps spent the day sorting through the debris, salvaging bricks and pipes, and shoveling the rest into wheelbarrows. Corps members will probably be working on the street until Friday, one supervisor said.

A group of Marines leveled the garage that stood behind Robert Erwin’s mother-in-law’s home. The garage had been destroyed in the fire.

“We’re not just surprised, we are so appreciative we can’t hardly stand it,” Erwin said.

“We’ve been here working all week. In a few hours, they knocked down the garage, cleaned the area. It was a beautiful job. I can’t thank them enough.”

As they picked up, workers found antique bells and coffee pots, a metal crib, a few pieces of jewelry and some coins that had been melted together.

Volunteers from Cox Cable cleaned the homes of elderly people who live near where the fire raged. The homes had water or smoke damage.

“The Red Cross told us they had enough donations, what they needed was physical labor,” said Lynda Israel, of Cox Cable. “We just got back from cleaning the windows of a bungalow for an elderly couple.”

Workers ate hot dogs and sandwiches provided by the Salvation Army and the Red Cross. Normal Heights resident Judy Bankson donated 160 sandwiches and soda pop.

“I got up at 6 and was through making them by 10. Normal Heights is a close community. This is one way we can help out our neighbors,” Bankson said.

About 20 homes should be razed by next week, said Howard L. Burdett, who is managing the heavy equipment. “We are just offering a free service to the victims of the fire so they can start up again,” he said.

People had to sign a waiver to have their houses leveled because legally the city is not allowed to clear private property, Bill Wolf said. But the city needs more dump trucks and tractors to be donated for next week, he said.

Not everyone along the street took up the free offer to have their homes leveled. Some waited for insurance adjusters to look at the damage. Others had construction companies hired by insurance companies working on their property.

Workers with Don Hicks Construction found the wedding band of Elden E. Allen in his destroyed canyon home. His wife, Margaret, said she does not know how to replace all that was lost, or where she is going to live.

“Everyone asks me, ‘Where are you going to live? What are you going to do?’ I don’t know.”

One family took the wheel rims from their incinerated automobile. In the canyon where the fire began, a telephone crew repaired lines, surrounded by the charred brush.

But along the street, people were beginning to start over.