‘I’m a sentimental old fool, I guess. It has a lot of memories for me.’

One month after a fire ravaged much of the historic Redondo Beach Pier, the displaced merchants have found ways to stay in business, and the city has set up a “survivors village” of open-air booths from which they can hawk their goods.

The fire, which apparently started in electrical wiring beneath one of the restaurants May 27, caused about $7-million damage to public and private property and destroyed 15 businesses. City officials estimate that it will take three years to rebuild the landmark.

For seven of the merchants whose shops were wiped out in the midday blaze, the answer has been canopied booths set up near the pier’s main entrance. Another seven owned undamaged establishments on other parts of the pier and continue to operate there. The owner of the 15th destroyed business, a restaurant, plans to sell toys at the survivors’ village, because health codes prevent eateries from selling food from booths.

The city has established a Pier Reconstruction Fund to help rebuild the structure, which was not insured. But donations total only $200.

Redondo Beach resident Steve Bopp, who contributed $100, was the first to donate. “I grew up down there,” he said, explaining that his father used to own a bar on the pier, that his mother and grandmother worked at restaurants there and that his first “real job”--as a dishwasher--was on the pier.

Now, at 40, he takes his family there at least once a week to eat dinner and play in the adjacent arcade. “I’m a sentimental old fool, I guess. It has a lot of memories for me. I wanted to get the ball rolling. The City Council doesn’t have enough money,” he said.

Fire damage to the wooden pier was $2.5 million, but city officials estimate the replacement cost at up to $6 million.

And, having faced three other disasters in the first five months of this year, with damage to King Harbor--which includes the pier--estimated at $26.5 million, the city’s funds are tight. In January, a severe ocean storm caused $17-million damage to the harbor. On April 30, wind-swept waves demolished the pier’s 155-foot fishing promenade.

Two days after the fire, high waves again battered the pier, knocking out most of the skeletal remains of the fire-ravaged section and hurling pilings toward shore. The northern leg of the horseshoe and the restaurant on top of it, which had been closed since the January storm, were further damaged and will have to be torn down.

Merchants like to tout their survivability and have reacted to the disasters with true entrepreneurial spirit. For example, one pier gift shop is selling T-shirts that read: “Redondo Pier Survivor Storm, Wind & Fire 1988” for $11, and postcards of the charred section of the pier for 60 cents apiece.

The city is considering rebuilding the fire-damaged section of the pier--which had been horseshoe-shaped--in a different configuration, possibly bigger and perhaps out of another material, such as steel or concrete. Two engineering firms have been hired to analyze the materials and effects of the ocean on the structure.

In the meantime, the city is building a temporary deck over some of the charred pilings to help repair one of the restaurants and provide more walking and fishing areas. The deck should be finished by Friday.