LA fire victims fear rebuilding ordeal. Some won’t from Reuters

By Peter Henderson and Chad Terhune

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Karen Myles, 66, walked out of her Altadena, California home in the middle of the night in her pajamas, facing a forest of burning red and orange trees and wires strung from poles electrical falls that sparkle in the street. . Her son, who had roused her from a deep sleep, navigated his way to safety.

Fire destroyed his neighborhood this month, and he hasn’t returned.

“I’m not going to rebuild. Oh no. Hell no. That fire took everything from me. I’m going somewhere, somewhere nice. Maybe Colorado,” the retiree said outside a disaster recovery center. She lived in the house for more than 40 years and will miss her friends, she said, but “the fire left me no choice.”

Across Los Angeles on the coast, Pacific Palisades residents Sonia and James Cummings lost a house they bought in 1987 and renovated a decade ago.

“It was with the intention of staying there until we were no longer above ground,” said James Cummings, 77.

Now they see a desert.

“I worked non-stop for two years to build our ideal home,” added Sonia. “We were at the point where everything was perfect. I don’t want to do that again.”

The victims of one of the most destructive wildfires in California history are struggling to decide whether to rebuild, facing a bewildering array of challenges, including rising construction costs, years of effort, and the question of whether tight communities, especially of the middle class. Altadena, will rise.

10,000 BRUSHED STRUCTURES

A problem for many is the toxic ash and other pollutants covering the destroyed neighborhoods, stretching block after block. The fires killed about two dozen people and destroyed more than 10,000 structures.

“Think of ash as a fine and dangerous dust that can be inhaled deep into the lungs and can cause major problems wherever it lands. It’s not just soil,” warned an advisor from the Department of Public Health of LA County.

Mark Pestrella, director of Los Angeles County Public Works, said he has set up a free program for property owners to remove hazardous waste.

“We will dispose of the material properly and we will give you a lot ready to build (on),” he told residents recently, adding that the county will also allow private contractors. State and local officials are promising to cut red tape to speed up rebuilding.

Many considering the reconstruction do not expect it to be so easy, or fast.

Altadena resident Shawna Dawson-Beer, 50, renovated her venerable home into what she called her “forever home.” She did not recognize her path when she returned after the fire.

“We want to go home, and our houses are gone,” he said. “God only knows when the cleaning will be done. God only knows if the cleaning will be done properly. And then you go to be around the construction and then, fortunately, during all this time you have no community. It is gone. We have all been uprooted and scattered to the wind.”

Her husband, Marcus Beer, 54, notes that they had good insurance on the destroyed house.

“If we go back, aren’t we safe? Because we weren’t in a ‘burnt zone,’ but oh boy, goodies, we are now,” he said. Realizing that they are in a burn area also makes the idea of ​​rebuilding more stressful.

The jewelry designer Charlotte Dewaele, 48, is lucky in one way: her house survived because her husband was there to defend it when the fire approached. It’s a rental, but he’s got his life in it, he said.

Now what, he wonders. Does the landlord keep the house? Do we have to turn back, surrounded by devastation? Will years of construction keep asbestos, lead and other toxic chemicals in the air?

“You’re in the middle of this desert,” he said. “Do I have to make my child wear a mask outside for the next four years?”

Many homeowners fear they won’t collect enough insurance money to cover what they expect as construction costs rise. Pacific Palisades real estate agent Adam Jaret, 49, suspects it could be an opening for major developers and investors to change the location in a construction process he believes will last a decade.

However, leaving a community is hard. Dawson-Beer and her husband were on track to sign a one-year lease on a house about 100 miles (160 km) away, to give them time to think, but they couldn’t do it.

“The idea of ​​leaving everything I know gave me a panic attack,” she said.