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Woman saved by
neighbors in Twin Pines
Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2006, 4:30 p.m.
By Marshall Smith
Staff Reporter
At 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28, Carol Hurley slowly walked along the
driveway of the fire-gutted house behind her. She and her adult
children had joined other Twin Pines residents allowed back for five
hours to see the condition of their homes, pets and livestock.
“The house behind me is not mine,” she said. “It belonged to neighbors
I only knew casually. I remember seeing their three little kids waiting
for the school bus many mornings.” Hurley pointed out what remained of
the kids’ inflatable swimming pool in the front yard.
Hurley didn’t want to see her house, down a side road from where she
stood. Her kids had gone down to look. She was waiting for their
report.
It — along with about 30 other homes — had burned to its foundation.
She recalled the early morning of Oct. 26. At 3:30 a.m. Thursday,
Hurley heard pounding on her door. Neighbors Justin and Shannon Condon
knocked frantically, waking Hurley out of a deep sleep.
She was alone in the house with two dogs and one cat. Her husband was
out of town. “They took time out of their evacuation to notify me and
another neighbor,” she said. “I don’t know what would have happened if
they hadn’t stopped. Thank you Jesus for the Condons. I had less than
20 minutes to grab the dogs, cat and clothing. The fire was about 300
yards away as we left.”
The Esperanza Fire started northeast of Hurley’s home around 1 a.m.
Hurley said that evacuation along Twin Pines Road, then down Highway
243, was complicated by neighbors trying to drive out and lead horses.
“We could see very little. The smoke was very thick. I saw one man
driving a truck and leading horses, not tied to the back, but out of
the driver’s window.”
As dawn approached, the Santa Ana winds picked up fanning the flames
westward across all of Twin Pines toward Highway 243 and Poppet Flat.
Some homes escaped. Many did not. Fire has its vagaries.
Hurley, a diminutive woman, seemed both philosophical and strong. “I
saw some pretty sad things. So many badly burned horses, cats and dogs
that were being euthanized by Animal Control and Riverside Emergency
Animal Rescue Service (REARS).
“My daughter saw my house burning on television,” Hurley said, so, when
returning on Saturday, she had little hope of its survival. “I lost my
dad six weeks ago, so losing a house seems trivial by comparison.”
Asked if she would rebuild, she demurred. “That decision is a long way
off. In the meantime, we have family to stay with in Yucaipa. We had
the Cadillac of insurance policies. I didn’t know until I talked with
the adjuster after the fire how well we were covered. I’m thankful.”
Hurley and family had moved to Twin Pines from Poppet Flat which was
largely spared because of Highway 243 providing a break, the fact that
it was farther from where the fire began than was Twin Pines, and that
firefighter crews had more time to deploy and establish a command post.
Duane Ringsage, former Pine Cove resident, owned a house not far from
Hurley’s. Like hers, his burned to the foundation. Unlike hers, his was
largely foundation, massive stone works 4 feet high that he had just
paid to have sandblasted to their red, white and black color. Now, with
only foundation left, everything was black.
Ringsage was not in Twin Pines when the fire began. He was at his home
in Palm Springs. He had just paid $17,000 in permits and $6,000 in
engineering to get county approval to remodel the architectural gem
that he said President Reagan’s otologist had built in the 1970s. In
front of the house, with now fire burnished patina, was a metal
sculpture by a famous Japanese metal sculptor. Asked if he would
rebuild, Ringsage said yes. “The view from here is incredible. And I
think now the fire insurance should be less. I think my tractor
survived.”
The tractor, uphill not more than 200 feet from the house, did survive,
as did a house directly up the hill from his. Massive oak trees near
his house showed that the fire had jumped into their crowns, possibly
helping to ignite the structure.
Across Highway 243 and down Poppet Flat Road, Kim and Noel Goetz, like
many neighbors in Poppet, were relieved. “We’re blessed,” Noel said.
“We have so many friends in Twin Pines that lost homes. Only one house
that I know of burned in Poppet.”
Poppet Flat benefited from the decision by firefighters to “shelter in
place” nearly 2,000 Silent Valley RV club members. “Sheltering in place
is standard procedure for Silent Valley,” said Peter Lent, Riverside
County Office of Emergency Services (OES) supervisor.
Silent Valley, at the base of the hill Poppet Flat Road navigates down
from Highway 243, sits at the beginning of the Poppet Flat community.
That shelter-in-place standard procedure, with equipment and
firefighters dedicated to that strategy, helped spare Poppet the
ravages its sister community Twin Pines experienced.
Marshall Smith can be reached at marshall@towncrier.com.
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