Victims of Apartment Fire Try to Pick Up Pieces

Marc Smith was walking out of the guarded doors at the Casa de Valencia Apartments Friday, carrying a small piece of furniture, when his wife’s great aunt ordered him to “stop right there.”

“You look really pretty in all that charred mess,” Violet Bradstreet told Smith as she snapped a photograph.

Smith and his wife Shelly--married only months ago--were some of the luckier tenants at the Anaheim apartment complex, where a fire blamed on illegal fireworks destroyed 40 apartments and damaged approximately 30 more early Thursday morning. The fire left about 90 families homeless, according to the American Red Cross, but miraculously caused no serious injuries .

Trying to Retrieve Valuables

On the Fourth of July, tenants who had planned to spend the day at the beach or enjoying other holiday festivities spent it instead retrieving--or trying to retrieve--their valuables, or whatever was left of them. For many, it was a day of frustration as apartment managers let only a few tenants in at a time, turning others away because “there’s nothing left.”

“It’s totaled,” a manager who identified herself only as Monica told some tenants who anxiously waited to get into the complex at 2633 E. La Palma Avenue. Then, turning to Sharon Holland and Steve Thorton--who lived in an apartment on the front row of the building gutted by the fire--the manager indicated that their apartment had experienced the same fate.

“Yours is just. . . .” She didn’t finish the sentence. She just shook her head.

“We just want to see our bedroom. I have very expensive jewelry--I would like that as soon as possible,” Holland said. “They’re telling me there’s nothing salvageable. Even if it’s just my jewelry--then that’s salvageable.”

“They’re giving us the run-around. We just want to see our apartment,” Philip Gregoire, 24, said.

On Friday, such simple requests were not simple. Todd Gilkison just wanted to get some clothes. He had to wait for them. Darron DeVillez just wanted the keys to his Volkswagen so he could drive to work. He walked away without them.

Turning to a somewhat irate crowd of about a dozen people Friday afternoon, a manager explained: “If we let too many people in there, someone is going to get hurt.” Other tenants arrived at the complex throughout the day. Meanwhile, cleanup crews continued with their task of scouring through the rubble.

Some Lost Everything

Some tenants lost everything. Others, like the Smith couple, lost little or nothing, except their homes. Like other tenants, Smith said he halted payment on this month’s rent check and will now find another place to live. Apartment managers said tenants can collect their rent and deposit monies today.

Tenants can also gather beginning at 9 a.m. today at the Sunkist Elementary School, where the American Red Cross will continue to offer various services to the families affected by the fire, spokesman Harry Huggins said. Five local hotels have offered temporary housing and several businesses have begun donation efforts for the fire victims, Huggins said.

The fire apparently was caused by illegal fireworks, such as bottle rockets. Anaheim Fire Investigator Dave Bergman said Friday that the investigation is continuing and his department plans to “talk to several people.” Bergman said he had no “specific” suspects. He declined to say whether investigators suspect tenants.

Tenants said a number of young men were seen playing with fireworks outside the building between 2 and 3 a.m. Thursday, just before the fire.

Faulty Fire Hydrant

Assistant Fire Chief Ron Evans said Friday that the first firefighters on the scene Thursday morning were hampered in their work by a faulty water hydrant that had a mechanical malfunction. A valve inside the hydrant, directly across the street from the apartment building, broke off.

The break was “a very rare thing,” Evans said. “It’s the only one I’ve ever seen break that way,” Evans said, adding that the hydrant passed an inspection last December.

Walt Depetris, 23, who was standing nighttime guard duty next to a fireworks stand almost directly across from the complex, said he saw the firefighters on their truck ladder holding the hose “and there was no water coming out.” Depetris said the firefighters were without water from 5 to 10 minutes.

Evans said he did not know the exact time lapse, but said it normally takes several minutes to make the connection and get the right water pressure. In this case, he said, there was additional delay of several minutes because of the hydrant malfunction.

“To people who are watching the fire, 30 seconds might seem like 30 minutes,” Evans said. He estimated the malfunction caused a three- to five- minute delay.

Across the street from the apartments, the fireworks stand appeared to be doing brisk business on Independence Day.

“These fireworks are absolutely harmless if they’re used the way they’re supposed to,” said Jerry Conrey, 23, a member of the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity at Cal State Fullerton, which was running the fireworks stand and three others in Anaheim and Fullerton. Conrey said that his fraternity annually nets about $12,000 from the four-day fireworks sales and said nonprofit organizations such as his fraternity would lose money if fireworks sales are banned.

Talk of Fireworks Ban

But if Anaheim City Councilwoman Miriam Kaywood gets her way, this will have been the last Fourth of July with fireworks in the city. Kaywood has unsuccessfully sought to put the issue of firework sales to a public vote for years. On Thursday, however, Councilman E. Llewellyn Overholt Jr. indicated he now will support taking a council vote on the issue.

“I feel strongly that the time may have come to ban fireworks in the city,” he said.

Overholt said he preferred that the council vote on the issue rather than place it on the ballot, but if that’s not successful, he said he will side with Kaywood to place a fireworks ban on the ballot. For years, only Kaywood and Councilman Ben Bay have voted to put the issue to a local vote, but their quest died for lack of another vote on the five-member council. Bay said he has never taken a position to ban fireworks, but would like to hear from the residents because “if we don’t know what the majority want, we should ask the people.” At the Valencia apartments, tenants loading cars and trucks with personal belongings saved from the fire had few good things to say about fireworks. Said Gilkison, “It’s kind of crazy--especially when you see them on every street corner.” Others were too worried about their valuables to concern themselves with the Fourth of July and one of its most identifiable.

For many, their homes are now only memories. Neighbors Barry and Kathy Neal, whose apartment went unscathed by the fire, were on hand to take snapshots of their friends’ homes for “before and after shots.” And like many others dangling or holding cameras Friday, tenant Jim Muth took several shots of the remains, explaining: “This is a momentous thing. It’s a conversation piece. When things get dull--I can say yeah, I was there. I survived it.”

Added friend Jeff Legan: “It’s for the old scrapbook.”

For less fortunate tenants, however, there was no scrapbook left.