Area Building Inspectors Get Crackin’

Telephones are still ringing off the hook in county and city building and safety offices amid fears by property owners that last week’s earthquake and aftershocks have turned their homes into time bombs, building department officials say.

“We have a lot of scared people,” said Sandy Castleman, a spokeswoman for the Department of Building and Safety in Whittier, one of the areas hardest hit by the temblor.

Even areas marginally affected are receiving a flood of calls from a concerned public.

Lone Inspector

“I’ve been going crazy,” said Tracy Burt, a secretary answering telephones at San Marino’s City Hall. The affluent community’s one full-time inspector, Dennis Tarango, has been racing around town checking chimneys and beams--and even had to evacuate two people from a home on Cumberland Road, she said.

Remarkably, though, most municipal building and safety officials said they were only a few days behind, at most, in responding to public calls for post-earthquake residential and commercial inspections.

For example, Whittier, with four full-time building inspectors and 14 others loaned from other jurisdictions, has been able to check out almost half of the 2,600 structures for which residents have requested inspections and has a backlog of only “a couple of days,” Castleman said. “So I think we’re doing pretty good.”

The City of Los Angeles, which has an army of about 400 building inspectors investigating reports of earthquake damage, has handled more than 1,400 public inspection requests, according to Art Johnson, an assistant deputy superintendent for building and safety.

“We have no backlog,” he said. But to accommodate homeowners who fear earthquake damage, Johnson added, the city has had to postpone all other building inspection work this week.

Johnson observed that in many instances, the fear of a house collapsing is more psychological than real. He said his inspectors have visited areas where frightened residents are camping out, got their home addresses, inspected the structures and then told them that they could safely return to their houses.

But they still refused to go back, he said.

Many of these individuals, Johnson said, are from Central and South America and have experienced earthquakes that ravaged entire communities. “It’s pretty traumatic for some people,” Johnson said. “They won’t go back.”

Building and safety inspectors interviewed Wednesday said homeowners should not hesitate to call for a home inspection if they see any damage to their foundation.

“Also look for cracked or damaged fireplaces, especially if they’ve shifted,” said Paul Sheedy, administrator of Pasadena’s building and development services division, which has 22 inspectors. “Basically, we’re taking all calls (from homeowners) and asking if there’s any visible damage.”

Most importantly, said South Pasadena City Planner Charles LaClaire, the public should “look for fractures and significant cracks. . . . Significant foundation damage is the major thing to look for, especially if you are in a hillside area.” Three South Pasadena hillside homes have received notices to vacate, he added.

Ed Biddlecomb, assistant superintendent of buildings for Los Angeles County, which has 125 inspectors, said homeowners should not be overly concerned with “minor cracks in stucco and that kind of thing which is not life-threatening.” As of Tuesday, he said, the county is running about two days behind in public inspection requests.

If you are concerned that your property may have been damaged by the earthquake, here are some public numbers to call:

Los Angeles County: downtown, (213) 738-2131; East Los Angeles, (213) 260-3450; Flintridge, Bradbury, Irwindale, Temple City and Duarte, (818) 574-0941; the unincorporated area south of Whittier, (213) 804-2588.

City of Los Angeles, (213) 485-2270; Whittier, (213) 945-8216; Pasadena, (818) 405-4200; South Pasadena, (818) 799-9101; San Marino, (818) 300-0700; Alhambra, (818) 570-5007; Montebello, (213) 725-1200; Monterey Park, (818) 307-1300; San Gabriel, (818) 308-2806; Rosemead, (818)288-6671; Pico Rivera, (213) 942-2000.