Memories seared in a community

Deepa Bharath

The last year has felt longer that it should have for Julie May.

A year ago, on March 2, 2002, her townhome burst into flames as

she was lounging by the swimming pool with her family. May lost six

pets and everything she had collected since she was a little girl --

dolls, figurines, glass, crystal, beanie babies and memories -- along

with pictures and heirlooms bequeathed to her by her recently

deceased mother.

“I’ve learned to let it all go,” May said. “Losing all that is not

like losing a person.”

May’s home in the Monticello Town Homes Complex, off Fairview Road

and Vanguard Way, burned down less than 48 hours after another

explosive early morning fire in the same complex killed a 68-year-old

man and jolted neighbors out of their beds. That fire also shattered

windows and caused structural damage to neighboring homes.

The two fires left the small community dazed, confused and

paranoid for a while, said Julia Cross, a board member of the

Monticello Homeowners Assn.

A year later, people are pulling their lives back together, she

said.

“I’m excited to see people’s lives getting back on track,” Cross

said. “There’re still some rattled nerves, but we’ve been able to get

past repairs, insurance and legal issues.”

She said board members sympathized with those whose lives were

turned upside down by the incidents.

“It was extremely difficult because rebuilding was a very slow

process,” Cross said. “I think we have a couple of windows that are

still boarded up. If we learned something from this experience, it’s

the truth about insurance, paperwork and lawyers. The corporate wheel

turns very slowly, and that’s frustrating.”

CAUSES AND CONCERNS

Fire investigators concluded that the fire in May’s home was

sparked by too many appliances being hooked to one outlet.

The explosion in the Feb. 28 fire was set off when paint fumes

were ignited by an unknown source, they say. They believe that the

man who died in the fire, Robert Jamison Marshall, stored several

cans of paint and fuel throughout his house. The fire broke out in

the garage and burned through the house, charring everything in its

fiery path.

That scene is etched in John Leighton’s memory. Leighton’s town

home was across the way from Marshall’s. Like many of his neighbors,

he bolted out as soon as he heard the explosion.

He saw Marshall come out of his burning home.

“He was on fire,” Leighton recalled. “He was walking around and he

was on fire.”

So Leighton tried to put out the fire on Marshall with an

extinguisher. But to his utter shock and dismay, Marshall ran back

into his house, only to be brought out in a body bag hours later.

Leighton said the entire episode, for him, has been “terribly

disruptive.”

“My windows were blown out, and there was a lot of other damage,”

he said. “I’m still negotiating with insurance agencies to fix some

of the damage. Most of it has been taken care of, but I’ve had to pay

for a lot of the stuff myself.”

Resilience has been the mantra for most residents.

“Everyone’s pulled together,” said Sam McDowell, who arrived on

scene before firefighters did and actually managed to snap a couple

shots of the explosive fire with the camera she always kept ready and

loaded on her mantel.

A CHANGE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

McDowell said neighbors have gotten closer since the back-to-back

fires shook the sleepy little community by its roots.

“People are stopping and waving these days,” she said. “It seems

as if we care more about each other. I think we feel free to approach

one another.”

Costa Mesa Fire Chief Jim Ellis likened the incidents to a

microcosmic version of Sept. 11.

“It was a terrible, devastating couple of situations within a

short span of time,” he said. “But we learned from it. It reinforced

a sense of community. We had town hall meetings, we talked about it.

We reached out and comforted one another.”

It’s that comfort and support that helped May get back on her

feet, she said. May returned to her refurbished home in August.

“The first night I spent after I got back, the fire alarm went

off,” she said with a laugh. “It was bizarre, but it helped me look

at it with a sense of humor.”

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.