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On the way back, the Reddens, followed by neighbor Bob Daly, passed the Shohara family. Jim Shohara shouted that they were headed to the lake to wait for the fire to blow over. Daly advised against it. The fire was coming too fast, he said; they could get trapped. Then Daly and his wife pulled into their driveway and jumped in their pool as they watched their home burn to the ground.When the Reddens got home, the fire had reached their deck. "It was a furnace," remembered Larry, "and you couldn't look directly at the fire because you'd go blind." In their yard, ash and burning embers fell on their heads. The wind blew fiery leaves and tree limbs at them. They ran in and out of the house with buckets of water from the pool to douse their burning shrubs. Laureen cursed at the fire. "You're not going to take my house," she yelled over and over, battling the blaze with anything she could find.
At the Penn house, Mike shut all the windows and turned off the gas. Red ash was in the air and would have ignited the home, he believes, had it not been for the tile roof and double- glazed windows.
Fifteen minutes later, as if on cue, the fire passed, moved west, leaving the Reddens' and Penns' homes, and three others, intact. "That's the ironic thing," Larry Redden said. "Most of us who didn't make it out were able to save our homes."
By Monday, the fire was burning in Crest, Julian, Cuyamaca, other parts of Lakeside and inside the city of San Diego. Exhausted and dazed from working 36 hours straight, Andy Parr took a break. He went home to an emotional reunion with his wife and kids.
That evening, Deputy Knight was so hoarse from yelling that he could barely talk. But that was the least of his problems. The fire had moved into his neighborhood, and he had to evacuate. He loaded all his animals in a large trailer and took them to a friend's ranch several miles away. The fire never actually reached Knight's house, and he and his animals were able to return three days later.
But in other San Diego counties the flames raged on for several more days. In mid-November, when all the fires were finally contained, the devastation was beyond belief. The most destructive wildfires in California's history had scorched 740,000 acres and wiped out 3,600 homes. Twenty-two people had died.
Days after the fire, the scene in Lake View Hills Estates is surreal. At the gate, a handmade corrugated metal sign reads: "Looters Will Be Shot." There is little left to steal. Five of the homes are rubble and ash. The hills are scorched black. The smell of smoke is in the air. Once regal oak and pine trees are now gaunt black skeletons. The charred remains of rabbits, squirrels and coyotes litter the hills. On the road down to the lake sits the Shoharas' burned-out truck. Their 32-year-old son Randy's car, now nothing more than a twisted metal frame, is a hundred feet away. All three perished in the fire.
As did Steve Shacklett. Out on Muth Valley Road, the remains of his motor home resemble a dinosaur's carcass. When he got stuck trying to turn around, he got out and ran, but the fire overtook him.
For those whose loved ones died, there is no just compensation. But, at least in San Diego, there may be some measure of accountability as federal officials investigate whether to file arson charges against the hunter who reportedly lit the signal fire.
No one, especially Natalie Corbett, expected to survive. But the flames passed right over her Bronco and did not ignite it. Others who survived, like the Reddens and the Penns, are left "feeling a mixture of relief and guilt," says Laureen, who credits Larry with saving their lives. "If he hadn't made the decision to turn around at the gate, we would have died," she says. For the time being, they have returned to their home to live amid the rubble and charred destruction. There, for them, hope is not lost. A few days after the fire, tears filled Laureen's eyes as she watched hummingbirds circle the feeders out front, and three quails walk across her driveway. These are the bright spots, but it will take months, even years, to repair all the shattered lives.
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