Garrett Keene watched the airport fire approach his neighborhood above Lake Elsinore this week until he was suddenly warned in the afternoon to flee.
As the ash fell, Keene and his wife packed up their three young daughters, toddler son and the family’s most prized possessions — a menagerie of dogs, cats, ducks, chickens, birds, turtles and pigs, 46 animals in all — and ran out of their neighborhood down Ortega Road as 100-foot-high flames raged. When the 33-year-old father returned, he found the three-bedroom, 2,000-square-foot ranch-style home he had built from scratch reduced to a pile of ash and rubble.
As the damage from the fire became more apparent, Keene wondered why the evacuation order came so late and only by loudspeaker, and why no air resources had been deployed to her neighborhood when areas of Orange County were already inundated.
“For 24 hours not a single plane, not a single helicopter, not a single fire truck arrived. We didn't see anyone until 45 minutes or an hour before this happened,” he said of his family's escape on Tuesday.
A car is crushed by a fallen tree in front of a house destroyed by the Airport fire in the village of El Cariso.
The town of El Cariso, a Riverside County mountain community of about 250 people in the Santa Ana Mountains, was devastated during the fire. Keene said the fire-detection app Watch Duty indicated the fire was growing and heading their way, so he alerted neighbors to prepare for the inevitable before any officials told him so.
“We were five minutes away from an absolute nightmare,” Keene said.
On Friday, Capt. Steve Concialdi of the Orange County Fire Authority said “there were multiple helicopters, air support and firefighters — all fighting the fire to protect lives and property.” But he had no details on when or where exactly the helicopters and planes were when the fire spread through the Keene neighborhood.
“Our hearts go out to all those who suffered damage to their homes or cars,” Concialdi said. “Fortunately, there were only two minor injuries among civilians and 10 injuries among firefighters and all came out alive.”
Robert Lucas looks at a ridge after part of his corral burned during the airport fire on the Ortega Highway. “The flames were as far as the eye could see. Should I stay or should I go?” Lucas said. All of his animals survived the fire.
Days after the fire passed, charred trees still smoked from the heat and broken glass, nails and downed power lines littered the ground. At a neighboring property that Keene rents to a mother of two, the fire had blown out the windows and front door. An abandoned puzzle sat unfinished on the dining room table, and children's drawings and a red crayon note wishing a “wonderful life” were taped to the refrigerator.
Steve Mangino, 63, also questioned why the neighborhood was not warned sooner and instead left alone.
Mangino, a neighbor who also rented in Keene, returned to the area Thursday. When he opened the door to his red barn, he braced himself for what might be inside.
“Let’s see if my reason for living is still standing,” he said.
His two prized motorcycles remained intact after the fire – a relief and a sign, he said, to get a lottery ticket.
An unfinished puzzle still sits on the dining room table after the airport fire destroyed the front door of a home in El Cariso Village.
The airport fire began Monday in Trabuco Canyon and was sparked by a spark from heavy equipment. It has burned more than 23,000 acres. Several homes in the town of El Cariso were destroyed and piles of burned vehicles and old collector cars were scattered throughout the neighborhood. The evacuated area was quiet and mostly empty Thursday, aside from firefighters on patrol and the occasional resident who had returned to survey the damage.
Stephen Cuculic, 70, said he had never seen a fire like this in the 48 years he has lived in El Cariso Village. The back of his house was engulfed in flames, but the rest remained intact. Cuculic, a former fire captain, said he was lucky; other properties were not so lucky.
Down the street from her home, a staircase and two lanterns at the entrance were all that remained of a house that once overlooked a small landscape. Nearby, a 5.5-acre property was gutted; a pool and water slide remained intact, but the area that once housed a large family room and kitchen was gutted.
Resident Garrett Keene stands in the rubble of his home that was destroyed in the airport fire in El Cariso Village.
Keene believes the community will rebuild — that’s her plan, at least. As she walked through the rubble of her home, she pointed out what once was: the master bedroom, the couch, the kitchen where a warped concrete island now stood, the space where one of her daughters rode her tricycle.
He is grateful that his family and animals made it out safely, but he is still left with anger and questions.
“They left us abandoned,” he said.
