Fire rebuilding moving slowly

By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer | Saturday, August 21, 2004 9:46 PM PDT ∞

SAN DIEGO ---- Ten months after firestorms devastated San Diego County, fewer than 4 percent of the 2,453 homes that were destroyed have been rebuilt ---- and more than two-thirds of fire victims still haven't obtained building permits, planners said last week.

Some officials said they thought rebuilding process was moving so slowly because many fire victims were still struggling to collect settlements from insurers ---- if they had insurance at all.

Fire survivors who have rebuilt said last week that they were overjoyed to be in their new homes and shocked and saddened that so many others were not.

"I'd be going nuts by now if we weren't back in," said Sandra Kelley, whose fully insured, 18-month-old home on Cerro Vista Way in Ramona was torched by the Cedar fire. The home was rebuilt in late May. "I just think we were so blessed."

One less fortunate victim said he may never be able to rebuild.

A bleak outlook

Rick Stangler now lives in a travel trailer instead of the house his parents willed to him in the Mussey Grade area of Ramona. With no insurance and what he described as bad credit, he said he now hopes that a charity will one day build him a new home at no cost before he has to give up the land.

"I consider that trailer my coffin," Stangler said somberly. "Really. I have no idea what I'm going to do."

Some of the bleakest rebuilding numbers came from unincorporated areas of the county ---- communities such as Ramona, Valley Center, Lakeside and Julian ---- where most destruction occurred.

Through mid-August, just 129 structures in unincorporated county areas had been rebuilt, out of 2,065 homes that were destroyed, said Scott Gilmore, building permit processing coordinator for the county of San Diego.

But only 91 of those rebuilt buildings were actual homes. The others were detached garages, barns, carports, sheds, cabins, even plumbing and electrical system repairs for mobile-home lots.

And of the 91 homes, just 37 were traditional houses, built from the foundation up.

All the numbers

The rest were manufactured homes ---- cheaper houses built in factories and trucked out to home sites. Officials said many fire victims have chosen to put in the manufactured homes because they hadn't enough insurance to cover rebuilding.

Gilmore also said that county planners had certified only 529 other building permits for fire victims, representing about one-quarter of the remaining destroyed homes in the unincorporated areas of the county.

Officials with the cities of San Diego and Poway said their numbers were only slightly better.

Cynthia Queen, with the city of San Diego's development services, said 312 homes in Scripps Ranch and 12 homes in Tierrasanta were destroyed by the fires.

Just one home, situated in Scripps Ranch, has been finished and the family has moved back in. But, Queen said, a dozen more homes could pass final inspection and be occupied in a few weeks. The city had issued 218 building permits, meaning that almost two-thirds of the remaining homeowners have applied and received permits to rebuild.

Affordability

Queen said that city of San Diego officials have gotten the feeling that in upper-middle-class Scripps Ranch, many fire victims were taking longer to rebuild because they were upgrading ---- building "dream" homes.

Poway planner Patty Brindle said 53 homes were destroyed there.

Three have been rebuilt. But the city has issued 22 building permits, representing almost half of the remaining homes.

County officials said their meager numbers showed fire victims were continuing to struggle.

When few fire victims were trickling in to get building permits in the months just after the fires, Gilmore and other county officials said they weren't surprised or disappointed.

They said they expected it would take fire victims several months to settle insurance claims and prepare building plans. The crush of rebuilding, they said, would come this summer.

Measuring difficulty

But that crush hasn't happened, Gilmore said.

"Maybe the bottom line is that these numbers show just how much difficulty fire survivors are having trying to rebuild," he said. "Many of them are underinsured."

Carrie Beckstein of California's Department of Insurance said Gilmore was right. She said officials from the department, which oversees the state's $106 billion a year insurance industry, have heard numerous stories from fire victims who had too little coverage or no insurance at all.

Insurance trade organizations have reported they've settled 84 percent of claims from the fires.

But the Insurance Information Network of California said that figure was deceiving.

The group polled fire victims in April and said the 84 percent settlement figure was for all claims ---- including those for minor damage ---- and was not limited to destroyed homes.

Network spokesman Peter Moraga said the poll reported insurers had settled only 24 percent of claims for people who lost their homes.

Happy to be home

Bob Shepherd, a Ramona resident whose home on Ziegler Court has been rebuilt, said last week that he and his three daughters were just happy to be home again.

Both he and Kelley, the Cerro Vista Way homeowner who has rebuilt, said they had great experiences with their insurance companies. They had full coverage, they said, and agents immediately cut them checks to buy new clothes and personal items and to rent shelter until their homes could be rebuilt.

"I was in good shape," Shepherd said. "I got enough money to rebuild and cover the contents of my house. In fact, there was more money than I needed."

Kelley, meanwhile, said she and her husband, Kevin, consciously took out maximum insurance on their new home. She said the rebuilding process was smooth, but that her family felt that some companies and businesses tried to gouge fire victims.

Kelley said one landscaping company offered to put in new irrigation and plant new trees and shrubs on their half-acre lot for $38,000 ---- nearly three times the $10,000 the family paid when they moved in 18 months before the fires.

Other residents, such as Stangler, are still struggling. Because his mortgage had been paid off, Stangler said he let his fire insurance lapse. Topping off his troubles, he said, his credit rating wasn't good enough to qualify for one of the thousands of low-interest loans given to fire victims by the federal Small Business Association.

Stangler, who also lost his home-based painting business in the fire, has been working to help restore fire-damaged county parks. He said he expects the county will eventually tell him he can't live on his property unless he rebuilds.

"The trailer is free and clear, but it's only temporary," he said. "What am I going to do? Where am I going to go?"

Contact staff writer Gig Conaughton at (760) 739-6696 or gconaughton@nctimes.com.