The fires that raged across San Diego County in October 2003 brought good luck to one unemployed woman, inspiring her to create a business that replaced the job she had lost in May 2002.

A year and a half ago, a sanguine Deborah Honeycutt dismissed the idea that San Diego might be a better market in which to be unemployed than California's other major cities.

"I'm optimistic, and I think that there are jobs out there," she said then —— noting that she had sent out 250 resumes in a scant six months, most of the time hearing nothing at all from the companies to which she sent them.

Laid off from IBM, with six months' severance pay and health insurance, she ended up eating into her savings when that ran out. Then her 39 weeks of unemployment compensation ran out, too.

She tried several money-making plans to keep body and soul together, including participating in medical trials for pay and becoming a notary public.

Honeycutt's Scripps Ranch home was not in the path of the flames, but she realized that many of her neighbors suffered losses they could not recoup because of poor record keeping. Homeowner after homeowner discovered that personal recollections weren't enough to convince insurance companies how much property they had lost.

"I lived off my savings, and I knew I had to get back to work," Honeycutt said.

"After the fires, the business that I put together was the California Home Inventory Co.: I made videos and digital pictures of people's personal property," she said.

"Primarily, the service was intended to target insurance purposes. An inventory is one of those things people say 'I'm gonna do it,' but they never do, so I did it," she said. "I documented what they owned, what condition it was in, and I'm not an appraiser, but I give my clients a portfolio that has a column to value their goods and a place to keep receipts. I also sold fireproof safes."

She started the business in May, two years after IBM laid her off, and never looked back.

"When I left IBM, I went through the whole retraining thing, and I discovered that what I really wanted to do was fund raising for a nonprofit. But to get a job doing that, you have to have experience, and I had none," Honeycutt said. "So, I couldn't get any interviews."

Nothing succeeds like success, though, and as she built her own business, she found an opportunity to try her hand at fund raising for St. Madeleine Sophie's Center in El Cajon. The center offers programs for developmentally disabled adults.

"When this fell into my lap, it was a great opportunity," said Honeycutt, who became a temporary fund-raiser under contract to the center. The contract runs out at midmonth, but Honeycutt said she has already been offered a full-time permanent job doing the same thing when the contract ends.

"I have the soft skills, and I have a good business head," the 53-year-old woman said. She thinks the job at St. Madeleine Sophie's is a dream come true.

What about her inventory business? She still does that, but it's a weekender now, something that she sees as a shield against the harsh winds of unemployment but not her principal calling.

Contact staff writer Edmond Jacoby at (760) 739-6675 or ejacoby@nctimes.com.