Diana Weatherholt, who is on crutches following recent knee surgery, stands beside what was her ranch-style home on Larkin Valley Road Monday after the Trabing Fire tore through her neighborhood Friday. PHOTO OF THE DOG: Mario Morales, whose house was destroyed Friday in the Trabing Fire on Larkin Valley Road, said he is still searching for his female dog, Gouda. The grey/blue and white, 8-year-old blue-nosed pit bull might be wearing a harness. If you know of the whereabouts of Gouda, call Morales at 345-0522.

Diana Weatherholt stood by a pile of ashes on her Larkin Valley Road property Monday, surveying what was left of the home in which her family has lived for the past 16 years.

There was precious little. A jumble of twisted pipes jutted from the blackened ground, surrounded by the twisted hunks of ruined appliances. The only recognizable structure left standing is a giant stone fireplace reaching into the sky.

It was the home in which Weatherholt had raised her two daughters, now 19 and 23. When they first saw the old house in 1979, they knew it needed work, but that didn’t deter the young couple from buying the place.

“The first time we walked in, we felt its arms go around us,” she said. “It said, ‘this is the place you’re going to raise your children.’”

Weatherholt’s older daughter, Jamie Ueberrhein, spent more than half her life in the house.

“You think of it as being so strong and sturdy,” she said. “I close my eyes and I can feel the carpet under my feet.”

As she sifted through the rubble, Ueberrhein found a tiny porcelain bathtub, a remnant from a dollhouse she had played with as a child.

When she first learned a wildfire was approaching her house, Weatherholt looked out her window and saw a fire burning a good distance away. She wasn’t worried yet, but to be safe she gathered an armload of important things — a laptop computer and a few family photo albums. Soon, a neighbor was screaming for her to leave.

“I looked out my door, and saw a wall of flame 15 feet high that singed my eyebrows,” she said. “I had four minutes to get out.”

Weatherholt, who uses crutches to walk after knee surgery last month, managed to escape the flames. Her dog and a cat also got out, and a second cat came back Sunday. Her daughters and parents were not in the house that day.

The Cal Fire firefighters, knowing that saving the house was a losing battle, nevertheless removed photos from the fireplace mantle, and a computer tower from the living room.

“They were the best, the best,” said Weatherholt of the fire crews.

The flames were so hot — some estimated they reached 3,000 degrees — they melted a collection of Civil War-era coins stored in a metal box that had once belonged to Weatherholt’s grandfather. A giant shed on a nearby property lay twisted and broken, the corrugated metal roof severely warped by the heat.

The Trabing Fire started June 20 along Highway 1 near Watsonville. It scorched 630 acres and destroyed 10 homes and 10 outbuildings. The fire required hundreds of personnel.

On Monday afternoon, workers were breaking down the Trabing Fire base camp, dismantling the village of tents erected at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds to house nearly 600 personnel who helped with the suppression efforts. A mobile cafeteria was expected to serve its last hot meal Monday afternoon.

Mobile fire base camps like these are designed to be quickly constructed and dismantled — the Trabing base camp took a mere six hours to erect.

In the Arts and Crafts building, officials in a makeshift command center were also wrapping up their operations.

Even as the Trabing Fire was being mopped up, a series of small blazes erupted along Highway 17 in the early afternoon, closing the southbound lane and snarling traffic.

Fire crews are still finding and controlling “hot spots” from the Trabing Fire, as well as the Summit and Martin fires. The dry, hot weather and several lightning strikes have added to an intense, early fire season. Officials from Cal Fire said on Monday there were 842 separate fires burning throughout the state.

“There’s no end in sight right now,” said Gary Gomez, a Cal Fire staff member who has been ordering all the supplies for the Trabing Fire base camp, from food to fire engines. Gomez has been at the command center — the same one used for the Summit Fire — since the Summit Fire broke out May 22.

Warren Scott, who has been living in the area for six years, came home Monday to see that his house had been spared from the fire.

“We got lucky,” he said, but also says he spent $3,000 clearing the brush from around his five-bedroom house only three weeks ago.

“The important thing is to clear around your property,” he said. “It matters.”

Scott was echoing advice Cal Fire gives every year to residents of rural properties.

Mario Morales spent the better part of Monday in his car, parked near the spot where his home once stood. He had long since determined he had lost everything, and was now only waiting for his dog, Gouda, to come home. The friendly, 7-year-old female blue-nosed pit bull hasn’t been seen since the fire.

“She’s a good dog,” he said, his eyes hopefully scanning the horizon. “Everyone loves her.”

The residents whose homes were destroyed by the Trabing Fire have been struck by the generosity of their neighbors. A man who lives across the street gave Morales money — simply threw a handful of cash into his car and refused offers of eventual reimbursement.

Miranda van Dierendonck, the owner of Purrfect Girl clothing store in Aptos, gave Weatherholt’s family a bag of clothes and set up an account at the store — anyone who wishes can either add money, or buy merchandise at a 25-percent discount.

Ueberrhein has started a fund for those in the neighborhood who have lost their homes to the blaze. The donations will be evenly divided among the neighbors.

Weatherholt says she plans to rebuild the house, but says she won’t move back. There are simply too many memories, she said.

Morales said he’ll likely rebuild, but the process will take a long time. He can’t even start cleaning up until his insurance company finishes its assessment. Still, he considers himself lucky.

“My family’s safe, my kids are OK,” he said. “The rest you can buy in a flea market.”

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To contribute to Ueberrhein’s neighborhood fund, send donations to Jamie Ueberrhein, 2695 Greenwich St., Apartment 105, San Francisco, California 94123.

To contribute to the Purrfect Girl account, visit the store at 28 Rancho Del Mar in Aptos.

Anyone who finds or sees Morales’ dog Gouda is encouraged to call his cell phone at 345-0522.

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*Photos by Tarmo Hannula*

(Published in 6/24/08 edition)

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