A ranch-style home on Randwick Road in the Hillcrest neighborhood in Riverside burnt to the ground, leaving behind just the bottom half of burnt walls dripping with water and dark with scorch marks from a fire that was extinguished just hours before.
The home of Gary Staddan, a 10-year resident on Randwick Road, is just four doors from that burnt house.
Staddan said he saw the Hawarden fire that erupted on Sunday, July 21, on the other side of the hill as he went to open up his windows to let in the afternoon breeze.
Fireworks possibly caused destructive Hawarden fire in Riverside, authorities say
Once he saw the fire start to move toward the edge of his property, he hosed down the eaves and packed up necessities before taking his wife, who just had lung surgery, to a hotel for the night.
Staddan watched his home via a security-camera and saw his neighbors on either side hosing down not only their properties, but his as well.
• Also see: This map shows where the Hawarden and Eagle fires are burning in Riverside County
“It was a sad deal, but a lot of people came to the rescue, which was nice,” Stadden said on Monday, standing in his backyard.
The scorch marks from the fire came right up to Staddan’s fire break, a stretch just below his main yard covered in pebbles and free from foliage. Staddan said he maintains the firebreak because, while he didn’t recall a fire here before, such an occurrence was in the back of his mind.
“We always worried about it,” Staddan said.
He attributes the fact some homes are still standing to the bravery of his neighbors and the firefighters who stayed through the night putting out the blaze that hit several different neighborhoods.
Among the destroyed homes was Noel Piri’s.
He and his wife, three months pregnant, were in Orange County when they got a call that there was a fire in their neighborhood.
They arrived to rescue their dog. They called the Fire Department. No one showed up, he said.
By then, the fire appeared to have gotten a foothold near the home. After several calls, the firefighters did arrived, but by then half the house was on fire, he said.
Later Sunday, a dejected Piri rummaged through the home’s charred remains. He tried to understand the scope of the blaze and the challenge for firefighters, and he lamented the loss of a home he and his wife had remodeled just four months ago.
“It was kind of sad to see the house was gone,” he said, clearly stunned.
Bernadette Kovacs and her two sons and their tabby cat Pepper were the last family in the Orange Terrace Community Center on Sunday night. At one point, 20 had gathered there for safety.
Earlier in the day, the family watched as the fire crept up the creek bed behind the Kovacs’ home. They could hear the cracks and pops as it approached their backyard. Her husband watched the fire as others packed so they knew when they needed to leave.
“I always knew it was a possibility, but I never thought it would creep up that close,” Bernadette Kovacs said.
The Kovacs immediately began packing their bags and were in their cars by the time the police came to knock on their door.
“We came here just to get information, my little one was really anxious,” Kovacs said. “As soon as he saw the fire started, he started packing his bags.”
Kovacs said it was particularly challenging to convince the family cat to go into her crate but the family packed bags and important paperwork and then went out for ice cream while they awaited news. They received an alert about the evacuation center and decided to relocate there.
In the end, their home survived without any damage.
Linda Hernandez, 54, is a life-long Riverside resident. Her parents, who own a home next door to the Staddans, were out of town during the fire and called her and her older sister to go over to the home to evacuate it.
The sisters, a couple of nieces and nephews and her son secured important paperwork, moved vehicles, and watered down the eaves and surrounding plants to guard against the fire.
A nephew, who works in landscaping, turned on the sprinklers and found hose extensions.
“It came up to our neighbors’ gate over here and we were just spraying the hose as much as we could and we hopped on over to Gary’s house and started watering his bushes,” Hernandez said.
The fire’s scorch marks stopped at the edge of the property, at a fire break her father maintains. She said property on the other side of the house belongs to the city and workers had just cleared the brush two weeks prior.
Hernandez and her family left around 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, able to return to the home later that night to keep vigil over the house and to put out hot spots.
“We had to, it’s our parents’ house, and they have worked hard for everything they have,” Hernandez said.
Thirty years ago, her parents bought the house.
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“We were praying to all of our saints, and we really felt like they helped us and the community,” Hernandez said.
She said the fire trucks were out all day and night and her neighbors and other volunteers came by offering assistance, including food runs and water. At any given time, Hernandez said, there were at least 18 people out at the houses on the ridge hosing down surrounding properties and keeping an eye on the fire.
“It’s a good feeling to know you aren’t alone in times of need,” Hernandez said. “What I love about Riverside is we are all here for each other.”
