Cherished possessions saved from flames provide some solace

His hillside home smoldered. Only a handful of memories were spared.

As Shane Clark assessed his incinerated Bell Canyon property on Saturday — one of more than a dozen houses leveled in the community by the aggressive, wind-fueled Woolsey fire — four pieces of paper offered solace.

Thoughtful firefighters snagged some of the 28-year-old accountant’s belongings, including his most important possession: four ultrasound images of Clark’s unborn son, which the first responders nabbed off the fridge right before flames engulfed the home.

“These are the only copies we have,” Clark said, as firefighters continued to spray water on his smoldering property. “We can rebuild, but the things they were able to take out were more valuable than the structure itself.”

“I’m very thankful for what they could do,” he said.

No such memories were spared for some of Clark’s neighbors.

“Everything I have has turned to ash,” said Greg Meneshian, after surveying his house — what little was left of it — on Saturday, mere hours after the Woolsey fire swept through Bell Canyon, torching his home to the ground.

As neighbors slowly returned to the eastern Ventura County hillside community on Saturday in the wake of the wind-fueled blaze, many learned for the first time whether they still had homes. The fire had skittered cruelly through the area, leveling some 15 to 20 houses while ignoring others entirely.

Chimneys and stone masonry stood bare next to charred cars. Hillside homes disappeared into avalanches of smoldering debris. Live gas lines burned freely, shooting flames into the air. A noxious smell of burnt plastic pervaded.

Meneshian first learned of the destruction via a text message video that showed his house ablaze. When he finally was able to survey the damage for himself, he said he could identify only three of his belongings. On Saturday, he wondered aloud how he’d keep his two daughters in their local school district now that his home was destroyed.

“My kids are taking it really hard, especially my oldest, because all her memories are gone,” Meneshian said. “I really don’t know what’s next.”

Firefighters worked Saturday to extinguish spot fires around Bell Canyon hillside neighborhood. The Woolsey fire has become one of the most destructive in the region’s history, burning 70,000 acres, destroying more than 100 homes, and displacing upwards of a quarter-million people.

While most Bell Canyon residents left the neighborhood as the fire approached Friday, others stayed behind to fight the blaze first-hand.

Mark Leiss, 49, said he used his garden hose and buckets of water to battle the fire as it approached his property, even as three of his neighbors’ homes burned to the ground.

Micki Davidovicz, who left her home quickly with her fiance and three dogs on Friday as flames approached, was told by a neighbor that her home had burned. But as she drove up her street Saturday, she learned her friend had been mistaken.

“We have a home!” Davidovicz exclaimed, getting out of her car. “I was crying that I didn’t get my daughter’s bat mitzvah photos.”

“We can rebuild, but the things they were able to take out were more valuable than the structure itself.”

— Shane Clark, Bell Canyon