Out in the cold
Condo fire leaves 16 seniors without homes for holidays
OFF LIMITS—Red tape stretches around a building at Oaknoll Villas that was badly damaged by a fire Dec. 1. The cause of the blaze has yet to be determined. RICHARD GILLARD/Acorn NewspapersIt was nearly 6 p.m. Dec. 1 when Barbara Brown, at home in her upstairs condominium, began smelling smoke. Soon it began pouring into her apartment.
It was her first sign of a fire that began in an adjacent unit at Oaknoll Villas senior community and may leave her and a handful of others temporarily homeless in the midst of the holiday season and well into the new year.
“We had a meeting yesterday, and they told us there’s a possibility we may not be able to get into our units for three or four months,” the 79-year-old said on Tuesday.
Of the 14 units within the building affected by the fire, eight are going to have to be practically rebuilt, said Oaknoll Homeowners Association President Phyllis Belisle.
“There’s some really significant structural damage, and they’re going to have to strip it down to the studs,” she said. “In all four of the upper units, the ceilings were broken through, and you can see daylight when you step inside.”
Initially 16 people were displaced, but residents in some of the less affected units may be able to move in sooner than the months long time frame.
Word of the blaze reached the Ventura County Fire Department around 5:55 p.m. last Thursday. Within minutes, 60 firefighters were battling the raging inferno.
A woman who lives in the unit where the fire is believed to have started told firefighters she first saw flames coming from a bathroom ceiling fan in her upstairs unit, though an official cause has not been determined, said Capt. Mike Lindbery, VCFD spokesperson.
The blaze spread from unit to unit through a shared attic.
“Because it was in so many different units, we had to have firefighters and hoses in each unit,” Lindbery said.
The public information officer said he’d heard that one of the residents banged on doors of the condos in the building to alert and help evacuate their neighbors, some as old as 90 and 91.
There was only one resident still in the building by the time firefighters arrived.
Crews quickly got that resident out, Lindbery said.
The fire raged for nearly two hours before it was extinguished around 7:40 p.m. In all, seven units suffered fire damage; others were damaged by water and smoke.
In addition to VCFD, the American Red Cross came ready to help.
They offered blankets, food and shelter to residents who needed it, but according Belisle, only four people needed shelter because residents of the 419-unit complex offered beds to their newly homeless neighbors.
“The neighbors all came out and said ‘I’ve got an extra bed,’ ‘I’ve got a couch you can sleep on,’” Belisle said.
Brown was one of the people who stayed with a neighbor. She said she left with just her purse and her jacket, though after the flames were out firefighters went into her upstairs unit to retrieve a few items.
“The fire department was phenomenal, and they even brought everything down to me, like my address book,” she said on Friday morning, the day after the fire. “I just told them where it was and they went and got it.”
She needed the book in order to call her landlord and let him know what had happened, she said.
By that morning, Brown had not been allowed back in her unit. Looking at her home from across the street, she didn’t yet have plans for where she would stay. For the past few nights, she’s been at a local hotel.
“My boss was able to help get me a reduced rate,” said Brown, who works as a community coordinator for the Greater Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce.
She was back at work this week.
“For the long term, I’m going to have to figure something else out,” Brown said.
Residents have been allowed back in the units to gather clothes and other possessions they need, and warehouse space is being provided for storing furniture and other items while cleanup and construction crews assess the damage and start repairing the roof and attics above the units and removing or cleaning carpeting and drywall.
The building dates back to 1978.
“At the meeting yesterday our property manager stressed that removing items from the units is the first step,” Belisle said. “I look around my house and imagine having to pack up and remove everything within 24 hours—and half of it needing to be cleaned or thrown away.”
Even while facing being homeless on Christmas, Brown tried to look on the bright side.
“The firefighters were able to keep it from spreading,” she said. “And no one got hurt.”
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