October 20, 2011
VOL. 125, ISSUE 35• 50¢
Ramona Sentinel
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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20 2011
Inside
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Coloring winners Winners in the Ramona Fire Department Coloring Contest held at Station 80 on Saturday can claim their prizes at Station 82. Names of the winners are listed inside.......15
Four Years Later....
Lawsuits, upgrades, proposed rate hike
This is one in a continuing series on wildfires and fire prevention and protection. With Oct. 21 marking the fourth anniversary of the Witch fire and Oct. 25 marking the eighth anniversary of the Cedar fire, Ramona Sentinel looks at SDG&E changes since the start of the Witch fire and the status of lawsuits against the utility. By ROSE MARIE SCOTT-BLAIR It’s been exactly four years since huge wildfires torched swathes of land, destroying more than
Kitchen tour Ramona designer Marlene Holmquist is one of 14 in the county chosen for the American Society of Interior Designers tour.........16
Index
P.O. Box 367 Ramona, CA 92065
Presorted Standard US Postage PAID Ramona CA Permit No 136
Our Town....................7 Opinion......................8 Flickers.....................12 Women in Business...21 NJROTC........ ...........25 Coupons....................42 Obituaries.................43
1,300 homes in many parts of San Diego County, including Ramona and Ramona’s backcountry. The devastation began when a fire was ignited in
Witch Creek Canyon near Santa Ysabel on the morning of Oct. 21, 2007, and quickly spread to San Diego Country Estates and Ramona. Since investigators blamed power lines for starting three of the wildfires in the region, San Diego Gas & Electric has been hit with about 1,200
lawsuits. To date, the utility has settled 777 cases, using all of its $1.1 billion in liability insurance and then some, and another 420 cases are still pending, said SDG&E spokesman Stephanie Donovan. In Ramona, many of the uninsured and underinsured homeowners are being represented by a group
Motion questions SDG&E budget decisions By ROSE MARIE SCOTT-BLAIR Before the devastating 2007 wildfires, had San Diego Gas & Electric cut back its budget for maintaining its overhead lines, even in the face of increased fire danger brought on
by a 10-year drought? That appears to be the message of a motion filed in San Diego Superior Court last week by the San Diego Fire Victims Lawyers group that represents more than 1,000 Ramona homeowners who have
sued SDG&E for the damage done to their homes in the 2007 fires. The motion asks that SDG&E be required to produce documents related to past rate hike requests because “the documents will show See COURT MOTION on page 6
of attorneys called San Diego Fire Victim Lawyers, who have an office at 1410 Main St. “We represent 520 properties, most of which are in Ramona, and as of this week, we have settled about 260 cases, so close to half of them,” said Mitch Wagner, one of the attorneys. “So, in general, we have been very successful, but people understand that settlement means compromise, so our clients are not going to get as much as they would if we took it all the way to a trial. “Some have accepted the settlements grudgingly, See 4 YEARS LATER on page 6
Life goes on— but differently By ROSE MARIE SCOTT-BLAIR Two Ramona families who lost their homes four years ago in the Witch fire have rebuilt, but life will never be the same. “You have this life before and then in a blink of an eye you have this other life and everything is new and not familiar. It’s hard to get used to,” said Raelynn Hamilton, who lost her home, and another that she used as a rental, at her property on Magnolia Avenue in northeast Ramona. As a single mother of
two adult children not living at her home, Hamilton had to evacuate three horses and four dogs with the help of a 72-yearold renter, who drove the horse trailer. “My biggest challenge was lifting my old Doberman-Lab mix dog, who weighed about 90 pounds, to put him in the back of my pickup,” Hamilton said. “And as I drove out, it was so smoky I couldn’t see through the windshield. I had to put my head out the window See FAMILIES on page 3
Sentinel photo/Maureen Robertson
Darrell Beck, whose home was destroyed in the Witch fire, stands in front of his famly’s new home off Ash Street.