Nightmare continues for homeowner

Dorothy Roth’s nightmare began on February 10, 2002, and is still plaguing her. That was the day that flames encroached upon her hilltop home in the Santa Margarita area of Fallbrook only a little over a mile from Mission Road. The wildfire was moving so rapidly that she had no time to take anything with her. Even her purse was reduced to ashes.

“I escaped ‘on foot,’ ” she said. “I say ‘on foot’ because occasionally a foot would hit the ground.” Dorothy also lost her avocado grove, which was her main source of income. Actually, she lost everything but her life.

On February 10 of this year, the third anniversary of the Gavilan Fire which destroyed 43 Fallbrook area homes, Dorothy stood amongst the ruins of her home viewing the twisted metal cabinets and lone chimney while she pondered the events of the last three years.

The 360-degree view is still amazing and green grass and wildflowers now carpet what was once charred ground. An occasional blackened oak tree is visible and yellow clover blossoms shoot up around the scorched trunk of a fan palm. The rubble is a mass of roof tiles, chicken wire, and rusting hulks of appliances. A burned-out shell of a jeep rusts in the driveway.

Why is her home still a mass of rubble? Dorothy’s insurance company is shirking their responsibility and she hasn’t received even a penny of compensation. “They have refused to pay anything, so we are going through the court system,” she said. The insurance company is a small Southern California business that was assigned to her by her mortgage company. “The service was paid for and then when the service was claimed it wasn’t there,” Dorothy lamented.

A few months ago a court date had been set, but it fell through. The insurance company was unhappy with Dorothy’s choice of a law firm because the firm had won cases against the company in the past. The court ordered Dorothy to switch law firms. She then began the process once more and the insurance company, once again, threw up a ‘roadblock.’ “It is amazing to me the number of ‘roadblocks’ the insurance company has thrown in my path,” she commented. “It has been three years now and we are still trying to get a trial. It is very frustrating.”

The entire ordeal has been a nightmare for Dorothy, but she believes a court date will be assigned soon. She is optimistic and feels the court will rule in her favor. “It’s the right thing,” she said.

For two and a half years after the fire Dorothy had been calling a small travel trailer home. “I don’t have any money to put toward a nice place to live,” she said. Dorothy has been faithful in paying her mortgage on the burned property. “I don’t want to lose it.”

Many of the victims of the Gavilan Fire had to accept payments that were a great deal lower than their property value, but as far as Dorothy knows, all of the other victims have been compensated.