Banner Image above: Joan and Larry sift through the remains of their home

Larry Himmel
The Saturday night before deadly and destructive wildfires first swept through San Diego County at the end of October, KFMB-TV reporter Larry Himmel told his wife, Joan, and 15-year-old son, Miles, that the following evening he wanted to gather together to watch home-taped family movies — nothing out of the ordinary for the tight-knit Himmels They didn’t have the chance, however. On Sunday, Larry was called on to cover the developing Witch Fire. By the next morning, that same fire was inching uncomfortably close to the Himmels’ hilltop Rancho Bernardo home. Larry instructed his wife and son to evacuate immediately. Shortly after, he and his news crew drove up the steep, smoky road to his house, accompanied by a fire truck.

What happened then would be broadcast around the world. As the fire moved down the hill behind the Himmels’ property, a few of the surrounding trees caught alight. Within minutes, a 30-foot-high wall of flames engulfed the two-story house. All of this happened on camera, with Larry reporting valiantly as his house and all his family’s belongings burned to the ground.

"If I’d just been sitting there watching it burn, it would’ve been overwhelming," he explains. "I had a job to do. I had adrenaline pumping and I was thinking of the thousands of San Diegans whose homes were burning too. I much rather would’ve known what happened than to have been sitting in an evacuation center for four days, not knowing."

A couple of weeks after the fire, the Himmels returned to the site of their former home to meet with contractors and visit their dogs, who were boarded with a nearby neighbor.

"I said to Larry, ‘This is a very good way to de-clutter the house,’" Joan jokes with a tired smile. She points out where things used to be: Miles’ bedroom, Larry’s "very cool room," a grown-up clubhouse with a vintage jukebox and slot machine, as well as a home radio setup.

Larry spots the burned-out carcass of the slot machine and picks it up with gloved hands. He shakes out a few blackened quarters that were still inside and hands them to Joan. "Put them toward rebuilding," he teases her.

Joan tries to keep up the good humor, but as she looks around — from the hillside where her neighbors’ house had burned toward the valley where neat rows of houses had escaped unscathed — she appears incredibly weary.

"I lost ten days of my life," she says. "I looked in the mirror and thought, ’I’ve aged ten years.’ I feel like a zombie."

When Larry had called to tell his wife and son to evacuate, Joan thought they’d be back in the house in no time. They’d been evacuated before and everything had been fine. She escaped with her wedding ring, rings that had belonged her mother and mother-in-law, and an armful of framed photos that she’d scooped off the top of the piano. Miles had grabbed his retainer and cell phone.

"If I’d known it was the real thing, I would’ve taken more," Joan says. "Why didn’t I throw the silver in the bottom of the pool? Why didn’t I get the photo albums? It was so early and I just didn’t have the presence of mind." Larry says he was most distraught over the destruction of his family’s irreplaceable home movies.

"They had my son’s first steps and him saying, ‘daddy,’" he laments. "And us singing along to the jukebox. ‘Light My Fire’ and ‘Go Cubs Go!’"

Joan thinks that the fire has been hardest on her son, who’d always been a happy homebody. Two years from now, by the time the house is rebuilt, he’ll be heading off for college. Until then, he’ll live in a rented home without any of his beloved childhood possessions.

"[Kids] don’t understand this kind of loss," Joan says.

But in spite of all this, the Himmels are ready to move on. The weekend of our interview, they invited over several close friends to help them sift through all the rubble.

"Part of the closure is you go through and see if you can find any treasures," says Larry, surveying the mountain of debris. "I’ll be glad when the demo crew gets everything cleared away. It’s the next step of grieving."

Down by the driveway, a nearby church has dropped off sifting boxes, with "How can we help?" and a phone number scrawled in black marker. An anonymous do-gooder had also left shovels, a bag of protective masks, and a potted orange tree — a vibrant green symbol of hope against the charred landscape.

"I’m very lucky," Larry says. "I have my family. And people have been so kind and shown such compassion. If people would keep treating people the way they have been, all of the world’s problems would be solved."
— AnnaMaria Stephens, photos by Kristy Ann Mann
Diane Keaton
Animal Enthusiasm
The morning of our interview, actress Diane Keaton discovered that rats had chewed through her daughter Dexter’s allowance money. The rats are Oreo and Baby-O, and they are 12-year-old Dexter’s pets of choice. "Never in my life did I think I would love rats, but they’ve become a significant part of our lives. We adore them," Keaton laughs.

Animals have been significant in Keaton’s life since childhood. "We always had animals," she recalls. "My mother’s fondest desire was that she’d have a cat farm, so we always had cats. Now she’s 87 and still has cats."

Besides the two rats, Keaton’s has a fish and two adopted dogs. "My whole family adopts dogs," she says. "What’s so sweet about it is the kind of love they give you, how they change your life. They enrich our lives enormously. In these times, our lives are so busy and frantic. We need these animals to calm down, to give and receive affection."

Since 1999, Keaton has helped to encourage pet adoption on a global level, as spokesperson for Iams Home 4 the Holidays, a program founded by the Helen Woodward Animal Center. Many families bring new pets into their homes during the
holidays — Home 4 the Holidays encourages those families to adopt those pets rather than support puppy mills and breeders.

In 1999, the first year of the program, Home 4 the Holidays completed 2,563 dog and cat adoptions during the months of November and December. Since then, the program has grown enormously. To date, it has completed over 1.5 million holiday season pet adoptions. Over 2,000 shelters are involved, encompassing 14 different countries.

Helen Woodward’s John Van Zante recalls the first time Keaton toured the facility, years ago. "She came down, walked around, talked to staff members, talked to volunteers. Any animal that got within arms reach got petted by Diane Keaton." In 2006, Keaton received the Helen Woodward Animal Center Humane Award, the organization’s highest honor. "Diane the perfect person for this — she always adopts," says Van Zante. "The woman has Oscars at home! But when it comes time for a pet, she looks to animal shelters and rescues because she believes in that."

"Over 1.5 million animals have been placed in homes," marvels Keaton. "Think about that. Where would they be otherwise? They wouldn’t be here." She is effusive in praising the work being done at Helen Woodward. "The idea of adopting animals for the holidays was a brand new idea, a completely innovative idea, and it works so well," she says. "I signed on because on my own what was I going to do? I don’t know how to do any of this, I’m just an actress, a personality, so use me. If I could help in any way, I just wanted to be part of this amazing, creative team that really does the job the way it needs to be done — and gets these orphaned animals adopted."

And Keaton thinks animals make great gifts. "This year, so many toys have been recalled for safety reasons. Let’s get real — why die when you can get an animal?" she says with a laugh.

Keaton grew up in Southern California, and she identifies the holiday season strongly with this region. "I love to go to the desert for Christmas," she says, pointing out that the desert landscape is a beautifully authentic representation of Christmas. She and her family often visit The Living Desert, "a wonderful zoo outside of Palm Springs."

Keaton says she is a big gift-giver during the holidays, and of course she includes her pets — they have their own Christmas stockings. She says the best Christmas gifts she ever received are her two children, Dexter, 12, and Duke, 7, both of whom she adopted near the holiday season. (800/421-6456, www.animalcenter.org/home4theholidays)
— Joanie Mendenhall, photo by Evan Agostini/Getty Images

 


© 2007 Rocket Publishing Company, Inc.    760.942.2330     P.O. Box 676130, Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067