When the scent of smoke from wildfires in the nearby hills began wafting through the San Diego air once again last week, residents in Scripps Ranch immediately thought back to 2003, when hundreds of homes burned to the ground.
Now, every time a fire gets within 100 miles — as it did again this week — residents ready a box with important documents, bottles of medication and copies of treasured photographs. They once again found themselves glued to the news, watching with the knowing sorrow that only survivors have.
After Jim Kuhlken, a landscape architect, learned that his recently renovated house had burned to the ground along with about 50 others on his block, he came up with a plan to hire one builder for as many homes in the neighborhood as possible. His pitch was simple: “If we can do this as a group, we can do it a lot cheaper.”
Dan Luka remembers the relief he felt when he signed with the developer that Mr. Kuhlken had helped arrange. It meant he could build a larger home with the same amount of insurance money and make fewer decisions — the kind of advice he would offer anyone starting to recover now.
To read more of Jennifer Medina's article, please click here.
A version of this article appears in print on December 11, 2017, on Page A11 of the New York edition with the headline: Vivid Memory Of Inferno Floods Back In San Diego.
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