Charlie and Nikki Hoey stared at the pile of rubble and ash that used to be a house.
A few doors down, lay the remains of the home of Charlie’s brother, David Hoey, and his wife Carina.
The homes of both brothers and their families lost in the Airport fire.
“Wow,” Charlie Hoey said, letting out a low sigh as the couple got their first glimpse Thursday, Sept. 12 of what the Airport fire did to their home of 22 years.
The Hoeys are among a number of homeowners in a rural community off Ortega Highway near Lake Elsinore who lost everything in the blaze, which started Monday and to date has consumed more than 23,000 acres in Orange and Riverside counties.
Charred debris and burned-out husks of cars surrounded Charlie and Nikki Hoey’s property on Calle de Los Pinos Road, which branches off El Cariso Road. The fire blackened the hillsides and destroyed the Cleveland National Forest welcome sign not far from the gravel road to the community.
With their huskies Leia and Obi — the names an ode to Star Wars — Charlie and Nikki Hoey, both 51, walked around what’s left of their one-story, 2,600-square-foot home Thursday and took pictures. Charlie walked through the interior, describing a twisted hulk of metal that used to be a refrigerator and a crystal orb that was part of a rock collection.
There was little to no trace of the roughly 100 paintings — some painted by Nikki — that lined the home’s walls or the granite kitchen countertop; Charlie renovated the kitchen two years ago. He also spotted what appeared to be a steel saw and a damaged walker used by his 86-year-old father.
Nikki showed pictures of the home’s tile floors, stylish kitchen chairs, artwork and sliding glass doors leading to the backyard. “This used to be a beautiful house and now it’s just rubble,” an exasperated Charlie said.
Just down the road, Carina and David Hoey’s home is now just four pillars of what used to be a deck. Her husband, daughter, their two German Shepherds, and even the cat that had been hiding while they tried to evacuate Tuesday afternoon made it out safely. What didn’t survive, however, were 25 years of memories telling the story of a hardworking family of three.
The Hoeys’ homes on Calle de Pinos backs up to a hillside, putting their houses on the front line of the blaze, the dry brush adding kindling to the fire rather than helping to hold off the flames.
Charlie remained in his house long enough to photograph the fire approaching their backyards before evacuating. He planned to stick around and see if he could put out spot fires. “I basically had about an hour here and I walked up the street and saw the fire coming … it was like enveloping this whole area,” he said.
The evacuation warning and then order on Tuesday came in quick succession. About an hour or two later, police were knocking on Carina’s door letting her know it was time to go.
Once she and her husband had packed up what they could and left, they stopped alongside Ortega Highway to watch the flames charge down the hillside. Their home didn’t have a chance.
The last image captured by Carina and David Hoey’s Ring camera showed the house being invaded by bright orange flames.
On Wednesday, an aerial shot on the news confirmed the worst — their house was completely gone.
Some residents south of Ortega, whose homes survived, ventured up to the Hoey’s property and shared pictures of the wreckage they found. Their pickup truck’s hood melted off, as did the tires. Carina dream car, her green Jeep that she purchased a couple years ago, was just a hunk of metal.
“We were told that we were going to get a tanker and helicopters and dozers and all the fire trucks,” Carina said. “They never came.”
Charlie said the couple moved to the area because “you’re far enough away from the hustle and bustle and all the people and the crowds … (But) we’re an hour from anything — 40 minutes to the beach, an hour to the airport. Everything’s pretty close.”
About the community, he said: “Everybody’s kind of independent minded here. We all kind of do our own thing. We get together when we need to. We’re not busybodies here.”
The Hoeys created defensible space around their home. They gathered belongings when they got a Level Two warning about the fire — indicating a high probability of having to flee — and Nikki left when the Level Three warning came.
Photos and videos shared by Charlie showed a hellish landscape of towering flames and smoke just up the hill from their house.
Once he got in his car to leave, “all hell broke loose,” Charlie said.
“It was like a hurricane. It felt like the fire was sucking up the air and bringing it straight up. The wind all of a sudden shifted toward the fire and it was like 40 (and) 50 mile-an-hour winds and all the trees went crazy.”
The Hoeys grabbed some photos and “personal stuff and some documents,” Charlie said. But his passport and some IDs perished.
While lauding the firefighters on the ground as heroes, Charlie had harsh words for their top leadership, which he believes didn’t do enough to stop the Airport fire. He also bristles at how officials described the loss of his home and others on TV.
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“To me, that’s so antiseptic. It’s so lame,” he said. “I almost threw up watching that.”
Carina understands the strain fire departments are under as they battle multiple fires across Southern California, but she wishes they had notified her that support wasn’t going to come in time. Her family would have started packing up much earlier, possibly saving a lot more belongings.
She was fortunately more prepared than she was six years ago. After the Holy fire, she created a list of important things to grab in case of a fire.
Family and their four-legged friends were naturally top priority. Her husband is a general contractor and small business owner, so they made sure to grab as many of his tools as they could. Carina is a dental assistant, and gathered things from her office, along with important paperwork for the family. Some clothing and jewelry were packed into the cars as well.
Whatever is left of her wedding dress, which she had considered reworking into something her daughter might wear one day, is somewhere under the rubble along with her signed guestbook. The baby book, clothes and toys from her daughter’s first few years, and accumulated keepsakes all went up in smoke. It’s her greatest loss, Carina said.
Charlie and Nikki Hoey are staying at a Fallbrook Airbnb belonging to their friends and have already started the insurance process. Charlie said he’s not sure if the couple will try to rebuild or move elsewhere.
“I don’t want to wait,” he said.
Carina and David purchased their home just a few months before she gave birth to her daughter 15 years ago. It was the first home they purchased together, and the only home their daughter has known.
They were taken in by friends in San Clemente, where David grew up. The family isn’t sure whether they’ll rebuild or how long that would take. Right now, they’re grieving but grateful that they’re safe and together.
“Family is where all three of us are,” Carina said. “Home is where we are.”