Hope ignites after firestorm
Trio of SWC instructors lose homes
By: Esmeralda F. Ramirez
Issue date: 10/13/07 Section: News
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Starley Dullien
English as a Second Language Adjunct Instructor
One thing SWC part-timer Starley Dullien was sad about losing when she found out her house had fallen to the Witch Creek fire was her book collection.
Dullien had more than 2,000 books in her Ramona residence, some dating to the 1880s. She had several first editions in leather-bound backings and hard-to-find books written by European authors.
"If you have something and you look at that object and there are memories attached to it, that goes deeper than just buying something pretty here and there," said Dullien. "And you know, they may just have cost 50 cents, but they have much more value."
Dullien's books burned along with her house which was purchased only six months ago. She had only lived in the 1,400 sq. ft. house for three months and said she was more attached to the things inside than to the building itself.
Bottom line, though, it is all just stuff, she said.
"This inner voice tells you, 'It's time to go,'" said Dullien. "I wouldn't even expect the firemen to risk their life in something like that. That night it would have been crazy. It was just awful."
In the aftermath of the fire the Dulliens ended up in a metal trailer home on their charred lot. Only a cream-colored shed and a set of ash-covered patio furniture survived.
Dullien and her husband came to the United States from Germany when she was 23 years old. They had lived
in a trailer then.
"Now we're going back to a trailer," she said. "So we think it's a full circle of life."
Walter Harrison
Business Adjunct Instructor
When Harrison went back to his burned-down home in Deerhorn Valley, he found melted remnants of his car in the driveway.
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