Angora -- John weighs options

july 08 unedited tahoe mt. news

Editor's note: This is a monthly article following one of the hundreds of people who lost their homes in the Angora Fire in summer 2007.

By Kathryn Reed

It is down to a numbers game for John Mauriello. He thought he’d know before Fourth of July what the future holds for him, but his insurance adjuster went on vacation.
Sometime this month The Hartford, his insurer through AARP, is expected to come back with a dollar amount to settle the total loss of his house on Mount Olympia Circle from last summer’s Angora Fire. One amount will have him rebuild, one will have him looking to buy somewhere else on the South Shore.
On June 17, Mauriello was with the adjuster in Montgomery Estates to show the guy an almost identical house to the one he lost
“He had a contractor and architect from Sacramento go through the house with a fine tooth comb,” Mauriello said. “When they built houses then they didn’t have pre-made trusses. They had lumber delivered to the job site. Trusses were custom cut. That is all money.”
Even though he says there seems to be some sort of magnet that keeps drawing people back to the burn area, he isn’t convinced he wants to stay there. He’s 69. He doesn’t have 50 years to wait for the forest to be reborn.
From the deck of his rental, which is walking distance from his barren lot, he enjoys the views of Echo. The rebuilding is encouraging. But then he turns slightly and the view is of the blackened Angora Ridge. In all about 3,100 acres went up in flames.
“I look at Tahoe Mountain. It’s dead, dead, dead,” Mauriello said.
He envisions the area being incredible again one day – he just doesn’t have the time or patience to see it happen. If the money is right, he wants to buy elsewhere.
The one-year anniversary of the day that changed his life – June 24 – was spent at the Horizon. The benefit concert for Angora survivors was not well attended, but those who did show up enjoyed the multiple bands which took the stage.
Mauriello said it was good to have someplace to go. In between listening to Elvin Bishop and the others, the retiree took a petition around to people to have them sign their name to acknowledging their desire to have the forest replanted. He’s going to keep at it. He may even wind up in front of Raley’s one Saturday with petition in hand.
The investigation is ongoing into who let the illegal campfire at Seneca Pond smolder before it became the roaring devastation known as the Angora Fire. A Tahoe resident is considered a person of interest by the El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office and U.S. Forest Service. As of press time, no arrests had been made.
One sign that Mauriello is moving on is that conversations are more diverse – it’s not all insurance, fire and forest. He is worried about the South Shore. He worries about being told Big Dogs, Geoffrey Beene and the Chocolate Factory are leaving the Y. He wonders if the people stuck for 2.5 hours in traffic during Opening Days will bother coming back here.
Then he goes back home. He goes to water the itty-bitty trees he planed. They’ve about doubled in size to 3.5 inches. It’s that kind of progress that makes Mauriello keep believing in Lake Tahoe.