Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

The Hillcrest Fire: Gwen's Story

On Monday, July 25, at 7:30, Moxie Theatre hosts "After the Fire - a Benefit Jam for Jason Connors and Gwen Fish." They lost everything in the recent Hillcrest fire.

During the day, Gwen Fish teaches English as a Foreign Language at UCSD. At night, she's an indefatigable stage manager for Diversionary and Moxie theaters.

Last Wednesday around 3:30, her landlord left a message on her cell phone. Gwen was teaching and didn't check calls until 4:30. The message said: "Are you okay? We've been trying to reach you...about the fire."

Gwen called a friend. "Fire?"

"On the news. Looks like your building. 1033 University, right?"

The friend picked her up. As they drove into Hillcrest, the traffic thickened. They had to park several blocks away from a perimeter set up by police. They came upon a turmoil of fire trucks, bulging hoses snaking across the street, giant ladders angled toward a roof. Helicopters hovered near a pillar of smoke rising from her home.

"It was so strange for it to be at my place. Like watching a horrible car wreck and hoping everyone's okay? Only this is my car wreck."

People from the Red Cross approached her in red vests. "You live here?"

"Yes," Gwen replied with a crazy smile ("Nothing had sunk in yet; it was all surrealism.")

The Red Cross people "took control," Gwen laughs, "like a stage manager." They offered granola bars and asked residents to fill out some forms. "All very orderly - a point of focus and a big help since everything else was unreal. Just filling out forms - it felt like a positive step."

She couldn't enter her second floor studio apartment until Saturday, after city and fire officials had made safety checks. Even then, they discouraged her from going up: she could "walk away" and dispense with all possessions, or stand in the doorway and point to the objects she wanted. She couldn't go inside.

She climbed the stairs, walked down a hall coated with water-soaked soot. At her door, a shock: the roof had collapsed through the third floor and onto her apartment. She could see the sky.

"Pieces of roof and electrical wires and a blanket of soot covered the room - and this horrible smell! This was my home? It was so bizarre the sadness and loss didn't hit me then. Still hasn't, in some ways."

She saw a file cabinet with her important documents and asked her guide, in hardhat and goggles, to retrieve it. "Everything else was destroyed."

"I got this need to salvage something - like my priceless garlic press; something metallic I could scrub clean of all this gunk" - but couldn't.

She also felt suddenly exposed. "I'm a shy, private person, and here was where I lived - my little charred home now open for public viewing"

She has driven past several times since. When she sees her broken window she wants someone to "board it up!"

She has mixed feelings about sympathy. "I understand the gesture, but hey, nobody died." Her upbeat reply reflects her personality. "I say, 'isn't this crazy?' and just laugh."

Though "totally not a materialistic person," Gwen says she misses what she had. "Stuff is cool. Stuff can be great. I'm not anti-stuff.

"I was happy to have what I had. It's weird not to have it - like losing your identity. My apartment said 'these are my things; this is my house and why I have it this way.'"

She's staying with friends and in no hurry to find a new apartment.

"I don't like the idea of moving into a place with no stuff. Just standing in an empty apartment - I think that's when it will hit me."

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all

Previous article

Big swordfish, big marlin, and big money

Trout opener at Santee Lakes
Next Article

The Fellini of Clairemont High

When gang showers were standard for gym class

On Monday, July 25, at 7:30, Moxie Theatre hosts "After the Fire - a Benefit Jam for Jason Connors and Gwen Fish." They lost everything in the recent Hillcrest fire.

During the day, Gwen Fish teaches English as a Foreign Language at UCSD. At night, she's an indefatigable stage manager for Diversionary and Moxie theaters.

Last Wednesday around 3:30, her landlord left a message on her cell phone. Gwen was teaching and didn't check calls until 4:30. The message said: "Are you okay? We've been trying to reach you...about the fire."

Gwen called a friend. "Fire?"

"On the news. Looks like your building. 1033 University, right?"

The friend picked her up. As they drove into Hillcrest, the traffic thickened. They had to park several blocks away from a perimeter set up by police. They came upon a turmoil of fire trucks, bulging hoses snaking across the street, giant ladders angled toward a roof. Helicopters hovered near a pillar of smoke rising from her home.

"It was so strange for it to be at my place. Like watching a horrible car wreck and hoping everyone's okay? Only this is my car wreck."

People from the Red Cross approached her in red vests. "You live here?"

"Yes," Gwen replied with a crazy smile ("Nothing had sunk in yet; it was all surrealism.")

The Red Cross people "took control," Gwen laughs, "like a stage manager." They offered granola bars and asked residents to fill out some forms. "All very orderly - a point of focus and a big help since everything else was unreal. Just filling out forms - it felt like a positive step."

She couldn't enter her second floor studio apartment until Saturday, after city and fire officials had made safety checks. Even then, they discouraged her from going up: she could "walk away" and dispense with all possessions, or stand in the doorway and point to the objects she wanted. She couldn't go inside.

She climbed the stairs, walked down a hall coated with water-soaked soot. At her door, a shock: the roof had collapsed through the third floor and onto her apartment. She could see the sky.

"Pieces of roof and electrical wires and a blanket of soot covered the room - and this horrible smell! This was my home? It was so bizarre the sadness and loss didn't hit me then. Still hasn't, in some ways."

She saw a file cabinet with her important documents and asked her guide, in hardhat and goggles, to retrieve it. "Everything else was destroyed."

"I got this need to salvage something - like my priceless garlic press; something metallic I could scrub clean of all this gunk" - but couldn't.

She also felt suddenly exposed. "I'm a shy, private person, and here was where I lived - my little charred home now open for public viewing"

She has driven past several times since. When she sees her broken window she wants someone to "board it up!"

She has mixed feelings about sympathy. "I understand the gesture, but hey, nobody died." Her upbeat reply reflects her personality. "I say, 'isn't this crazy?' and just laugh."

Though "totally not a materialistic person," Gwen says she misses what she had. "Stuff is cool. Stuff can be great. I'm not anti-stuff.

"I was happy to have what I had. It's weird not to have it - like losing your identity. My apartment said 'these are my things; this is my house and why I have it this way.'"

She's staying with friends and in no hurry to find a new apartment.

"I don't like the idea of moving into a place with no stuff. Just standing in an empty apartment - I think that's when it will hit me."

Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

I meet my sister, a downtown whore, in Las Colinas

A story of drugs and crime and a broken family
Next Article

Barefoot and Braless

Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader