SYLMAR, Calif. — Nails that once held together single-story, pastel-colored mobile homes now litter the gutters along curving streets.
Pipes still spurt water, looking for faucets that aren’t there anymore. Ceramic garden animals still smile in front yards, blackened with soot and surrounded by charred shrubs and trees.
And on Sunday, the day after a wildfire wreaked the devastation, police went lot to lot with cadaver-sniffing dogs to search for human remains in the Oakridge Mobile Home Park in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley.
The homes “were like matches, and they caught fire one after another,” said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
There were no reported missing persons and no evidence of any fatalities at the 200-acre gated park, where 484 homes were destroyed out of more than 600, said Deputy Police Chief Michael Moore.
However, many residents were elderly and disabled, and the fire moved so quickly that firefighters left hoses to melt into the concrete.
Just outside the park’s gates Sunday, residents stood in the smoky air, waiting for more information.
The crowd applauded when Moore said there would be help for their rebuilding efforts, but for 80-year-old Gloria McGurn, time is a factor.
“I don’t know how long I’ll be around,” she said.
