Hope glimmers amid the ashes
Despite widespread destruction, nurses who were affected by the Southern California fires look to the future with optimism—thanks to generous community support

By Glen Fest
November 18, 2003

A decade's worth of photographs, three days of clothing and a trio of distressed but healthy pets. That's all Gerilyn Herold, MSN, RN, and her family have left from the October fires that destroyed their home in a foothill village along Interstate 8 east of San Diego.

But for now, it's all they need. While friends' and strangers' generosity attend to their temporary wants, Herold and her husband are brimming with hope and optimism. Within the next 12 to 18 months, they plan to rebuild and return the family-two kids, a dog, a cat and a bunny-to Alpine, Calif., to renew a quiet, picturesque life they had among church friends and (what was once) beautiful scenery.

"Our first thought was we didn't want to go back," because of the charred landscape surrounding the Cuyamaca Mountains, said Herold, a nurse instructor at San Diego State University and NURSEWEEK contributing writer. "But when we actually got back to Alpine five days later and we got to see our dearest friends, kids, teachers and everyone from our religious community, you start realizing your home is not your building. Your home is in your heart."

Nearly all nurses across Southern California were affected by the devastating fires that disrupted hospital staffs and filled patient rooms with burn and respiratory patients for at least a week. But some nurses also stared down the calamity in the midst of personal crises, in which their own homes or family's safety were endangered by the flames that destroyed more than 2,800 homes.

Unfortunate few

Herold was among an unfortunate few who were coping with the loss of their home. Others, like nurse manager Tracy Bock, RN, of Loma Linda University Medical Center outside Los Angeles, are thankful for the good fortune that spared their houses-in some cases by minutes.

Bock, a resident of the Lake Arrowhead mountain town of Running Springs, anxiously worried over a two- to three-day period when the inferno across the road inched to within a block of her neighborhood. Her husband is the battalion chief of the Riverside County Fire Department and stayed behind at the scene battling the fire, while Bock and her children were evacuated Oct. 26 and stayed with her mother-in-law in Highland.

"Nobody knew the magnitude of what it would end up being," Bock said of the first signs of the fire Oct. 25.

San Bernardino nurse Kim Groshong, RN, watched flames a half-mile from her home, but was never forced to evacuate. But she was nonetheless consumed with worry and fear for her neighbors and family, including a sister who was forced to leave her nearby home. Groshong housed her during the forced evacuation, and also knocked on doors to check on fellow residents. "I drove around the whole neighborhood to see if my friends were OK," Groshong said.

"Monday night [Oct. 27], we were really threatened. I was hosing off my roof, and I was concerned about embers, but the wind changed, and that helped us a lot. I at least slept a little bit that night," she said.

Groshong's job provided no relief from the fire's impact. Inside the hallways and rooms of St. Bernardine Medical Center where Groshong works in labor and delivery, smoke brought coughing fits and burning eye irritation for several days to staff and patients. "The smoke was horrendous in the hallways," but dissipated through the week as nurses kept blowers on and doors closed, she said.

St. Bernardine staff nurses helped cover for those who were dealing with home evacuations, or unable to commute to work because of closed roadways, Groshong said.

Camaraderie and dedication among nurses and hospital staff workers was evident in hospitals across Southern California.

Kathy Lee, RN, interim manager and emergency department coordinator at Simi Valley Hospital, said the hospital's housekeeping staff put in an inordinate amount of work to eliminate the "sooty" smell that was threatening air quality and comfort for patients.

Employees at Simi Valley, which came close to evacuating nearly 100 patients Oct. 26, also started a fund for a security guard whose former wife and the children he supports lost their home in San Diego, Lee said.

The generosity of friends and family was especially heartwarming for Herold and one of her neighbors, psychiatric nurse Linda Salsberry, RN. Salsberry, who also lost her home in Alpine, was given a $5,000, no-questions-asked donation by her employer, Alvarado Parkway Institute/Behavioral Health System in La Mesa.

"I call them my second family," Salsberry said. "It was just overwhelming … they told me to take as long as I wanted to recover, to take my time and stay out as long as you want. Everyone hugged me."

"I wasn't even able to cry about it for 10 days," because of the outpouring of support, Herold said. Friends and family have provided food, video games for the children and a local property owner even granted them shelter in an off-season beach house.

The Herolds plan to move back to Alpine soon in a rental home and will oversee the reconstruction of a new house on their property. There will be a few changes, such as firefighting spray pumps, a swimming pool and a row of star jasmine bushes that might help slow future fires.

Not back to normal

Even with the hope and thanks that more tragedy was averted, life was far from back to normal last week for many of the nurses.

Bock and her family returned to their house after two weeks, only to find charred roads, ash-laden lawns and intermittent power. Bock's neighborhood was running on generators, she said Nov. 12, and travel was still hazardous. The guardrails along the main road running west out of Running Springs were incinerated, requiring all drivers to follow police-led escorts up and down the mountain road.

"It's about a 30-minute drive for me to come to work anyway, and this just added time on to it," Bock said, "but it's much better than the alternative … The other road to Running Springs was closed because of the fire. And there's a third road that goes up through Big Bear and that's a two-hour drive."

Bock and her family have been cleaning up and bringing their home back to normal. Even without her house, Salsberry said she also feels a sense of peace returning.

She returned last week to view the destruction for the first time, and saw only one item left standing from her house: the fireplace. But from the front seat of her Jeep, she said she saw a hint of beauty-and felt it at the same time.

"It was actually beautiful, because the fire had refined it and made it purer," Salsberry said of the stone-masonry work of the fireplace. "And it made me feel stronger, more refined and purer, [in order] to go on."

Contact Glen Fest at glenf@nurseweek.com