Pioneertown residents remember devastating Sawtooth Complex fire

Mark Kedik will never forget the day the Sawtooth Complex fire burned his home to the ground.

The fast-moving lightning-caused fire was ignited on July 9, 2007 and destroyed his Pioneertown home two days later.

A year later Kedik was still rebuilding and said, “I just want to go home. We’ve been feeling like that for the last year. We want to go home. We have no home.”

Kedik and his wife, Linda Conner, had only lived in what was to be their retirement home for three months when the fire side-tracked their plans.

The fire brought turmoil to their lives, personal and financial hardship and delayed retirement plans.

“We lost a house, we lost our belongings,” said Kedik. “My wife escaped with a T-shirt, shorts and some flip flops,” Kedik added.

The couple qualified for a Small Business Administration loan which helped them rebuild, despite their original home not being insured against fire.

“The reason we didn’t was the house was so old. It was up against the mountains,” said Kedik. “No insurance company wanted to touch it,” Kedik continued.

Now 9 years after the devastating fire, the couple are still in their second house, now a quite comfortable home.

Many of their former neighbors never rebuilt, instead moving on including their neighbors just up the hill.

If the Lake Fire had taken their new home, they say they would have done the same because of their age, the financial toll the first fire took to their savings, and the hardship.

“Last time we couldn’t get any information,” said Linda Conner. “There was nowhere to go, even when we went to the evacuation sight. There was no information,” Conner added.

Kedik says this latest fire was different because of the increased firefighter activity in their community and neighborhood.

The Kedik home was one of 50 that burned in the 80,000 acre blaze.

He now says every family around here should have the wildfire emergency plan he lacked during the Sawtooth Complex fire.

“Now we have a plan where we have a list of what you need to take out of the house,” said Kedik. “No. 1– computer hard drive. No. 2– Pictures, photographs– all my military medals,” Kedik added.

The wild birds, squirrels and other tiny critters the couple loves to feed have rebounded after the fire.

But the fire is always on the back of their minds.

So their new home is build to better withstand a wildfire with plastic and concrete siding and a flame resistant roof.

It’s also fully insured against any fire they hope will never come.