Jim Hill moved into his hilltop “dream home” on 10 acres in Altamont Ridge 14 years ago with his wife Carol.
On Thursday, after the couple managed to escape the Mountain fire with barely any warning the previous day, he returned to see what remained of his 4,000-square-foot house.
It was mostly sparse framing.
“It was our dream home, it really was,” said Hill, 73, CEO of MCF Energy, an oil and gas company. “I promised my wife a room with a view.”
It offered so much more. Hill’s son and daughter had each gotten married in the “great hall” of the home, he said. The family spent evenings in the swimming pool overlooking the canyon below.
The Altamont Ridge house was among many in the Camarillo area that were destroyed by the Mountain fire, which began in Ventura County on Wednesday, Nov. 6.
By Thursday, the fire grew to 19,643 acres, propelled southwest by strong Santa Ana winds and burning agriculture and homes in its path. More than 10,000 people were evacuated, the Associated Press reported.
“We had fireproofed the house to the point we had thought we were in good shape,” Hill said. “So we thought we were going to come back.”
With very little time to evacuate the area, the Hills were unable to grab much of anything to take with them.
“We only had about 15 minutes’ warning,” Hill said. “It was actually very difficult to drive though (the smoke).”
Hill and his wife were able to evacuate to their daughter’s nearby home and stay the night there. Though they are devastated about the loss of their property, Hill spoke of plans to rebuild “something beautiful.” He looks forward to possibly even building a stable for one of their five grandkids who loves horses.
“You can look at life the half-full way or the half-empty way, and I’m a full-way person,” he said.
Hill also spoke about his frustrations in getting fire insurance in the area. While he has been able to get it through Farmers Insurance, his rates have more than doubled, he said.
In some cases, “companies bail on people,” he said. “They don’t continue their risk profile to include us and a lot of other people. As you can see, sometimes you need it.”
While his home did not survive the blaze, two of his classic cars were pushed away from the flames, thanks to help from his neighbors.
Hill’s 1957 MGA hardtop coupe and a 1976 Triumph TR6 sat unharmed on the street after Kelly Junge Jr., his 76-year-old neighbor, was able to push them out of one of Hill’s garages with help from other men.
Altamont Ridge neighbors Steve McCartney and Kelly Junge Jr. visit on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024 Jim Hill, right, who lost his home on 10 acres during the Mountain Fire in the Camarillo hills. Junge stayed behind and saved a couple of Hill’s classic cars and his own home. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Junge Jr.’s face was still caked with soot, his eyes red, on Thursday, Nov. 7 as he spoke about his experience staying at his home throughout the fire, despite evacuation warnings.
On Wednesday morning around 9 a.m., Junge Jr. smelled smoke and saw flames on the ridgeline in the distance. He heard on his scanner that the Mountain fire had jumped the 118 Freeway and was headed to Camarillo Heights.
“I knew right then and there we had a problem, because that wind was right down here,” he said as he gestured to the area below the hillside his neighborhood is situated on. “That’s when I started soaking all the stuff down. I just hosed down everything, ran next door to my neighbor’s house and started putting out all of the spot fires, ran back, ran to my neighbor’s house across the street.”
Junge Jr., who moved to the neighborhood in 2015, said he stayed because he simply wanted to save his house, which did make it through the fire unscathed. He hosed down solar panels, palm trees, the sides of his home and a neighbor’s hedges.
“I was in for the fight of my life,” Junge Jr. said. “I didn’t realize what I got myself into.”
At one point he considered taking refuge in his swimming pool with a snorkel, as he saw flames he described as 30 feet high, the sky above “black as night” with smoke.
As neighbors returned to Altamont Ridge late Thursday morning, Junge Jr. received many thanks and hugs. His next-door neighbor, who had a fire hose attached to his home that Junge Jr. was able to use to hose down the neighbor’s home and patio, was especially grateful.
Junge Jr. expressed the sadness he felt seeing others in their close-knit community return to nothing. However, he was grateful that all of his neighbors were safe.
“But, we’re all alive,” he said.
Andrea Klick contributed to this report.
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