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August 28, 2009
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The Friday Flyer Editor
There is a certain irony in the story Christine Greer and Richard Beck tell about the fire that consumed their law office on July 17 in the Towne Center. Among the items lost were 150-year-old family records, photographs, love letters and memorabilia belonging to Richard’s mother that they brought to Canyon Lake a month earlier to safeguard from what they believed to be a greater fire threat at Richard’s family home in Pacific Palisades.
In addition, at the time the fire took place, Christine and Richard were in the middle of a two-week trip to recreate the journey Richard’s grandparents made 80 years ago when they came west from St. Louis to Long Beach. Reading from his grandmother’s diary and map each morning, they stopped at sites along the way to take photographs in the same places she had documented in words and in pictures. So, at the same time they were recreating the last 80 years, they were losing the last 150 years, says Christine.
On the morning of the fire, they were in Texas and received calls from two of Christine’s friends who saw the early morning blaze as they were on their way out of Canyon Lake. With early reports saying the fire was located in the Sports Stop, they weren’t too concerned about it reaching their office, closer to the east end of the building. However, just to be safe, Richard and Christine called his son and her son and friend, Shelly Siciliano, wanting them to go up to the office to pick up a hard drive Richard had left on his desk. Christine says, when they got to the Towne Center, the fire was spreading but hadn’t reached the law office. The door was open and the sons tried to run in to retrieve the hard drive, but firefighters wouldn’t let them in, according to Christine.
On the day of the blaze, Fire Chief Bob Toups said the fire had spread quickly the length of the building under the roof and created a dangerous situation with the overhang so that not even the firefighters were allowed inside the building. Instead, it was fought with fire hoses and water towers from outside.
Eventually, the roof collapsed and the entire building, for the most part, burned to the ground, destroying 10 businesses. As often occurs in such fires, according to Captain Fernando Herrera, voids are created under fallen debris, toppled shelves, desks and other spaces, which sometimes keeps water and fire damage to a minimum. Such was the case for Richard and Christine when their shelves toppled and protected some of the contents of their desks from complete destruction – odd things like a $20 bill in a burned briefcase.
Although Beck and Greer wouldn’t be allowed access to their office for 12 days, one of their friends, a firefighter, managed to get in three days after the fire to grab soggy pictures and hard drives. The hard drives, according to Christine, have been sent to a special lab to salvage their contents. “Mine looks promising,” she says.
The lawyers have been in the habit of backing up their computers for 15 years. It was just the last three months of work that was in the hard drive left on Richard’s desk that hadn’t been backed up.
But they are back in business, renting space next to Canyon Car Company in the Towne Center. Partners for 16 years and married for five, they had previously considered retirement within the year; however, they are still taking new clients and following up with old clients.
And they still have to finish the trip from St. Louis to Long Beach. “When we heard about the fire, we decided we wouldn’t be able to do anything anyway so we should finish our trip,” says Christine. “We got as far as Needles and decided to come home. So now, we have to go back to Needles and finish that last leg, dipping our toes in the Pacific Ocean in Long Beach, the way Richard’s grandparents did it.” When the trip is complete, they promise to share some of their pictures in The Friday Flyer.
Rebuilding update
The owners of the burned building are planning to hire an engineer to design the outer shell of the building, with one of the first goals being to track down the original plans.
This week, City Manager Lori Moss reported that the County of Riverside found the original building plans on microfilm and she has ordered the set, which include plans for the original construction and a set of plans for the shell fill-in, which covers all of the Assessor’s Parcel Numbers (APN). Some of the plans for former tenant improvements also were located.
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