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Producer Has a Fire Chapter of His Own

Every day, Jimmy Valentine literally carries with him memories of Oct. 27, 2003, the morning the Cedar fire roared through East County and burned his home in rural Dehesa Valley to the ground.

While sifting through the rubble of his burned-down house, Valentine, who produces the highly rated talk radio “Roger Hedgecock Show” on KOGO-AM 600, found a quarter and a Mexican peso when he was allowed to see what was left of his three bedroom, 2,000-square-foot home on Dehesa Ranch Road.

The coins were the only tangible things to survive the fire that not only torched his 3-year-old home and garage, but destroyed his 1992 Chevrolet Camaro 25th anniversary model, a 2003 commemorative Ford F-150 highlighting 100 years of the Ford Motor Co., a 2003 Harley-Davidson and a 1985 low rider Harley.

The coins, which Valentine, 62, keeps in his pocket, show scars from fire , the quarter is bubbled on one side and the peso has a grayish tint.

A year later, Valentine, along with the coins, carries the emotion of the fires.

Tears glisten in his eyes as he describes the fire that took his home and two others.


‘Almost Nothing Left’

“You lost everything in your entire home , your whole history,” Valentine said. “There was almost nothing left. Not many things actually made it; the quarter actually made it to the surface. That’s the only thing that survived. It’s amazing. It’s total, absolute devastation.”

As Hedgecock’s producer and a former journalist, Valentine said it was difficult to be objective in reporting the news as he was both a fire victim and a member of the media.

“It was emotional because, while I had a story, my story is nowhere as dramatic as others. I didn’t have to run for my life,” Valentine said. “We went to Bates Nut Farm (in Valley Center) and did a live remote. There was a lady there who was trying to get the county to enact a reverse 911 for evacuation and one of the things in order to do that, in order to convince the county to help, she did a survey.

“One of the questions was the most valuable thing you’ve lost. One gentleman had filled out, ‘What was the most valuable thing you have lost , My wife.’

Whoa, beyond belief.

“This was on the air. I was angry, terribly angry, because we spend so much money on protection, fire, police, communication systems, and the guys couldn’t communicate with each other.”

Valentine, who is writing a book about the San Diego County fires, believes if he had not evacuated his home, he could have saved more than just two coins.


‘They Didn’t Do Anything’


“A key I am finding in my research (for the book) is that nobody who stayed and fought the fire lost their home. None of them died and none of them lost property,” he said. “I will never leave my property again. If I had been there on my property when the fire came up out of the canyon and it caught one corner of my garage , if I had been there and I had to pee bad it would never have caught my garage, and I had three fire trucks that were looking at my home as the fire approached. And they didn’t do anything. They were sitting there watching it as it happened.”

Valentine’s neighbors across the valley , both former firefighters , told Valentine what happened to his house after he and his wife, Noreen, evacuated.

“They both know about firefighting. They did not evacuate. They were out at their house on the evening of the 26th (the night Valentine evacuated) and the morning of the 27th and they saw the fire advance on my house,” Valentine said. “They saw the three fire engines deployed within eyesight of my home; they were amazed that none of the firetrucks moved when the fire approached. They were further amazed when the fire attacked my garage and they didn’t do anything.”

Valentine’s home was a manufactured house, made out of a composition of concrete and wood , almost impossible to burn, he said.

Valentine’s book, which he hopes to publish within the next one to two years, will include his story and highlight the state government’s, county’s and city’s role in the fires.

Valentine said when the book is finished he hopes to take the money from the sales and put it back into a firefighter’s fund.

Through his story and others’ accounts, Valentine said he has found the role government played in the fires hindered the outcome instead of helping fire victims.

“The focus of the book is on our government at work,” he said. “Totally absolute incompetence , criminal negligence. It started as a 5-acre fire, and by the next morning the thing was blowing like an inferno. There was no warning countywide. There was no evacuation system in place; communication didn’t work.”

Valentine estimates that he has received several hundred fire stories from listeners across the county, helping him form the story from the people’s perspective as well as his own.

“The book is at the point now where I am trying to get all the material available,” Valentine said. “It’s a monster and not all of the materials are available yet. There are still task force reports out there. So when will I finish it , I don’t know.”

He has drawn interest from several publishers, although as of yet he has not yet titled the book.

“I’ve kicked a couple of things around. One of the title ideas is ‘Friends and Neighbors Are the Real Heroes,’ because I saw those signs as I drove to the fire communities,” Valentine said. “People actually on cardboard just had written down, ‘Friends and neighbors are the real heroes,’ because the fire people didn’t do anything. The homes were saved by friends and neighbors and in some cases total strangers. I have two of those signs on my home.”

Valentine recently moved into his new home on the site of his former house.

“It’s magnificent, it’s beautiful, lovely. It’s not the house that you lose,” Valentine said. “You know, stuff is stuff. I’ve got Noreen, I’ve got the critters. That’s what’s important.”

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