From the cutting room floor: Still tough in the trenches
This story, about a remarkable woman and her plight, didn't make the cut in today's paper. But you can read here about Scarlett Heston, a NOS center fire evacuee.
SAN BERNARDINO - She’s read all the media reports and made her rounds of calls.
“There’s fire on all points all around our place,” said Scarlett Heston, a 37-year-old mother of two.
Below is a picture of Heston, center, with her two teenaged children at the NOS center on Wednesday/photo by Jeff Malet:
![16608830E[1].jpg](http://www.insidesocal.com/sb/sbnow/16608830E%5B1%5D.jpg)
Heston knows the perils of fire, because she’s felt it before. This is the second time she’s had to flee the flames with her young ones and land at the National Orange Show for assistance. Heston went through the harrowing drill during the Old Fire of 2003, which ended with the relief that her house was spared.
The feeling of deja vu is there this time, but the happy ending is not so certain.
“We’re mountain people,” Heston said. “We all know about fire and we all stay in contact. From what I know, my house is in the red zone.”
Heston has insurance on the house, but frets that the high deductible she had to accept in order to afford the monthly premiums.
But an even more burdensome albatross hangs around Heston’s: immediate economic and social challenges.
She's a customer service worker at the Lake Arrowhead Resort, which relies on tourism. But there aren’t any tourists in the middle of a wildfire. For now, the resort is closed and she can’t work. Her kids, two teenagers who attend Rim of the World High School, are behind in their studies. The cell phone bill is going to be a killer this time.
“This is our second time in the trenches,” she said, sitting on a wall away from the crowd of refugees at the NOS. “And it isn’t any easier.”
-- Robert Rogers