July 13, 2007

Evergreen family loses Tahoe home

By Ralph Nichols
Special to the Times

Steve Jahn knows there isn’t much left of his family’s South Lake Tahoe cabin other than a spiral staircase, a charred water heater and a blackened furnace.

Scenes such as these were ubiquitous a few days after the worst fire in South Lake Tahoe's 80-year history. The charred remains of a car reveal just part of the damage caused by South Lake Tahoe's Angora fire. The Jahn family, of Evergreen, was more than 250 families who lost their homes in the fire.

Yet the Evergreen man still needs to see the ashes and rubble firsthand before he can move on.

“I need to go up there and get it done with,” Jahn said.

The Jahn family, like many of the more than 250 homeowners who lost homes in the Angora Fire in South Lake Tahoe, plans on rebuilding. His extended family of 11 siblings will share in the rebuilding the same way they have shared the family vacation house over the last 30 years.

“We’re going to hire a contractor but we also want our kids to be involved in the new project,” Jahn said.
Jahn’s family includes his wife, Rhonda, and children Jordan and Connor, who both swim on the Creekside Cudas swimming team.

Jordan Jahn couldn’t understand why her father wasn’t crying after finding out about the fire. Trying to be upbeat, Steve Jahn responded that he was, “crying on the inside.”

Steve Jahn also tried to cheer up his parents who he described as “heartbroken” by joking that, “Now we have a better view of the mountains.”

A spiral staircase was all that was distinguishable among the charred remains at 1504 Snow Mountain Drive in South Lake Tahoe. Photos by Dona Nichols

Snow Mountain Drive in South Lake Tahoe was a remote, forested area when Steve Jahn’s father built the A-frame cabin in the early 1970s. Steve Jahn enjoyed frequent trips as a child to South Lake Tahoe before bringing his own family years later.

What happened to Jahn’s family’s home in the Angora Fire in South Lake Tahoe is eerily similar to what hundreds of homeowners experienced. A wind-swept fire blew through the 2,000-square foot house in minutes on its way to burning 3,100 wooded acres.

Steve Jahn’s brother, Joe, only had time to salvage family photos and a wooden bear sculpture of Steve’s before flames forced him out.

“My brother described the fire as sickening,” Steve Jahn said.

The Angora Fire was 100 percent contained July 2. Since then, Steve Jahn has kept busy talking to insurance adjustors and reminiscing with his siblings.