ALTADENA, Calif. (AP) — It is a sight Ted Koerner feared he might never see again after his house burned down: His treasured golden retriever, Daisy Mae, playing in his backyard, under the shade of his 175-year-old Heritage Oak.
A year ago, as the wind-swept Eaton Fire moved in, Koerner fled with then 12-year-old Daisy Mae, grabbing a couple pairs of sweats, long-sleeved shirts, a pillow and two pictures of the dog. He drove away as the flames were at the end of his street in Altadena.
Koerner and Daisy Mae spent the first weeks in a hotel with hundreds of others after the Eaton and Palisades fires destroyed thousands of homes and killed 31 people. They went on walks, the hardened ash crunching beneath his feet and her paws.
“Those first few weeks were beyond devastating,” he said.
His biggest fear was losing Daisy Mae before he could get through a daunting and costly rebuilding process. Koerner has lived alone with the 75-pound, snow white dog for 12 years. He takes her with him to restaurants — even five-star steakhouses — without a leash.
For nearly a year, Koerner raced against time to rebuild his home. He liquidated most of his retirement holdings so he could afford to hire contractors quickly while he waited for his mortgage servicing company to release his insurance payout.
He gave the builder enough money “to build at record speed, because I need to get home with my dog before she passes,” he recalled telling his mortgage servicing company early on. “Because if she passes, I don’t want to come here. And this is a very, very, very special dog.”
The first time Koerner brought Daisy Mae after construction started, the house was framed, with a roof and openings for windows and doors.
“She walked right over to where the front door was supposed to be, went right in the house, walked around the house, walked over to what was the master bedroom sliding door, which was a great big opening, just like it would have been, and sat down and got a big smile on her face and went, ‘OK, the house is still here,’ ” he said.
Shortly before Thanksgiving, his home was among the first to be rebuilt of the thousands destroyed in the Los Angeles area wildfires a year ago. Construction took just over four months.
“I went into the house and cried a lot,” Koerner said. “It still has that effect. I’m actually home with my dog. ”