IT WAS ONE YEAR AGO THAT THE costly “Sayre Fire” in Los Angeles County swept through Oakridge, an established mobile home village where nearly 500 homes were completely destroyed.

Now on the anniversary of the tragic event, there are some commemorations of the brave battle of the residents to rebuild their homesteads and recover from their losses.  One of the poignant stories is told in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times that tells:

For years, the Dibble sisters kept their grandfather’s badge safely tucked away in a jewelry box. A Los Angeles firefighter, he was killed in the line of duty in 1935. His silver badge, a photo and stories passed down by relatives were the only mementos left of him.

A year ago when the devastating Sayre fire ripped through the Oakridge Mobile Home Park, Cher and Pamela Dibble lost their home and their cherished keepsakes.

“We were left to dig through nothing but ashes with our two hands,” said Cher Dibble. But as they sifted through the remains of their home, the badge was the only item they recognized. It was melted and burnt, but “you could see where it said Los Angeles fireman,” she said.

In a solemn ceremony this past Saturday, Los Angeles Fire Chief Millage Peaks accepted their grandfather, George Damron’s disfigured badge which will be placed on display in the department’s museum, and in turn presented the sisters with a new tribute badge.

“We honor our badge because we know how hard we work to get it and how hard we work to keep it,” said Capt. Steve Ruda. “And the fact that these were the grandchildren of a firefighter meant they are part of our family. We have an obligation to take care of them.”

Damron was a generous man who went by the name “Tex” and was 43 when he was killed fighting a chemical blaze in a commercial building in Boyle Heights in 1935. His badge was passed along through the generations, and though the Dibble sisters had never met their grandfather, they kept his badge as a memory of his sacrifice, they said.

Read the entire article from the Los Angeles Times HERE.

KTTV Ch. 5 has this nice summary of the restoration of the Oakridge community one year later:

You can review the Sayre fire’s destruction of Oakridge on Firegeezer video reports HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.