Manorville residents return to scorched landscape

Manorville residents returned Tuesday to a hellish landscape of scorched yards and skeletal trees reduced to twisted piles of ash -- and they were grateful.

Most agreed: It could have been much worse.

After a tense night as wildfire evacuees, they came back as wide-eyed witnesses to destruction. In some areas, garages, sheds and vehicles were charred, while others were inexplicably spared.

For many, the fast-moving fire was unlike anything they'd ever experienced.

"It looked like Steven Spielberg was here making a movie," said Ray Kreiger, 61, who saw a "wall of flame" advancing Monday evening as he brought drinking water to firefighters.

Kreiger, whose home on Oakwood Drive was spared, credited fire crews for keeping the heartache to a minimum. "They held their ground and saved those houses."

Residents of the secluded neighborhoods near the pine barrens evacuated Monday, clutching whatever pictures and heirlooms they could grab quickly.

Tuesday, some returned to count their blessings -- or losses -- amid acrid smoke fumes and blackened soil.

Paul Dill was visibly emotional as he also credited firefighters with shielding the house he and his family had built on 7 acres off Wading River Manor Road. Only the pool cabana was lost. "They literally . . . saved the house," said Dill, 71.

Kreiger's neighbor, George Moretti, was less fortunate.

Tuesday, he stood before his home of 25 years -- shared by his wife, Kathy; son, Johnny; a German shepherd named Gunner and two cats, Flatears and Kitty. Kitty remains missing.

The flames had raced through their garage, shed and gazebo, and damaged their kitchen and basement.

"It's bad; it might not be salvageable," Moretti, 67, said of the house. "But it could have been a lot worse."

Kathy Moretti cried as she looked at her home, the windows newly boarded up, but she agreed with her husband.

"We are very fortunate that we are all here," she said. "Things can be replaced."

Another Oakwood Drive resident, Jose Castilla, 50, returned to find his front porch charred. The ground behind his home had turned to ash. But the house itself, the where he lives with his wife and two children, was untouched.

"That's a question for God," he said.

A nearby resident, Cheryl Smith, sought refuge with a neighbor Monday. She worried that the fire would destroy treasured items left by her late mother. The blaze wound up consuming two sheds in her yard. The shingles on the roof of her home started to melt from the intense heat, but there was no other damage.

Smith Tuesday called that a miracle.

"They said all of a sudden the wind shifted and the fire went away from the house," she said. "I still say it was my mom who protected this house."

With Tania Lopez, Kery Murakami and Kevin Deutsch