Arson watch leader leaves town

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Arson Watch coordinator Allen Emerson moved to Northern California after 37 years of living in Topanga, and 24 leading the local fire watch group.

Unable to afford to live in the area anymore, Allen Emerson, leader of the local fire watch group, moves to Northern California.

By Laura Tate / Editor

Allen Emerson, a resident of Topanga for 37 years and leader of the local fire watch group, Arson Watch, for 24 years , is leaving town-for good.

Emerson, 84, left Wednesday by plane to Soquel, Calif. to live with one of his daughters. He was unwilling to move, but had no choice, he said. His landlord sold the home he was living in and he couldn’t find another affordable room to rent in Topanga.

“I’ve been priced out, like many others,” Emerson said in an interview Tuesday before he left. “I want to live here, but I just can’t afford the rent.”

Emerson lives on a small pension and Social Security income, he said, but it isn’t enough to get by anymore.

“There was one room I could have rented for $800,” Emerson said, but in addition to it not having a bathroom and no kitchen privileges, it was more than he could afford.

“I know some people who pay $1,250 a month-for a room and kitchen,” he said.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Emerson joined the Army when he was 18, serving in World War II. He moved to California in 1951 after visiting on a vacation that his father gave him as a present.

“I fell in love with California, L.A. particularly,” he said. “It was 1951-the sky was blue, no smog.”

Emerson first lived in West Hollywood and was introduced to the Topanga Canyon area while working as a salesperson for a shoe manufacturing company, a job he said he didn’t’ like.

“I wasn’t a good salesman,” he said, laughing.

After moving to Topanga, Emerson gave up selling shoes and became an actor through the encouragement of some friends who belonged to a small actor’s group.

“They talked me into taking a part in one show they were putting on,” Emerson recalled. “I didn’t want to at first, but it was a small part.”

In addition to the small part, Emerson was also cast as the understudy for an actor with a larger part. That actor left for a job with more pay, and Emerson was thrust into the spotlight. From then on, he considered himself an actor.

“The bug bit me, you know,” he said.

He performed in several theater plays and his first television role was on “Gunsmoke.”

“I had four lines,” Emerson said.

Enough to get an agent and “work a little bit” playing mostly “bad guys.”

He also worked delivering unpainted furniture and as a waiter to get by.

Emerson helped form the local Arson Watch team 24 years ago when the president of the Topanga Town Council, after attending a meeting where actor Buddy Epson urged people to form some kind of group to look out for fires and warn people, asked for volunteers to do so in Topanga.

Emerson was the only person to raise his hand.

He has since then been the coordinator for all the teams that cover the areas of Topanga, Calabasas, Agoura, Cornell, Seminole Hot Springs and Malibu. The teams, composed of unpaid volunteers, patrol the Santa Monica Mountains looking for signs of fire and report any sighting, warnings and vital information to the local Sheriff’s Station, Fire Department, California Highway Patrol and local city officials. The organization relies on contributions for the purchase of radios and other equipment in order to operate.

For his work and time with Arson Watch, Emerson has been commended by the city of Malibu and the Sheriff’s Department, and received a Dolphin Award in 2002 from The Malibu Times.

Patrick Nelson will be running the Topanga team after Emerson leaves, and other people have been delegated to share responsibility overall for all the local teams-something Emerson did single handedly every year for two and a half decades.

“Everything’s been organized,” he said. “Hopefully we won’t have a brush fire.”

The biggest challenge the past 24 years as an Arson Watch coordinator has been, Emerson said, getting volunteers and getting them to be on patrol.

“[We try to] get as many people out on red flag days to protect the communities,” he said. “It’s difficult. A lot of them work [during the week], so we have a lot of weekend warriors.”

This season, because of the rains, Emerson said, there is a great deal of fuel load now, which is the grass and the brush, and might make it a high fire season.

But, he said, the probability of a fire burning throughout the Santa Monica Mountains is difficult to predict: “It’s like Russian roulette-it’s the same thing every year.”

Topanga resident Dave Lichten met Emerson seven years ago when he moved to the area with his wife Nira and immediately joined Arson Watch, having been through the 1979 Laurel Canyon fire. “He’s a friend,” Lichten said. “He helped us out a lot in the beginning, even though he didn’t have resources. His friendship and his forwardness, that kept us going.”

Lichten expressed dismay about Emerson’s leaving.

“It’s terrible. It’s to the discredit of Topanga as a community that they didn’t do anything about this,” he said.

“[He was] the most important, key person putting Arson Watch together,” he continued. “He was nonstop-on all the time. He lived, essentially, in small rooms, and every time he had to move it was a disaster. It was difficult to find places and it was detrimental to his health, but he never stopped, never lost a beat.”

Emerson said there were a couple of offers of help recently, after he made the decision and plans to move. Some people even offered to pitch in to help monetarily, but it wouldn’t have been enough, he said.

“I’m going to miss Topanga,” he said. “Like I said, we’ve been priced out, there’s nothing we can do about that.

“So that’s it.”