July 20, 2002
There is no forgiveness here.
There is rage and anger and frustration and lots of lashing out. There are a thousand other emotions too, but none of them resemble turning the other cheek.
In the Rim Cafe -- motto: "A rumor and a quarter gets you a cup of coffee" -- people briefly turned to the television on Friday morning when Valinda Jo Elliot, the Phoenix woman who set the fire that burned 265 structures in the Heber-Overgaard area last month, came on.
When she said, "I couldn't believe it. I was so emotional," about the damage the fire caused, everyone in the cafe turned around and went back to their breakfasts and the anger that peaked Thursday when the U.S. attorney for Arizona announced he wouldn't press charges against her.
In the cafe, criticism mingled with the smell of bacon.
All morning long, the old boys in the corner of the cafe hashed over their breakfast of coffee and cigarette smoke and talked about Elliott's actions. They weren't the only ones.
Elliott and the lack of consequences she has faced for setting the fire have become bitter jokes in Heber.
A waitress at the cafe burned a piece of toast. "At least it's not the forest," she called out.
"Even if it was, they wouldn't charge you for it," one of the old boys called back. Everyone laughed, but it was brittle laughter.
"It's not right," said J.C. Epps, brother of Heber-Overgaard's fire chief. "She shouldn't be making money off this. She's on TV.
She's going to have a lot of offers. I don't think that's right. They should bring her right back up here and have her look around."
Elliott's attorney, David Michael Cantor, said she was not paid for her TV appearances.
"She did everything she could do (about the fire) when she was out there," Cantor added. "I challenge anyone who says property is more important than her life."
Down the road from the Rim Cafe, Morris Snyder watched Elliott's appearance from an unusual viewpoint: the deck of a mobile home that was one of 20 left standing of the 200 that used to make up the Pine Crest RV Park. Around Snyder was a panorama of destruction -- the world was black and white and singed even on a sunny day.
"The anger doesn't just go away," said Snyder, whose home was destroyed in the fire. "It only goes away when someone passes away. It might settle down, but it will never go away."
Kathleen Russell, the RV park caretaker's wife, stood next to him. "It will simmer," she said. "It will just simmer and smolder."
Over at the Rim Cafe, the men still sat in the corner. They lamented Elliott, the government's firefighting effort and the slowness of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. They joked with the waitress, with the owner, who lost her house when the fire exploded through the woods back of Heber. A nearby creek is running oil-black with ash from the fire.
J.C. Epps was talking again, brandishing one of the Swisher Sweets he lights end to end.
"Thing is, you can't come back to see the end results of this. You'll never live long enough to see 'em."
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