The Ashes of Oakridge
A wildfire swept through Oakridge Mobile Home Park in Sylmar, California in November 2008, destroying more homes, and displacing more families, than any California blaze in decades.
2009 / Frank Stoltze / Queena Sook Kim / Off-Ramp, KPCC, USA
A wildfire swept through Oakridge Mobile Home Park in Sylmar, California in November 2008, destroying more homes, and displacing more families, than any California blaze in decades.
Much more than a sea of transitory homes, Oakridge was a tight-knit community whose residents prided themselves on living in the "Beverly Hills" of mobile-home parks.Reporter Frank Stolze and producer Queena Kim visited the wreckage of Oakridge. Through archival audio, on-site recordings, and conversations with the residents, they pieced together the unique elements that defined the Oakridge community. Miraculously, no one died in the fire. Yet a consuming absence persists throughout the documentary: the loss of home.
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Frank Stoltze covers politics and criminal justice for KPCC. Like most radio reporters, he ends up covering a whole lot more -- from the economic crisis to fires and floods. He's won a number of awards, including a Golden Mic for a documentary on the recall election that brought California Governor Schwarzenegger to power. The Los Angeles Press Club named him Radio Journalist of the Year in 2005. Frank has worked at a number of radio stations, including as news director for KPFK Pacifica Radio in LA.
Queena Sook Kim produces and reports for KPCC's weekly show Off-Ramp. She joined KPCC in 2004 to help start up the experimental arts and culture show Pacific Drift. Queena's audio stories have aired on Studio 360 and Day to Day, Hearing Voices, The California Report and the New York Times Web site. She also co-produced the documentary Escape From Time for the BBC. Before joining KPCC, Queena reported for the Wall Street Journal in Atlanta, New York, and Los Angeles.