Columnist Steve Guiremand: Two Rebels deal with distraction of destructive California wildfires

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Oct. 31, 2003 | 9:55 a.m.

Steve Guiremand covers college football for the Sun. He can be reached at steveg@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-2324.

One can excuse UNLV offensive tackle Zach Gorham and freshman linebacker Ryan Welter if they had a hard time focusing on football during the practices at smoky Rebel Park this week.

Both are just glad to have their families' San Diego area homes still standing.

Gorham, who has started three games at right tackle for the Rebels this season, and Welter, who is redshirting this year, both came close to losing their homes in the Cedar Fire in San Diego earlier this week.

"It got to within about 50 yards of my house," Gorham, who is from Lakeside, Calif., said. "Our horse pen caught on fire. Four houses in our area caught on fire. There really wasn't a whole lot that the fire department could do to help them because they had so many other fires to fight."

The good news is that horses weren't harmed and are back at the Gorham house, which sits on a couple of charred acres.

"We let them go and they went to the other side of the property," Gorham said of the horses. "They came back OK.

"My dad (Matt) had to stay up two straight nights putting out hot spots on the hills around the house. The house is safe now. They have electricity now. But everything is covered in black. It's going to be a huge cleanup. But we were one of the lucky ones."

Welter, who is from nearby El Cajon, said his parents had to evacuate their house for a couple of nights and also had a very close call.

"The fire came all the way up to our back fence and it even burned a tree in our yard," Welter said. "But they got it before it got our house.

"It's just horrible. I guess during the day down there you can't see the sun and it's really dark from all the smoke. About half of my friends lost their houses. A couple of my other friends work in the fire department and they've had to fight the fire for 36 straight hours."

Welter said he calls home about three times a day just to make sure his family is still safe.

Gorham, who alternates now with junior Tyler Crandal, admits it has been hard to focus on this week's game at New Mexico.

"You see all this smoke all the way out here and it's a reminder of just what is going on back there," he said. "I mean, Sunday morning at about 4 my parents had to take off from here after going to our game because they got a call saying that we had to move out of the house. When something like that happens it does put this all in perspective."

Once around the MWC