on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, residents and merchants noticed white smoke trickling from under the kitchen of The Breakers restaurant, the Daily Breeze reported. Then, on April 30, gale-force winds and thrashing water dealt Redondo another blow, collapsing part of the pier and tacking on $1 million in damage.īut it was the May 27 fire that did the pier in. Ultimately, $3.6 million was paid to the victims by an insurance carrier for the Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce, which organized the race. The grate “was never designed to hold all those people,” he said. “People went from the top floor to the ground floor,” recalled Redondo Beach City Councilman Pat Aust, the former fire chief and an incident commander that day. One man was killed and nine other people were hurt when the cover gave way, sending them plunging three stories. The location for the awards ceremony wasn’t ideal, however, as a grate in a parking structure buckled from the weight of bystanders. Officials estimated the damage at $16 million.īut even with waterfront streets, boat docks and parking lots in tatters, the city went ahead with its annual Super Bowl 10K race, altering the route and choosing a new spot for post-race events. “And this wave came by – and there were just cars on top of each other.” “I was working that night, and there was a wall, like, 6 feet high and 80 feet long next to the Chart House (restaurant),” said Guthrie, who at the time ran SportCenter Bar and Grill. Sean Guthrie of Marina Cove, the largest leaseholder at King Harbor, said the storms shook boats loose from their moorings and left mattresses from the Portofino hotel floating in the water. The former Blue Moon Saloon – now Samba Brazilian Steak House – was battered by strong surf that collapsed the restaurant’s roof. More than 50 people stranded inside were rescued by a radio news helicopter pilot. 17, 1988, sinking boats, flooding streets, tossing around cars and littering parking lots with debris.Ī three-story section of the Portofino Hotel and Yacht Club collapsed under the beating from the waves. The first storm pummeled Redondo Beach on Jan. The fire also capped a tumultuous several months for the city of Redondo Beach, which had dealt with storms that caused a total of $17 million in damage and a freak accident during its annual Super Bowl race that left a Tujunga man dead and nine people injured.Īnd even though the city spent millions of dollars in insurance money repairing damage to King Harbor and eventually rebuilt the pier, some say the landmark just isn’t what it used to be. The tiny hobby shop – a mainstay since the 1970s – was one of 15 businesses destroyed on May 27, 1988, in a blaze that devastated the landmark pier. “They zoomed in, and I saw the kite just flying away.” “I knew that the fire was close enough to burn the line at least,” he said. Like the other businesses ravaged by the blaze, he realized then that Sunshine Kite Co. As fire ripped through the Redondo Beach pier late that afternoon, all Fine wanted was reassurance that the popular kite shop would be spared.īut his heart sank as he got a glimpse on TV of the rainbow-colored Delta kite that had come loose from the store’s front door. Tom Fine watched anxiously from home at the images broadcast from news helicopters hovering above the flames and thick smoke.
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