By Brenda Starkey
Chronicle staff

     CURLEW – Six families of the 18 displaced by the old schoolhouse fire still are without permanent living quarters.
     Angela Lake, who was the apartment manager at the building, says she knows there are people out there who simply don’t want to rent to anyone who lived at the old school because of the reputation the place had.
     That id despite management clearing out alleged drug users a couple years ago, she said.
     Lake is living at a hotel with her cats and dog while waiting for repairs to be made on a trailer she hopes to move into soon.
     She lost two cats and three kittens in the blaze, along with irreplaceable family mementos, her car keys and other difficult-to-replace items.
     “Still, my guardian angel has been working overtime,” she said.
     The morning of the fire, she said she went back into her apartment to get her dog and another dog she was watching, and she opened the balcony door so the cats could escape.
     The smoke was so thick that she was falling over chairs she knew were there trying to get out.
     After the fire, she said her asthma bothered her for several days, but that was the extent of her medical problems.
     She said even after a month there are things she had that she misses, thinks she needs to go home and get, and then realizes she has no home.
     “I just keep busy and try not thinking about it,” she said.
     Residents at the old school the past couple years were like a family, she said, noting that she keeps track of them and how they are doing.
     Residents from two units are staying with family or friends, and another is moving back and forth among a couple friends so as to not to wear out his welcome, she said.
     One is living in a camper and another in his mother’s summer cabin, which is hard to get into and has no running water, she said.