COMMUNITY HELPS VICTIMS OF BIG FIRE.

Byline: Teresa Jimenez Daily News Staff Writer

Angelica Cardiel, 6, gets excited about all the attention, clothes and toys she has received from her school, Lupin Hill Elementary, since her family's home burned in the October fire.

But every once in a while, she gets a sad look on her face, her mother said.

``She'll look at me and say, `Mom, I'm sorry we lost our house,' '' Juana Cardiel said. ``So I worry about her.''

The family's loss of a home and everything in it has been eased by caring people in the community, Cardiel said.

``People have been wonderful. We've been receiving a lot of clothes,'' Cardiel said. ``We've been very pleased and very happy about everyone's help.''

Janna Hazard, president of the Lupin Hill Elementary School's Parent Faculty Club, said she began contacting people about donations as soon as she heard about the Cardiel family's loss. She also set up a trust fund for the family at Bank of America.

``We're trying to come together as a family and a community because it could have been any one of us,'' Hazard said. ``People need things now, not two or three months from now.''

The Lupin Hill community has a chance to give back to the Cardiels, Principal Jim Robertson said. Juana Cardiel has contributed to the school, acting as a neighborhood representative for the school's fund-raising scrip program.

The school buys cash coupons from local stores at a discount and sells them to people for full cash value, Robertson said. Neighborhood representatives sell the scrip, he said.

``They're good people, and we like to take care of members of our family,'' Robertson said. ``We want to help them get back on their feet.''

After the fire, Juana Cardiel was relieved she had kept the school's scrip in the car and not in the house, so the scrip didn't burn.

``She was so worried that a school library book burned in the fire,'' Robertson said. ``She had plenty of other things to worry about with her house gone.''

Parents at the school have started buying scrip and giving it to the Cardiel family, Hazard said.

And one parent who works for Mattel toys helped Hazard get a donation for Angelica, whose playthings were all destroyed.

The Cardiel family lived in a double-wide mobile home on the Malibu Valley Farm in Stokes Canyon. It was one of three mobile homes and five houses that burned in the three-day blaze that raged to the edge of Malibu.

Juana Cardiel's husband worked as a manager at the farm. The Cardiels were so busy rounding up and saving living creatures - horses kept at the farm - that they had no time to pack up any belongings.

A neighboring family has taken in the Cardiels, who had nowhere to live.

Little things seem like blessings, Juana Cardiel said - with a sense of humor still intact.

She joked about forgetting that not quite all possessions were burned.

``I forgot that I had some pieces of clothes at the cleaners,'' Juana Cardiel said. ``So not everything burned.''

HOW TO HELP

To make a donation for the Cardiel family, make a check payable to the Cardiel Family Trust, care of Lupin Hill PFC, 26210 Adamor Road, Calabasas 91302. The school will forward the money to Bank of America. Clothing and other items may also be dropped at the campus.

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