NEIGHBORS FEAR SAFETY'S A MEMORY.

SIMI VALLEY - They fled the problems of city life and found a safe haven in suburbia, a place to raise kids without fear and then ...

In the space of just five days, bullets tore apart the illusion that anyone can be out of reach of terror, not in Simi Valley, nor in the Santa Clarita Valley, two of America's safest communities.

Brutal urban violence chased them to their doorsteps - a sheriff's deputy slain in Stevenson Ranch, his killer believed consumed in flames as his house burnt to the ground; two kids and their grandmother shot to death Wednesday, three other members of the family hospitalized.

``I'm speechless,'' said Connie Miller, wife of Simi Valley's mayor pro tem and former police chief, Paul Miller.

``This can't be our town. I'm stunned, just stunned. You just no sooner get Santa Clarita, then this - in our town. I can't believe it: What is the world coming to?''

To residents like the Millers, this stuff doesn't happen in Simi Valley, a town full of Los Angeles cops, ranked safest among America's large cities for 10 of the last 13 years.

Last murder: 1993. In a town with more than 108,000 residents.

Violence, too, was unthinkable in Santa Clarita, ranked among the nation's top eight safest communities. In both communities, residents had left their doors unlocked, car alarms turned off, kids left unprotected.

Criminologists said Wednesday there are no places left to hide.

``Even for me, as a criminologist, it's a wake-up call,'' said Patricia O'Donnell Brummett, a California State University, Northridge, sociology professor and Simi Valley resident who lives five blocks from Wednesday's killings.

``I always thought it was kind of arrogant to say 'safest city,' especially Simi Valley,'' she said, shocked over the eight helicopters buzzing overhead. ``Even so-called 'safe cities' are not immune to sensational crimes.''

While Brummett attributed the past week's violence to growing populations - and densities - of Simi Valley and Santa Clarita, others blamed guns and a sagging economy.

``I'm aghast,'' said Lewis Yablonsky, a CSUN emeritus professor in sociology and criminology who just published ``Juvenile Delinquency into the 21st Century.'' ``The first thing that occurs to me is the enormous availability of guns ... it's getting increasingly like the 'Wild Wild West.' ''

Such violence is no longer restricted to minority and poor urban areas, he said, but has crept into the havens of suburbia.

``It's very coincidental, first Stevenson Ranch and then Simi Valley,'' said Mark Smith, one of the first to move into the Indian Hills neighborhood where the Calderon family was shot.

``I am shocked. Simi Valley has been for years one of the safest cities in the U.S. And this is a good neighborhood, all high-priced houses.''

Simi Valley Mayor Bill Davis was shocked - and heartsick - to learn about the shootings four blocks from his Indian Hills home.

``Simi Valley is a family-oriented city,'' said Davis, who had just learned of his neighborhood ordeal. ``There's a lot of new homes and a lot of children, so you don't expect these types of things to happen.

``I would truly hate to think this was caused by people who lived here: It doesn't sound like Simi Valley at all, I'm very concerned something like this could happen. ... We'll do our best not to let it happen again.''

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Photo:

(color) Simi Valley neighbors gather around a school yearbook to look at photos of some of Wednesday's shooting victims.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News