PACK RAT PATROLMAN HAS WARM HEART.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

``It's OK to be a slob, just not a fire hazard slob.''

- Dennis Bogard, Los Angeles city fire inspector

It's not a rich vs. poor thing, Dennis Bogard says. Not an uptown or downtown story. Age doesn't matter. Neither does gender.

Compulsive ``pack rats'' - the kind who cram their homes with trash they just can't bear to part with, even empty old cereal boxes and junk mail.

There's a pack rat with three vacant, junk-filled houses over on upscale Greenbush Avenue in Sherman Oaks, where you can't touch a home these days for under a half-million bucks.

One lives on Columbus Avenue in the heart of Van Nuys, and another on a nice piece of horse property on Irma Avenue in Sun Valley.

They're just a few of the 64 pack rats city Fire Inspector Dennis Bogard is currently keeping an eye on, trying to get them to clean up their places before they face fines or even jail time.

Citywide, he puts the number at 900 compulsive pack rats, living in just about every neighborhood, and that may only be the tip of the iceberg.

``They all share one thing, obsessive-compulsive behavior,'' says Bogard, known simply as ``Bogie'' by the city's pack rats he tries to help because he knows the truth.

``You learn it's an illness, and you have to have a heart with these people because most of them really mean it when they say they want to clean up, but they can't bring themselves to throw anything away.''

Bogie's boss, Assistant Fire Marshal Alfred Hernandez, says the veteran fire inspector has developed a special relationship with the city's pack rats.

``Bogie's been working hard to put together a network of public and private organizations trying to help these people work through their problem and stay out of jail because this goes beyond an enforcement issue to a social one,'' he said.

But it's been tough because there's no budget for this part-time job Bogie's been doing on his own when he's not answering calls as a regular fire inspector.

``Sure the guy could use some help,'' Hernandez says. ``The pack rat problem in this city is growing, and there's no one assigned to it full time, and no budget for it.''

I spent a recent day riding around the San Fernando Valley with Bogie, looking in on his pack rats, and talking with their neighbors.

Over on quiet, tree-lined Greenbush Avenue, Pat Wells lives near a home where the side and back yards are filled with old cars, appliances and furniture.

``He stops by a few times a week, and always promises to clean up the properties, but never does,'' Wells says of the homeowner, who lives somewhere else. ``The guy's polite when we talk, but it's gotten progressively worse and all the neighbors are complaining and want something done.''

She and a few of her neighbors were scheduled to go to a city Building and Safety Department hearing to try to resolve the problem, but the hearing has been continued.

Over on Columbus Avenue in Van Nuys, Lance Thomas is supervising a crew gutting the house next door. They will take 30 tons of trash and junk out of a run-down home, where a settlement of homeless people set up camp in the back yard.

``My wife said, 'That's it, we're moving,''' Thomas said. ``She wasn't going to raise our child next door to that place.''

But knowing that no one would want to buy a house next door to a dumping ground, Thomas saw himself with only one viable choice - buy the place, fix it up, then sell it himself. So that's what he's doing.

On Irma Avenue in Sun Valley, a young man named Brian quickly walks from the front door of his run-down house to meet Bogie on the street. He's doing his best to clean up the outside of his property so he doesn't go to jail again, he says, inviting Bogie to take a look out back.

But he doesn't let us inside.

Before Bogie leaves, Brian pleads with him to tell the judge he's trying his best to clean up his property. It's just taking a while.

``Brian's already spent one day in jail and he doesn't want to go back,'' Bogie says later. ``I've been working with him for three years, and he needed a wake-up call.''

Most pack rats just need help with their problem because it's an illness, the fire inspector says. So he refers them to group counseling, local churches and anywhere else he thinks they'll find the help they need.

Then he goes out on his own to find local youth and service groups who may want to pitch in and help.

``If the money was there we could make these things go away in months, not years,'' Bogie says, waving goodbye to Brian.

He has to meet a woman living North Hollywood apartment and try to convince her that she doesn't have to read all that junk mail and old newspapers she has stacked to the ceiling in her living room before she can throw them out.

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Photo:

Fire Inspector Dennis Bogard checks out a Studio City back yard filled with what many people might describe as garbage. Bogard tries to work with the city's ``pack rats,'' who may suffer from an obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer