Oceanside Pier planks with names engraved possibly destroyed in fire

As firefighters battled the Oceanside Pier fire Thursday afternoon, one man said he hopes the fire didn't destroy a piece of the pier that meant a lot to his family.

"My grandfather, he used to take me out with his friend to go fishing on the pier," Doug Nakama said.

Nakama said the pier was his grandfather's favorite spot.

"Even if he didn't catch any fish, he was just out there throwing the line in the water," he said.

The pier meant so much to his grandfather that Nakama's mother had his name—Shigeo —engraved on a plank at the end of the pier.

"He was still alive when they engraved it; that even made it more special," he said.

Nakama said when he saw where the fire was on the pier, he immediately thought about the engraving.

As a retired firefighter, he has doubts it's still there.

"You hope that it was salvaged, but it was probably the lowest priority for the fire department. They have a very dangerous job to do," Nakama said.

Although the plank may be gone, the memories remain.

Nakama recalls his grandfather teaching him how to cast a fishing rod.

"I remember doing something really stupid, and [thought] I'll just cast over my head, and my grandfather got panicky watching me doing this because you can easily hook someone by doing that, so he corrected me immediately," Nakama said.

After his grandfather passed, Nakama began taking his sons fishing on the pier.

He said if the plank is destroyed, he would like to engrave his grandfather's name on another plank on the pier.