This Thanksgiving, Mike Plater bought an avocado for the first time in 15 years.

It was a dispiriting moment for the farmer who lost all of his 5,400 avocado trees one year ago to the Shekell fire.

Today his 46-acre property looks like a dustbowl filled with lifeless trees.

"This is just kindling," Plater said, walking his property on a recent morning. "This place used to look like a forest, like a canopy."

Plater is the only farmer to lose his entire crop to the Shekell fire.

The fire started on the west side of the old Egg City property on Dec. 3, about one-quarter mile away from Plater's orchard on Shekell Road. Plater considered his property safe until the next day, when winds turned a second fire toward neighboring MGR Design International, engulfing the warehouse and trailers stored nearby. That's when 50-foot flames and inky smoke shot into the air.

Plater had complained to the county several times about MGR's business practices since it opened in 2002. Plater lived across the street from MGR, a home decorations plant that made potpourri and dried flower arrangements and often emitted a toxic or sweet odor. With storage trailers, cardboard pallets, a room full of 5-gallon containers of perfumes and dyes, MGR was unlike its agriculture neighbors.

When the fire hit MGR, the fire rocketed flaming debris into Plater's orchard, and his worst fear was realized.

MGR's permits were revoked in 2003 by the county for understating the number of employees and nature of the business. Not much has changed for Plater since he stood in front of the Board of Supervisors Dec. 13, 2006, charging the county with "criminal neglect" for allowing MGR to operate for so long.

The fire left him with $9 million in property damage; nine charred, unrecognizable vintage cars, and a succession of claims against MGR's owners, the property owners and Ventura County. He is expecting his case to go to trial next year.

Plater was unable to get a loan to replant his trees because the rates were too high. And because of the other regional fires, like those in San Diego, the demand for avocado trees has increased. There is a two- to three-year waiting period to receive the seedlings, which need more care than other fruit-bearing trees.

Usually amiable and optimistic, Plater says the experience left him cynical.

Plater and his father bought the land in 1993 and the orchard was going to be maintained by his dad during his retirement years. But in 1994 his father died before that dream was fully realized.

Plater took up that torch, and will carry it again, he said.

"This is my home," he said. "No matter what, I will replant. Even if it takes 10 years to get to where I was before."