THE SOUTHLAND FIRESTORM: CONSUMER IMPACT : Contractors Expect Home-Building Boom : Construction: Economists say losses will create as many as 3,000 on-site positions and up to 6,000 related jobs.

Housing contractors are gearing up for a rush of new business as homeowners burned out by the Southern California fires slowly pick up the pieces and shift their attention toward rebuilding.

Calls have already begun trickling into a variety of building-related businesses in the fire zones--from lumber companies and hardware stores to custom home builders and architectural firms.

But the real business boom is still months away, builders and others say. And even those who expect to make money in the wake of the fires admit feeling a bit uneasy about profiting from tragedy.

“Twelve months from now, it’ll double or triple our business,” said Curtis Quillin, a Van Nuys-based contractor who builds between five and 10 multimillion-dollar homes in the mountains and beach areas each year. “Unfortunately, we’re going to benefit from this misery.”

Economists say the estimated 1,000 homes either damaged or destroyed by the fires should create as many as 3,000 on-site construction jobs and up to 6,000 related jobs. But those gains are expected to come slowly, perhaps over two or three years.

Some contractors and remodelers have angered residents in the fire areas by going door-to-door handing out their business cards, or taking out newspaper advertisements touting special rates for the victims.

Barbara Hensley, a Riverside resident whose mother lost her home in a Riverside County fire, found a flyer on her car windshield from a trash-hauling firm, advertising “hot-low rates for fire victims.”

“It made me want to throw up,” she said. “Empathy just seems to take a back seat to greed these days.”

Terry Laughlin, who has seen several fires and assorted mudslides in the nine years he has managed Malibu Lumber, has a unique view of what burned-out homeowners need now and what they will need in the months ahead.

His biggest-selling items Thursday, he said, were shovels, boots, chain saws and other relatively inexpensive items that nearby residents needed to start cleaning up their lots.

Small strips of wood and chicken wire were also in demand, he said, as neighbors fashioned their own sieves to shift through the ashes.

“A month or so from now, people will start buying railroad ties to build retaining walls for the mudslides,” Laughlin said. “Then the rains will come, so we won’t get many real big lumber sales until people start rebuilding next year.”

Other building-related companies are already benefiting from the fires.

Executives at DeLapp Development Corp., a small custom builder in Laguna Hills, said they stand to benefit from the Laguna Beach fires.

Calls to the company’s small office on Cabot Street have picked up over the past week, but DeLapp is largely relying on referrals.

“How do you advertise your services without looking like a carpetbagger?” asked Patrick Dreis, the company’s controller.