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                  Remembering When
                  Hungry flames devastate valley in 1917
                  by David Mason

                  "Business section swept by Fire Demon! - For the
                  second time within less than a year the fire demon
                  has visited Ojai. Practically one-half of the
                  business section of our beautiful arcaded little city
                  is in ruins."
                  - The Ojai, November 1917

                  The local paper resolved on Jan. 5, 1917: "That
                  throughout the year 1917 as loyal and
                  community-loving citizens, with a desire to live and
                  let live; and that others may prosper through their
                  prosperity, in a community where there is a unity of
                  common interest, that each and all will strive
                  faithfully to engender and perpetuate the
                  trade-at-home spirit."
                  It was a time of prosperity and progress      [Image]
                  unparalleled in the history of the little
                  town of Nordhoff, now Ojai. Many changes would take
                  place during the year, some that the people weren't
                  prepared to handle.
                  In June of 1917, a major forest fire started in the
                  Matilija Canyon and destroyed most of the valley. The
                  local newspaper, The Ojai, reported that: "The
                  devastating torch of carelessness was applied by
                  campers in the Matilija Canyon, Saturday morning,
                  causing a spread of flames that swept the near hills
                  for miles, the lurid tongues of fire reaching the
                  beautiful Ojai, lapping up 60 or more buildings, with
                  a toll of three lives from heat, shock, and fright,
                  with enormous property loss."
                  Many of the valley's finest homes were lost in the
                  tremendous fire; some, however, were saved. One of
                  the homes that withstood the destruction of this
                  inferno was the stately home of Mr. and Mrs. Bert
                  Cole, in the east end of the valley.
                  After the fire passed and the house was out of
                  danger, Mrs. Cole wrote to her two daughters about
                  the conflagration she had just lived through. In the
                  letter she told of her terrifying experience: "We had
                  seen a glow in the sky the night of Friday (June 15,
                  1917) and the heat was intense. The air felt like the
                  heat from a furnace, and the night continued hot.
                  "Saturday noon I looked at the sky from the laundry
                  windows and saw a black cloud and thought, 'How
                  queer; like a storm cloud in the east.' I stepped
                  outside and found the air like a blast from a furnace
                  and thought, 'I believe there is a forest fire raging
                  and this intense heat comes from that.'
                  "At lunch, Bert (Mr. Cole) said, 'It seems hopeless
                  to continue watering these plants; they seem to be
                  withering in spite of it.' I went out and found
                  everything drooping, a perfectly hopeless-looking
                  garden.
                  "Mr. Schroff (the grocer) came up with ice about then
                  and said it looked like a most serious fire - that
                  the fire whistle and church bells (which we had
                  heard) had called all the men who could go to fight
                  the fire in Wheeler's Canyon where it had been
                  started by careless campers and it was assuming
                  terrible proportions.
                  "About six, Bert asked me to go in the auto for the
                  mail and to see the fire on the mountains, for we can
                  see to the entire summit at that distance. So as we
                  looked back at this wider view, it seemed as if the
                  world was on fire. I said to Bert, 'Let us go to the
                  electric light plant and ask them to keep the power
                  up all night so our pump will keep working.' (At that
                  time the electric plant furnished the Ojai Valley
                  with electricity for only a few hours a day.)
                  "We drove to Mr. Watson's (a neighbor). I told him I
                  really felt very much alarmed and believed we had
                  better leave; he said, 'I wouldn't! If you go and the
                  men who come to fight fire find you gone they will
                  not make much effort to save your house.' It rather
                  made me ashamed, so I said, 'Well, I'm willing to
                  stay,' and Bert wanted to all the time.
                  "Dusk was coming on and the lurid sky and awful
                  flames coming closer made us almost too anxious to
                  eat."
                  The Coles finally decided to leave their house; Mr.
                  Watson asked them to take his wife with them, and he
                  stayed to protect both of their homes.
                  Mrs. Cole's letter continued, "I was sure we would
                  never escape for the fire covered all of the
                  mountains from the Matilija Canyon over back of
                  Semro's (Mercer Ranch) and was leaping nearer all the
                  time and extending around back of the village. You
                  could hear it crackling. I told Bert he must take us,
                  but he said, 'I must help Shijo (their Japanese
                  workman) save the house. I can't bear to leave."
                  As the fire approached closer and closer, the Coles
                  finally decided that they indeed must all leave.
                  "I thought, 'What will I take - when I do not want to
                  leave anything to be destroyed,'" Mrs. Cole wrote.
                  "Shijo had asked Bert to hang wet sheets in front of
                  windows towards the west, which he did. Then we shut
                  up everything tight. How I longed to carry my clock
                  and piano - everything - and my mouth was so parched
                  I could scarcely talk. We shook Shijo's hand and left
                  him there with the fire coming. Then he (Shijo) went
                  from house to garage to barn, wetting down, putting
                  out spot fires that jumped here and there. The fire
                  jumped to many plants along the driveway that had
                  been mulched with straw manure and burned that. He
                  must have worked like a demon.
                  "When we reached Mrs. Galley's corner (Gridley Road
                  and Ojai Avenue) processions of cars were going
                  towards Santa Paula; we did not quite know why - and
                  started towards the town, we saw the fire glow,
                  turned and started the other way, remembered the bad
                  Santa Paula Road (paving of the Ojai-Santa Paula Road
                  wasn't done until 1920), turned again for Ventura
                  way, met some firefighters who said the way was cut
                  off in that direction, turned again, passed wagons
                  loaded with people and different articles of
                  furniture, people on horseback, some Mexicans walking
                  - people fleeing for safety from this valley of fire.
                  It seemed as if all the demons were following us. The
                  dust was whirled in circles in front of us so we
                  could not see the road clearly. We could feel the hot
                  air and it seemed as if we were creeping and the fire
                  was overtaking us.
                  "After we reached the Upper Ojai we looked back and
                  saw the most thrilling sight I ever witnessed (the
                  mountains and valley floor were all ablaze). I had
                  heard there was fire over towards Santa Paula and I
                  expected to see it ahead any time. After we passed
                  Ferndale (now St. Thomas Aquinas College), people met
                  everyone with pails of water for drinking. It seemed
                  as if we never would reach Santa Paula.
                  "People from the valley kept passing all night. This
                  Sunday morning we got reports from them to the effect
                  that our house was certainly burned. I gave up
                  everything and you can imagine how I felt. I think it
                  was one o'clock or so yesterday when we heard
                  absolutely that our house was saved.
                  "I really would like to leave it - I believe I will
                  always be afraid here now when you realize how easy
                  it is to be burned by these forest fires.
                  "The fire came right down to the cleared space where
                  our trees are planted back of the house. Every
                  vestige of everything on that hillside is burned off
                  the bare ground. Such an awful looking place. I found
                  our trunk room today covered with ashes, and fire-ash
                  dirt all through the house, but I did not lose it or
                  my furniture."
                  Writing her letter from a room at the Pierpont Inn in
                  Ventura, Mrs. Cole ended with: "You would hate to see
                  the Ojai now and I feel like getting away from it.
                  Will go back tomorrow or the next day if I feel we
                  can find it cooled off so that we can clean house."
                  The fire, sweeping through the Arbolada, had reached
                  the high school (now Matilija Junior High School) and
                  reduced to ashes the Manual Arts building, traveled
                  east towards town, destroyed the Presbyterian manse
                  (now L'Auberge Restaurant), the Catholic Church (now
                  the Ojai Valley Museum), the Baptist Church (now the
                  World University) and burned the houses, barns and
                  garages of the P.K. Miller property (now The Oaks at
                  Ojai).
                  With fires burning on both sides of the main street,
                  the valley became a scattered heap of smoking,
                  blazing ruins, and the fact that the village was not
                  completely laid to waste is an incident entitled to a
                  place with the miracles.
                  The Coles did not move from the Ojai Valley. Mrs.
                  Cole remained in her home until her death in 1928,
                  and Mr. Cole continued to work the ranch and live in
                  their home until he sold it in 1943.
                  About the only thing not destroyed by the great
                  forest fire was the newly completed arcade building
                  and the stores attached to it. But by November, a
                  matter of five months later, that would also change.
                  In a little shop tucked off the main street, but
                  connected to the Hickey Brothers store (now Rains
                  Department Store), Miss Elvie Peasley was busy making
                  candy. It was just before Thanksgiving, and her
                  thoughts were probably on the events of the coming
                  holiday. During the candy preparation, the sugar
                  syrup boiled over onto the wood-burning stove and
                  caught fire. With the supply water to the store being
                  insufficient to cope with the flames, they quickly
                  spread to the other stores.
                  The new fire bell that had been installed after the
                  forest fire, rang and people ran from all points of
                  the valley to help where they could. Many people
                  carried merchandise out of the stores for
                  safekeeping; others worked on the bucket brigade,
                  which helped very little because of the lack of a
                  strong water supply. The little town was certainly,
                  once more, in a turmoil.
                  When the flames reached the brick building of the
                  Ojai Grocery (now Tottenham Court), the fire
                  subsided. When the smoke cleared, the west end of the
                  arcaded stores as gone. The brick walls of the Ojai
                  Grocery had saved the remaining buildings.
                  The destroyed stores were soon rebuilt, the arcade
                  was repaired and the town began to resemble itself
                  one more time.
                  The Ojai newspaper wrote: "Out of the distress and
                  turmoil occasioned by the fire there is slowly
                  arising a fixed purpose - a return to the normal, as
                  it were. Encouraging influences are already at work
                  and the readjustment of conditions will be rapid. Let
                  us go forward courageously, with unity of purpose,
                  and prosperity and happiness shall be ours."

                  © 1999 The Ojai Valley News

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