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Re:Sycamore Canyon Fire of '77
Then she asked about fire. How close was our house to the Sycamore Canyon Fire? How about the Coyote Fire? Well, we're 120 feet from Sycamore Canyon Road, where the Sycamore Canyon fire stopped in 1977. I remember the Sycamore Canyon Fire. It was summer, I was about to start my freshman year at Westmont College. I went up to SB the weekend after it happened (I lived in Orange Co. at the time), in a lame attempt to help. The help was ineffectual and non-existent, but I did hear some stories about watching the flames on the hills, and the smell of fresh ash was all around. The first week of school, one of the student leaders volunteered the student body to help with a post-fire cleanup. So that weekend, I donned very grubby clothes, and joined a bunch of other students to clean up the site of one of the burned houses. Looking at that map, if you head out of Westmont down Cold Springs, take a right on Sycamore, and, just after Barker Pass, go straight into that dead-end road, there on the left side of that little street was a house that burned down to the ground. Completely. We were offered hospitality by the neighbors, whose house was spared and who, I think, I ended up being acquainted with through some church connection or other. Anyway, I vaguely recall an anecdote about the family that lived in that house. After the fire, the couple came back to survey the destruction (chimney left standing, and a great pile of ash), the wife rooted around and found a diamond ring. They took off for some other where to hang out for a time, depressed and despondent. When they returned after we did they cleanup, I'd heard that seeing their cleaned property, chimney and swept foundation, it lifted their depression. Sure, their house was still gone, but the fact that it'd been cleaned and cared for cheered 'em. In a few weeks, I'll be up there for Westmont's Homecoming.... my 20th reunion. wow. Susan p.s. congrats on reaching message #1000! There are responses to this message:
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