After a blackout, a surge of power pushed through
power lines and into the wiring of a refrigerator, detonating its compressor
and starting a fire that burned down a 75-year-old redwood house in
Dillon Beach. Or maybe it was just old wiring. Neighbors and firefighters
spent an hour hosing the fire down and went to bed. Later that night
the fire re-ignited, destroying a second home and scorching a third
before neighbors and firefighters finally put the fire out for good.
Nobody was living in the homes and there were no injuries.
Without the help of neighbor Chris Pedersen, the damage
would have been much worse. He was first to respond to both fires, and
until the first water truck arrived, the only man with a running hose.
Pedersen was also first to discover that the fire had re-kindled, after
he woke up in the middle of the night with a bad feeling.
Pedersen had good reason to save a house that his
family built and lived in for many years. Pedersen’s grandfather
built 6 Cliff Street in 1930 and Pedersen’s father, Fred Pedersen
spent his summers there as a boy and reminisced about how his mother
would invite servicemen stationed in Dillon Beach to dinner during World
War Two. The house was later owned by Pedersen’s Aunt, Joan Pederson,
who was a Miss California and runner-up for Miss America in the late
1940s.
Pedersen–who owns 12 Cliff Street but lives mostly
at his house in Sonoma, where he works as a landscape contractor–was
on the phone when he first saw a "strange light" through the
blinds of his kitchen window. Pedersen cracked the blinds and saw the
back of six Cliff Street in flames and called 911 operators at 7:42
p.m.
After calling 911, Pedersen ran outside, where he
saw his neighbor Greg Schnitzer and another man he couldn’t identify.
Soon, "there were people running up and down the street, beating
on pots and pans yelling "fire, fire," said Schnitzer.
The three of them connected Pedersen’s two garden
hoses, making 100 feet of hose, which managed to get them into the back
yard of eight Cliff Street, which at that point was beginning to catch
fire. Spray from the hose put out a fence between 6 and 8 Cliff Street
at about the time two Tomales volunteer firemen showed up, but since
the fire engine wasn’t there yet, they could only direct Pedersen
to spray the roof of 8 Cliff Street, which was beginning to catch fire.
After firefighters arrived, Pedersen moved back and
forth between his house and eight Cliff Street, where he continued to
spray over the roof in the hopes of helping firefighters. He said of
his and Schnitzer’s efforts, "It didn’t solve the problem,
but it did buy some time."
Tomales volunteer Kevin Browne, one of the first on
the scene, said that when he first arrived flames burst from the door.
Firetrucks arrived around 8:00 p.m., and Browne said that the fire was
contained at roughly 8:30 p.m.
Tomales firefighters were first on the scene, although
eventually trucks from Tomales, Point Reyes Station, Woodacre, Wilmar,
Bodega Bay, and Two-Rock Coast Guard station arrived.
Cause believed ‘accidental’
"All indications are that it was accidental,"
said Marin County Fire Marshall Scott Alber of the initial fire. He
said that it was "most likely caused by refrigerator malfunction,"
when power was restored after an outage.
Another possibility, Alber said, is new insulation
that was blown into the attic. "The wiring was pretty old. Warm
wires may have ignited the insulation."
Around the time the initial fire was put out, Pedersen’s
girlfriend, her sister and sister’s two children arrived from the
San Francisco airport. Although the fire appeared out, firefighters
were still attempting to make sure of that as well as salvage any possessions.
"The trucks finally left around midnight,"
said Pedersen, "and we all went upstairs and went to sleep. Everybody
was wiped. The kids were quiet."
Meanwhile, Browne and the other Tomales volunteers
went back to the Marin County Fire substation in Tomales, where they
prepared the trucks for the next fire, a process which involves replacing
the Nylon-coated fire hoses with clean ones and refilling the oxygen
tanks.
Around 2 a.m., Browne drove past the houses once more
to make sure the fire was out. Everything calm, he drove home, took
a shower, and went to bed.
Flames rising from ashes
At 3 a.m., Chris Pedersen woke up. "I just felt
something was wrong," he said. He got out of bed and looked out
of the window. What he saw was six Cliff Street completely engulfed
in flames.
"I was panicked at that point," he said,
"I knew number eight was going to catch very soon."
San Rafael veterinarian Jerry Owens owns 8 Cliff Street.
When he visited his house after the fire he was able to retrieve only
"a couple of cups and some spoons and knives." Owens’
wife was an antique dealer, and the house was filled with antique benches,
chests, armoires, tables, chairs, lamps, special woodcarvings, and quilts.
Upon seeing 6 Cliff Street on fire, Pedersen phoned
911, having to call twice because he wasn’t used to his Dad’s
old rotary phone. He then woke up his girlfriend, her sister and the
kids, sending them down the street to a neighbor’s porch.
Pedersen rushed out of his house, just as a power
line attached to 4 Cliff Street snaped because of the fire.
"It was hissing and sparking right in the middle
of the street," Pedersen said, who was at that point joined again
by Schnitzer.
Peterson ran up to the hose he was using earlier
that night, spraying the roof of 8 Cliff Street.
‘I was freaking out’
"I was freaking out," he said. "The
flames were coming out of number eight towards my house. I was doing
that for about twenty minutes. Another five minutes without firefighters
and the house would set on fire." Pedersen’s house did sustain
some damage, including cracks in windows that faced the fire. Vinyl
warped and paint blistered.
"It was flat-out scary," said Schnitzer
of spraying a large structure fire with a garden hose. "The roof
of number eight was igniting and the flames were jumping across to Chris’
house. We were staying away from the windows because they were about
to explode. My hair was starting to melt."
Schnitzer praised Pedersen, saying "The guy’s
a hero. If it hadn’t been for Chris, I probably wouldn’t be
sitting here right now."
Fireman Browne was again one of the first on the scene.
When he arrived, 6 and 8 Cliff Street were completely engulfed in flames.
The flames, he said, "were 30 feet above the roofs, which means
50- to 60-foot flames. At that point, it was far bigger than the first
one.
"Houses six and eight were gone. We had to save
four Cliff and ten Cliff. It was so hot you couldn’t go anywhere
near the fire without getting burned unless you had your gear and face-mask."
Browne fought the fire between 4 and 10 Cliff Street
alone for three or four minutes while two other Tomales volunteers worked
to put out 8 Cliff Street. After 30 minutes, an exhausted Browne was
relieved by reinforcements. He was sopping wet from sweat that smelled
of smoke. Browne took a shower and got to bed at around 7:30 a.m.
A ‘Re-kindle’
Fire Marshall Alber said of the second fire: "There’s
a strong possibility that it was a re-kindle," which is when "they
miss something in the overhaul." The overhaul is the process by
which firefighters determine that a fire is out. A re-kindle, however,
of that magnitude in such a short period of time, is uncommon. "At
the time the last guy was there from the time it was fully involved
again, it was pretty short. We’re having trouble with that timeline."
Alber said that both fires are "still under investigation."
Trucks from Tomales, Point Reyes Station, Woodacre,
Wilmar, Bodega Bay, and Two-Rock Coast Guard station were at the second
fire. At one time, there were seven engines and three water tenders
(trucks which supply the engines with water) fighting the fire on the
narrow Dillon Beach road.
Pedersen, who had gotten out of the way when firefighters
arrived for the second fire, crawled back into bed at around 4 a.m.
At 7 a.m., he woke up to a phone call. It was a family emergency.