Point Reyes Light - November 22, 2000

Marshall fire guts bayfront cottage

An apparent electrical fire consumed most of a vacant bayfront cottage north of Marshall last Friday in an early morning blaze that was quickly reported to firefighters by a school bus driver on her morning route.

No one was injured in the fire at 22845 Highway 1, a weekend cottage near Blake's Landing belonging to Mary Swann and William Patton of Contra Costa County. As it happens, the house narrowly escaped damage last year when a fire destroyed the cottage nextdoor and took the life of neighbor Emile "Till" Schmid.

While the exact cause of the Nov. 17 fire is still under investigation, Marin Fire Capt. Rich Lopez said it probably started at an electrical outlet where a heating unit and antique lamp had been left plugged in.

"It really didn't point to anything else," Lopez said. "There were a couple of electrical appliances in that wall, and they seem like the likely source."

Bus driver called

The fire was reported shortly after 6:30 a.m. by a Shoreline Unified School District bus driver driving south from Tomales on her morning route. The driver, Julia Carrera, used her cellular phone to call Charlie Lord, a fellow bus driver and volunteer firefighter who was working that morning at the district's transportation office in Tomales.

Lord said he immediately called 911 and the Tomales firestation from his office. He said it was fortunate that Carrera found a location where she could place a cellular phone call without losing her signal. "If you move two feet, it goes away," Lord said. "She found a good spot and caught it."

County firefighters from Tomales and Point Reyes Station, Tomales volunteers, and US Coast Guard firefighters from Two Rock quickly responded and extinguished the fire by 8 a.m., but only after it had burned the northern half of the cottage to the ground. The remainder of the cottage suffered severe water and smoke damage.

Owners just left town

Owner Swann said she and Patton had just returned to California last week from a vacation in Mexico and chose not to spend the night in Marshall after attending a Nov. 16 meeting of the East Shore Planning Group.

The Pleasant Hill couple bought the rustic house in April after renting it steadily since 1998.

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