Reading Dave Mitchell’s piece on the Mt. Vision fire reminded me of West Marin’s other big fire 70 years ago, in September of 1945. I was there on the fire line at the age of 17. It burned more than 2,500 acres for a total of 30 days into October.
Starting at the Ruef Timber Company in Lagunitas Canyon (site of Peters Dam today) and driven by wind, it raged west over Bolinas Ridge to Olema, then south along State Route 1, and then over Bolinas Ridge again, almost to Phoenix Lake just west of Ross. We were strapped for resources.
The Marin County Fire Department had evolved from the more local Tamalpais Forest Fire District, headquartered in Woodacre. By 1945, the department totaled 15 trucks countywide and one bulldozer. The chief was Lloyd De La Montanya, who had lost an arm in a hunting accident. Many wardens had other full time jobs where they kept their trucks, but they were on duty 24 hours a day: George Ludy ran an Inverness butcher shop; Bill Bonini owned his Tomales garage; Warden Thompson, related to County Supervisor R. A. Thompson, ran the Thompson Cheese Factory in Hicks Valley; and Charlie Reilley, based in Point Reyes Station. All wardens earned $150 a month from the county and all were on duty six days a week.
The department had ten 1938 International Harvester pick-up trucks (called “Cornbinders”), one 1941 pick-up, two 1941 duel-wheelers and one 300-gallon tanker. All fire equipment and basic 100-gallon tanks were installed on the truck bodies at the shop in the Woodacre Firehouse.
When the fire bell rang, the three Woodacre-based male high school students would run to the firehouse awaiting a call. When I was 14, I earned 35 cents an hour when occasionally called to be a helper, to ride with a warden to a fire. After graduating from San Rafael High School at the age of 16 and awaiting my 1945 freshman year at U.C. Berkeley, I was hired for the summer as a warden, which covered the $60 annual university fees (there was no tuition at Berkeley) plus daily expenses.
As the fire spread from near Lagunitas Creek, the department was short of staff. I was assigned to drive the dual-wheeled Truck No. 13 alone to Olema to meet Reilley on a September afternoon. The two of us spent all night moving south along Route 1, almost to Bolinas, going from ranch to ranch on the west side, pulling water from cattle troughs, saving one ranch at a time. The next morning, I fell asleep driving along Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and landed in a ditch near Shafters. At that point, headquarters was in turmoil. Newly arrived help included a contingent of San Quentin prisoners, who brought a propane stove and “Blackie,” their cook. Volunteer women were serving food to all of us.
The best part of this forgotten fire is that there were no injuries and, to my knowledge, no structures damaged other than a deer club.
After 62 years of active law practice and other endeavors of some consequence, I still honor Charlie Reilley for his guidance that night. That’s when I grew up.
Bill Bagley represented Marin and Sonoma Counties in the state legislature from 1961 to 1974. He is retired and lives in San Rafael with Diane, his wife of 50 years