As a preface to this story I feel one has to understand what led up to this unfortunate morning that still leaves an empty property scar on the downtown and the loss of someone’s life. As a location reference the picture below was taken by me just prior to the fire. The Peach Cottage restaurant has the red metal roof, lower left corner (coincidentally you can see the primary engine that would attack the fire backing into the fire station down the street).
As a further intro as to why I picked this story (of the thousands I could write) is I still come across those on the street that ask the obvious questions like “What was here at this (only) empty lot before?” or “When did this happen?” In further leading up to this event, the restaurant itself had several fires that were suspicious in nature (and under my own accord; not representing any agency or person – someone was trying to torch the place to the ground). Here are two photos of the fire that happened six months prior to the conflagration.
Pictured here are Assistant Chief Robustelli & myself.
Some great history in this pic, shown are Chief Bud Tomlin, Asst. Chief Robustelli, Captain John Grimaldi, myself and firefighter Dave Scruggs. The gentleman wearing the SFFD jacket is Fire Commissioner Ray Landi (retired from San Francisco Fire Department – hopefully someday I will share the stories from Ray and his epic days at SFFD).
Well, whatever little fire devil was inhabiting the then vacant and boarded up restaurant finally succeeded on the morning of June 16th, 1989. Shortly before 3 am, the large siren on top of the firehouse and the pagers that summon the BCFD staff were sounding with their respective alarms, and as can happen with early morning fires, no one sees it until it has a significant head start. I was already not sleeping well because coincidentally there were two big things happening that weekend causing me restless moments; my high school graduation for the class of ’89, and the assistant chief’s daughter was getting married, of which I was recording for them on film. Prior to the policy of minimum age requirements changing at Boulder Creek Fire, there were several firefighters (including me) that had become active responders when we were 16 (a tradition dating back to the 70s). But once I heard that one of the main buildings downtown was on fire, I had to make that choice of trying to rest before the big graduation or going on a huge fire – well, anyone that serves knows what I did next.
As I drove into town I could see the fire’s glow from roughly a 1/2 mile out. I got onto the second engine responding (2111) which was assigned to protecting the Forest Corners building (now housing Jenna Sue’s Cafe, Oh Suzannah’s and the BC Bulletin) and the residence behind the burning restaurant. The entire restaurant was so heavily involved, the flames were extending all the way out to the double yellow lines on Central Avenue. As with the controlled chaos that can happen on fires of this size, I got to be on a large hoseline by myself for what seemed like forever. Now the sad part of me being on a hose and there never being enough staffing when a fire is that big – is no one was available to take pictures…hence the lack of any here. There were agencies responding from near and far, and by the time the sun finally arose, the magnitude of this spectacle was being seen by all: a carcass of what was once a two story building that had maybe 100 square feet of attic left and not much else (becomes relevant later). Nine hours after the initial call, the officers came around to find those of us that were graduating and said in unprintable words – to get to school and finish what we started four years earlier.
To finish my personal story of this weekend, I attended grad night until six the following morning, then got cleaned up to go attend the wedding and reception I spoke of earlier. When I made it home and collapsed into my bed I had been awake for just under 40 hours. But, there is a whole other chapter to this story that would unfold right before my eyes several weeks later…to be continued…
SLV Steve 