The Big Wildfire of 1908 – Part 1

In the Crescenta Valley, we’re accustomed to the idea of fire in the mountains around us. But few of us can conceive of wildfire sweeping across the valley floor. Yet, that’s exactly what the Crescenta Valley faced in the late summer of 1908.

The Reverend J. C. Ward of Glendale owned a 10-acre lot in the southwest portion of the Crescenta Valley, perhaps down near today’s CV Park. He and his two sons were clearing it of sagebrush in September 1908. Over several days they carefully burned off the chaparral, taking care that the fire didn’t spread. They then dug out the roots, presumably so they could cultivate the land. A little before noon on a very hot day, they burned one last pile of brush. A gust of wind blew through, sending some embers into the surrounding brush, and the wildfire took off. The three men fought the moving fire as best they could, but it got away from them.

The fire was now headed northeast toward the La Crescenta General Store (at La Crescenta Avenue and Foothill Boulevard) and the La Crescenta Elementary School. The owner of the store and five other men from surrounding homes got out in front of the slowly advancing flames and brought the fire to a standstill with shovels and wet gunny sacks.

The men thought they had beaten the fire. Dripping sweat, they all retreated to the store for food and water. While inside relaxing, they heard a roaring sound outside. They piled out the front door of the store and looked south where they saw huge flames sweeping across what is today Verdugo City and Montrose. While they had been inside the fire had reignited on its southern flank. It had swept the sagebrush-covered (future) Montrose and was turning north again toward the store. The storeowner started a backfire just behind his store in hopes of quickly clearing the brush from behind the building.

Meanwhile farther east on Foothill, the residences and hotels clustered around Foothill and Rosemont Avenue were threatened. It was every man for himself as the fire picked up speed heading up the hill toward Foothill Boulevard. The La Crescenta Hotel just above Foothill was spared, but two homes immediately across the street were quickly incinerated, along with outbuildings and barns.

At the Fairmont Hotel (a resort hotel above Foothill on Fairmont Avenue between Rosemont and Briggs avenues), the hotel manager was sure the flames would stop at the wide Foothill road. But the flames leaped easily across the road. The fire was now generating its own wind. While hotel guests beat at the approaching flames, the main body of the fire tore past them at an incredible speed, traveling north at 100 yards a minute. The hotel was spared but all around them was left a smoking blackened wasteland.

The fire quickly burned up Briggs Avenue, through the olive groves and vineyards heavy with ripe fruit, destroying the crop. The fire was now at the base of the San Gabriels and flames were beginning to sweep up the canyons. The wind changed, and the fire was now pushing west across the foothills, toward the mansion (called Granite Heights) of Sam Merrill at the top of La Crescenta Avenue. Sam Merrill was a community leader, and many men rushed up the hill to his aid. A stand was made and his house was saved, but two ranches nearby were consumed.

The fire now continued moving west across the top of the valley, passing La Crescenta Avenue, then Ramsdell, and approaching the ranch of Vernon Hall at Pennsylvania Avenue and Foothill. Vernon was fighting the fire and cut off from his home but his new wife, Eudoxie, barely out of her teens, saved the ranch single-handedly. As the fire approached, she cut a firebreak and placed water barrels along the fire line. She beat furiously at the flames with a wet sack, running along the line of flames, wetting her sack as needed. She saved their ranch and the fire passed her by.

Next week: the fire continues, the federal firefighters abandon CV, and Phil Begue rallies locals.

  ike Lawler