The Big Wildfire of 1908 – Part 2

Last week we covered the beginning of this massive late-summer wildfire that swept the valley floor of La Crescenta. It had started about noon in the southwest of the valley, near today’s CV Park. It swept northwest and west, across the sagebrush-covered future Montrose. Fickle winds then sent it roaring north across Foothill Boulevard and up Briggs Avenue. Another wind change sent it west across the valley above Foothill. In one hot afternoon it had effectively circled the valley floor.

At that time there were about 50 families living in the valley in homes, farms and ranches. It was every man for himself in protecting the isolated buildings. Every single building on the valley floor was at some point during the fire threatened or consumed. There were no helicopter drops to pick off hotspots as there are today. Instead, every flank of the fire could spread, and smoldering logs could suddenly flame anew. Men on the ground beat at the fire with shovels and wet gunnysacks, running to keep ahead of the fire, suffering blisters and smoke-inhalation. Temperatures over 100 degrees only made the job harder.

As evening approached the column of smoke attracted help from neighboring communities. Volunteers came from Glendale and Pasadena. In La Cañada, rancher T. Fenton Knight organized a small army of La Cañada ranchers who joined the fight. On the ground in the Crescenta Valley, the volunteer firefighters were organized and directed by Ranger Phil Begue. Begue was actually off-duty, but jumped into the action as one of the more experienced men.

The fire was still burning fiercely in the valley, moving among the scattered ranches. At the same time, on the north flank, the fire headed up the front face of the San Gabriel Mountains and edged east toward the Arroyo Seco. It was here the fight took a political turn. A force of about 100 federal foresters and a few state rangers had been dispatched to the Crescenta Valley to help save homes but, as the fire moved into the federally-owned Angeles Forest Reserve (today’s Angeles National Forest), they were suddenly pulled off the fire line and sent into the mountains. As the local volunteers objected, the Federal Supervisor R.M. Charlton (for whom Charlton Flats is named) told his men, “Never mind this place. Get up into the mountains.” The federal foresters obeyed and left, but the few state rangers refused to abandon La Crescenta and stayed.

Phil Begue and T. Fenton Knight were left to direct the local men to continue the fight through the night. Begue and Knight, along with the locals, beat the fire to a standstill that night only to have it reignite and roar back toward the center of the valley. They were able to stop that line at one of the many irrigation ditches that crossed the valley.

That effectively ended the majority of the fire in the valley itself, leaving tired men to mop up the isolated small fires. There really wasn’t much left to burn. The hundreds of acres of the valley floor were left charred and smoking. The locals, under the direction of Begue and Knight, had done a phenomenal job of saving the community, despite the abandonment by the federal force. Only four ranches were completely burned.

Up in the mountains the fire continued for several days, but the fight went well. The large force of rangers and volunteers was able to save Switzer’s Camp and Mt. Lowe and on the other flank were able to keep the fire from descending into Tujunga. Extra effort was made to protect the water sources in Pickens Canyon and the Arroyo Seco, which supplied water to La Crescenta, La Cañada and Pasadena.

The dry timber and high temperatures (110 degrees in La Cañada) made for a long and stubborn fight, which had to continue when another fire broke out concurrently south of here in the Santa Ana range.

Next week we’ll wrap this up with some of the social fallout, the blame-game played on the Rev. Ward who had accidentally started the fire, and the infamous William Mulholland, who refused to help the fire fight.

  mike lawler