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The Wheeler
Fire of 1985
The Ojai Valley News remembers the day Ojai nearly burned
photo by Bruce Ditchfield
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Wheeler
Fire
by Lenny Roberts
Smoke clouds Thacher Road.
photo by Katie Carr
Along with the slight
smell of smoke from a distant fire, there was apprehension in the air when
folks went to sleep on the
night June turned into July.
Even at night, it was uncomfortably hot as Ojai was six
days into a heat wave. As
usual, cheap, mostly plastic
chairs had reserved prime
and not-so-prime spots on
Ojai Avenue in advance of the
1985 edition of the town’s
annual Independence Day
parade and celebrations,
that, unbeknownst to anyone
at the time, were not to be.
At first glance, there was no
immediate cause for concern
as tall flames burned straight
up hillsides miles away like
candles in the stillness of the
night. That was very quickly
about to change.
By 3 a.m., sheriff’s deputies
were going house to house
on Foothill Road, electronically barking out immediate
evacuation commands from
their patrol cars. It was time
to pay attention.
When Nordhoff High
School had become filled
with an estimated 1,000 evac-
PAGE 4
uees, another evacuation
center was established at the
Boyd Center on Park Road.
When that center was threatened, another was opened at
the
Ventura
County
Fairgrounds. As the fire raged
on and flames advanced into
the city limits, a plan was in
place to completely evacuate
Ojai and its surrounding
areas. That plan was reportedly abandoned five minutes
before activation by a change
in the wind’s direction.
There were reports of
structures lost, including a
garage and mobile home on
Signal Street and a couple of
outbuildings here and there.
But the wooden home owned
by Chris Riley and Pam
Wright near the Wheel Bar on
Maricopa Highway, and two
others in the area, had
burned to the ground.
Within days, the command
post at Soule Park became
home for more than 2,800
weary firefighters —- many
of whom came from as far
away as Michigan. Red, yellow and green trucks from
scores of fire agencies rolled
virtually nonstop, sounding
ed firefighters finally got a
chance to rest. “While watching my assigned area, I saw
some firefighters trying to lie
on a driveway and sleep. I
was setting up a roadblock
nearby so I gave them the
removable back seat from my
patrol car, which was quickly
converted into a bed.”
As the fire moved away
from the city, “Thank You
Firefighters” signs began to
appear on fences, windows
and T-shirts. Hundreds of letters to the editor were published, mostly thanking the
nameless, faceless heroes
who had saved their homes,
businesses and the community. Longtime activist Pat
Weinberger, who donated the
land for the small park of
remembrance at the “Y”
intersection, wanted future
generations to know what
those firefighters meant to
the people of Ojai. Banker
Tom Farmer, a longtime
member of the Upper Ojai
Search and Rescue Team,
spearheaded the effort to
provide the large boulder on
which a memorial plaque
would be mounted.
“I hiked up the creek
behind Thacher School and
found this really cool-looking
boulder and told (friend and
former chief of police) Vince
France about what I had
found,” Farmer said. “He and
I contacted Mel Krogh, Mike
Marshall and Frank Sheltren,
who all owned heavy equipment, and asked if they
would push it down the creek
and then haul it over to the
‘Y.’ It almost took out
Thacher School when it started rolling down the creek. We
eventually hauled it to the ‘Y’
and placed it where it stands
today as a tribute to the firefighters who saved Ojai.”
The great Wheeler Fire of
1985 was finally extinguished
on July 19 after consuming
119,000 acres of land, mostly
in the southwestern edge of
Los Padres National Forest.
Ironically, a rare July rain —
actually a day-long steady
drizzle — meant the end of
local and backcountry devastation not seen since 1948 in
a similar fire that destroyed a
number of homes in and
around the city.
Although there was little
information released about
the person suspected of setting the Wheeler Fire, authorities believed that subsequent fires were set that night
out of discouragement
because the main fire was
not
advancing
quickly
enough toward the city. No
arrests were ever made.
sirens that had become so
common that they no longer
turned heads. Thick, choking
smoke eclipsed the sun and
turned most of Ojai’s hillsides
into spots more suited for
landing lunar modules.
Orange- and black-colored
skies, day and night, became
almost as unnoticed as the
ever-falling ashes and PhosChek-dropping air tankers
that would help extinguish
the fire and fertilize the
scorched land in anticipation
of winter rains.
Retired Sheriff’s Deputy
Dave Wasserman remembers
the fire well.
“I was in the back yard of a
house on Layton Street
watching
the
Fire
Department light a backfire
on the hillside below the
house,” Wasserman said.
“Suddenly, the wind changed
and the super-heated air
swept up the hillside toward
us. They had protective
clothing and I didn’t. When I
felt the heat I discovered I
could outrun the firefighters!”
He recalled as the fires
began to recede, the exhaust- A plaque placed at the ‘Y’ pays tribute to the firefighters
who saved our valley
photo by Logan Hall
THE WHEELER FIRE OF 1985
7
8
5
11
1
13
6
1 “All these birds were flying overhead. A big heron flew
over me and it almost sounded as if it was crying. Later,
we cooked a big pot of spaghetti and took it to the
firefighters.”
- Mitnee Duque, former OVN sports editor
2 “We were all standing on the sidewalk, silently watching these cars — loaded with lives possibly changing forever — go by our house, their emotions drowned out by
the howl of the devil wind. It was easily 90 degrees at 6
p.m., but the sound of that wind gave us chills.”
- Scott Eicher, CEO, Ojai Chamber of Commerce
3 “Sparks were falling everywhere. It was excruciatingly
hot. We made the decision that when the fire hit the eucalyptus trees, we'd evacuate. When the wind shifted, it was
like a miracle.”
-Steffani Adams, Administrative Coordinator, Meditation
Mount
4 “As we drove up North Signal the next morning, it was
like a moonscape, like a lunar terrain, all ash. But our
house was there! Just like
a thumb, sticking up out
of the ash.”
- Shalom Joshua,
resident
PAGE 6
THE WHEELER FIRE OF 1985
4
12
9
10
3
2
14
5 “We treated dozens of firefighters on every Topa Topa Mountains. It is such a depressing house on Poli St.”
shift, for poison oak, bee stings, hornet stings;
I felt so sorry for them. The fire was extremely
frightening, overpowering; you felt diminished as a human being.”
-Susan Bee, Retired Nurse, Ojai Valley
Community Hospital
sight. It defies description — moonscape or
war zone comes close."
-Excerpt from Rosemary Schumacher's diary,
July 3, 1985
9 “I stood on the front porch, baby in arms,
unable to see anything more than 100 feet
6 “We were really frightened — my daughter away. The sounds, smells, and lack of views
Ariel was only 2 years old at the time! We
decided to sleep on the patio, so we could
immediately hear the alert if they decided to
evacuate. When we woke up in the morning,
we were just covered in ash.”
- Gayle Bertsch, founder, Help Unlimited
were terrifying. Along with the constant
sounds of sirens, we could hear horses, dogs,
roosters, and other animals calling out, terrified.”
- Cindy Garber, resident
the heat, and the smoke was really bad. It was
pretty weird, you could hear the crackling of
the flames from my house.”
- Dan Cole, resident
valley long enough to know that when it is on
the hills, get ready to leave. I remember the
1949 Ojai fire; it was so exciting ... until we
had to leave Ojai with whatever we could
pack in a bag. I said that would never happen to me again, so I packed and everyone
laughed at me. I got the last laugh when I
just drove off and they ran around yelling
and wondering what to pack."
- Sandy Wooff, resident
10 “When I could see the fire on the far hills
7 “I didn't get evacuated, but I sure could feel I started packing my van up. I've lived in the
8 "We cannot comprehend the awful devastation. It is even worse than I could ever
imagine. There is nothing but ashes — black
and gray ashes — all over the once-beautiful
11 “We could hardly do our clients' hair, we
were so distracted by the fire. It was really
something to watch — an eerie beauty. We
eventually moved our horses to the beauty
shop since it was safer there than at our
THE WHEELER FIRE OF 1985
- Cheryl Sheltren, owner, The Hair 'Em Salon
12 “There were these fireballs rolling down
the street. Tumbleweeds of fire. You know how
fire creates its own wind? It had these things
blowing all over the place. They were huge.
Man, it was the scariest thing I've ever seen.”
- Tony Volaski, resident
13 “We received a call in the middle of the
night from our good friends — their property was quite close to danger. Still dressed in
their pajamas, they brought the children over
and we sat waiting for the break of day to
bring light to the situation. As we sat in the
dark, with candles glowing, I remember to
this day, the sounds of the sirens, the amber
glow in the sky and the thick smell of the
smoke."
- Brian and Kathy Smith, residents
14 “Even though I had promised my parents
I was going to stop partying, my friends and I
had planned on drinking at the Fourth of
July parade. Then the fire came through, and
they cancelled the parade. And instead of getting drunk, I was trying to keep burning
embers off the roof. I was convinced that this
fire was God's way of making me keep my
promises to my parents.”
- Andy Gilman, resident
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Ventura County’s elite
battle Wheeler Fire
by Logan Hall
photo by Bruce Ditchfield
A desiccated landscape
and a region full of devastated lives can often be the
result of a major wildfire.
The 1985 Wheeler Fire
affected people’s lives on
many different levels. Some
had to evacuate their
homes while others suffered from smoke inhalation. Without the help of
the various agencies that
took on the monumental
task of fighting the
onslaught of fire, many
people may have been
injured or killed and homes
and livelihoods might have
been lost. Fire departments
and U.S. Forest Service personnel from all over the
country came to aid in the
epic battle, and some
prominent
figures
in
today’s firefighting world
were part of the effort that
helped save the town of
Ojai from burning to the
ground.
Bob Roper, who is now
PAGE 10
the Ventura County Fire
Department fire chief, had
been with the department
for six years and was stationed in Oak View at the
time of the Wheeler Fire. “I
was a fire engineer at that
time,” said Roper. “We had
just finished dealing with a
fire on South Mountain and
had gotten back to Oak
View when we got the
notice that a fire had started up the 33. When we
headed out toward it we
saw a towering smoke column. That’s when we knew
it wasn’t going to be over in
a couple of hours.”
Tom York, now retired
from the U.S. Forest
Service, was manager of
the Casitas Helicopter Base
when the fire broke out.
“We were one of the initial
attack helicopters on that
fire,” said York. “We picked
up water from Matilija
Reservoir to make water
drops on it and were able to
keep it confined that first
night.”
Retired Battalion Chief
Carl Friddle, like Roper, was
also
on
the
South
Mountain fire when the call
came through about the
blaze at Wheeler. After
receiving the call, Friddle
quickly assembled a strike
team, which usually consists of five fire engines
with a crew of at least three
firefighters each, and
became one of the first
teams on scene. “We had
just gotten the South
Mountain fire under control and were rounding up
the
equipment,”
said
Friddle. “We had an extra
strike team there, so when
we got the call we moved
out to head to Wheeler Hot
Springs. It was our job to
protect the structures in
that area.”
Friddle and his crew
stayed put through most of
the night, lighting backfires
and keeping the flames at
bay. “Everything was going
alright and we were keeping the fire uphill until it
spotted around behind a
group of firefighters down
below,” he said. “That’s very
hazardous for firemen,
especially when they have
no water source. They’ve
got fire above them and fire
below them. The fire will
rush in and it comes in a
whoosh. The brush above
gets really heated. It can be
a real dangerous situation,
so I called for them to come
out of that area. We got
them out safely and everything was OK.”
Fire crews were able to
make headway the first day.
It was when the wind shifted during the second
evening that the fire quickly raged out of control.
“We had everything
secured in the Wheeler
area, so I drove down into
Ojai to the Forest Service
THE WHEELER FIRE OF 1985
Station to find out more of
what was going on,” said
Friddle about the second
day of the battle with the
Wheeler Fire. “I was on the
phone with Mike Sellers,
the deputy chief of the Fire
Department at the time. I
told him that everything
looked alright to me with
the resources we had and
that I didn’t see any immediate problems.” Friddle
was about to head back up
to his crew when he realized
everything
had
changed. “When I hung up
the phone, the Forest
Service guys shouted, ‘Look
at the fire,’ so I went out
and looked up. The fire was
coming down the mountain and it was moving like
a freight train.”
“The second night, the
fire came through with a
down-canyon wind,” said
Roper. “That’s when the
ember storm came. Fire
embers and burning brush
came through there like a
bad snowstorm. I remember hearing over the radio
one of the chief officers
ordering what sounded like
50 strike teams. I had never
heard a call for that many
resources before.”
“I called in and requested
50 engines and five battalion chiefs from all over
California to be dispatched
to the area,” continued
Friddle. “That might be
what Roper heard over the
radio, but we didn’t have
time to assemble complete
strike teams … I needed
those engines right now.”
Roper further painted the
picture of the blaze by
describing an eerie phenomenon that can happen
as the head of a fire
advances. “The amazing
thing is that before the fire we had to move. That seccame in, it was light, and ond evening, the fire made
then it gets dark as night a big run down the canyon
really quick as the smoke from Friend’s Ranch to
and ash come through.” Casitas,” he said. “We had
That wasn’t the only thing to move the helicopters
that stuck out in Roper’s that were stationed at the
mind, however. “One of the Casitas base down to other
things that I’ll never for- airports. That’s when it
get,” he continued, “was really got bad.”
that the small animals like
According to Roper, at
rabbits and squirrels from the time of the Wheeler
the areas that were on fire, Fire, there were several fires
would try to run away, fully burning in Ventura County
engulfed in flames, and which
limited
the
would spread the fire to resources that could be
Smoke clouds Thacher Road.
unburned places.”
used in any given area.
photo by Katie Carr
York also had to adapt his “One of the problems we
attack plan to the raging had was that the fire disfire that had steadily grown trict as a whole was overout of control. “Most of our committed to all of the fires
effort with the water drops in the county,” said Roper.
was on the ridgeline above “We didn’t have the
north Rice Road until it got resources to cover everytoo active and smoky and thing. There was more fire
At Soule Park, where firefighters set up a
base, firemen displayed a small selection of
the tools used to save Ojai.
photo by Sandy Wooff
Smoke shoots skyward from the mountains
above town.
photo by Sandy Wooff
than we could deal with.”
One of the things that
Roper remembers was the
way that the people of the
valley reacted to the
approaching inferno. “We
got redeployed to Meiners
Oaks Fire Station … you
could see the flames coming out of the river by Rice
Road,” he continued.
“People were knocking on
the station door just to
make sure we saw what was
happening. Others were
rolling down the street with
horses tied to their cars
because they didn’t have
time to get the trailers set
up. It’s amazing to watch
the public’s reaction to a
major emergency.”
Many homes and properties were still in danger of
being swallowed by the
advancing fire while Roper,
Friddle and their teams
continued the battle. “I
remember being down by
Rice and Lomita, and the
fire was going toward some
homes,” said Roper. “We
were in a pickup truck
without water and we had
to defend the houses with
pick axes and without
water resources. It was one
of the more humbling
experiences with that fire.”
“I left the Forest Service
station and went up to
Foothill Road. And the fire
was already up at the top
near the houses,” said
Friddle. “I put Capt. Larry
Waylon on protection of
the homes on Foothill. He
made his initial attack with
just two engine companies.
They did one hell of a job
up there.”
Friddle had to direct his
crews on where to go and
what to do while commanding the massive influx
of fire engines that he had
requested. “I was parked up
Foothill issuing orders over
the radio. I had to give
directions to the other
engine companies that
were coming in from all
over,” said Friddle. “Once
they got in the area they
would call me and tell me
what resources they had
and where they were, and
they would ask for an
assignment. I had to send
them to the battalion chiefs
that I thought needed
them. I sent a lot of engines
back into the canyons to
protect the houses.”
Like York, Friddle also
had a helicopter at his disposal that he used to help
manage his teams of fire-
fighters. “I went up in the
helicopter the third day to
get a better view,” said
Friddle. “You can see everything going on. I spent
most of my time in the helicopter that day. I would
have the pilot fly me to an
area, land, and I would talk
to the battalion chief and
take him up to survey his
area. That helicopter was a
really valuable tool.”
The outcome looked
bleak for the Ojai Valley,
and officials were considering the possibility of evacuating the town until a
change in wind direction
helped drive the fire back
onto itself. Fire crews still
had to work diligently to
ensure that the fire, which
after several days was finally under control, didn’t get
out of hand again, and fire
crews were on hand for
months after the blaze was
extinguished to “mop up”
in the aftermath of the fire.
“After the fire, we do a
Burned Area Emergency
Report (BAER),” said John
Bridgwater, Ojai’s District
Ranger for the U.S. Forest
Service who is retiring on
July 31. “Anytime there’s a
fire over 300 acres we have
to do a BAER. A lot of scientists survey the burn area
after the fire and determine
what the severity of the
burn itself is. The biggest
concerns that we have in
the aftermath of a fire are
floods and debris flows. We
try to do whatever we can
to stabilize the hillsides.”
“We were the last aircraft
flying after the fire,” said
York. “We were dealing with
the mop-up for the rest of
the year. We were really
busy flying people up to the
burn areas.”
Despite the intensity of
the fire and the furious
pace at which it moved,
there were very few buildings burned. Many people’s
lives and livelihoods hung
in the balance the week of
the Wheeler Fire. Thanks in
no small part to the firefighters that threw themselves into the heat of the
battle, the Ojai Valley was
saved from disaster.
Soule Park was the base
of operations for the
1985 fire; firefighters
would catch a few hours
sleep, eat quickly, and
get back to work.
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Eicher recalls the day
when residents above
Grand Avenue were
ordered to evacuate.
Scott
Eicher
CEO, Ojai Valley
Chamber of Commerce
remembers the
Wheeler Fire
compiled by Misty Volaski
photo by Bruce Ditchfield
PAGE 14
The fire had been burning for a few days, and my
grandmother’s house on
Fairview Court was being
threatened. My wife, Kathy,
and I had filled my pickup
with her paintings, silverware and other family irreplaceable valuables. The
truck was loaded to the gills
and parked in our driveway
on Park Road across from
Sarzotti Park.
Kathy and I were in the
house and getting ready for
dinner watching L.A. television coverage of the Ojai
fire. We heard this strange
sound. We went outside
and the afternoon sky was
quickly
turning
dark
orange. There was a deep
low growl of a wind and it
was loud. Suddenly, and I
do mean suddenly, the
wind increased dramatically. The growl became a
howl and the ashes in the
air were blowing sideways.
The smoke level was thick
and acrid. Kathy and I were
outside watching all of this
with wet bandannas over
our noses and mouths.
Word came down that people above Grand Avenue
had been told to evacuate.
A steady stream of cars
began to roll past the
house. It was an eerie sight:
the air was orange and
black (there was no sky), a
hot wind was pushing a
heavy cloud of ash almost
horizontally down Park
Road to Ojai Avenue; families were crammed into
cars and pickups with pets,
clothes
and
personal
belongings. The people in
the cars — kids, moms,
dads — showed an array of
emotions. Kids crying from
fear; mothers crying in sadness of possibly losing their
homes;
fathers’
faces
creased with stress and
worry for the safety of their
families. It was like a
“Twilight Zone” parade
going by our house. Our
neighbors were on the
sidewalk and we all were
standing there silently
watching these cars loaded
with lives possibly changing forever go by our house,
their emotions drowned
out by the howl of the devil
wind. It was easily 90
degrees at 6 p.m. at night,
but the sound of that wind
gave us chills.
I don’t know how long we
all stood there, but at some
point the wind began to die
though the heat did not
dissipate. We could see the
flames crawling across the
hillside above Topa Topa
School following Shelf
Road heading east. A solid
wall of orange flames was
moving at a frightening
pace from one side of the
valley to the other. If the
wind shifted and began
blowing from the north, it
would signal imminent
danger for the houses
above Grand. Slowly the
wind died. The advance of
the flames slowed slightly.
At some point the wind
came back up, but in the
opposite
direction,
it
became a southerly based
wind. The flames began
moving back over the ridge
toward the area already
burned. Somehow an
onshore flow had devel-
THE WHEELER FIRE OF 1985
oped and the fire was being
turned back. It was a day or
so more before things were
considered safe enough for
the evacuees to return to
their homes; no houses
were lost. It was only a few
more hours before the
“Thank You, Firefighters!”
signs began appearing. We
all knew we had dodged the
big one, but just barely.
One of the things that
were especially odd during
this firestorm was the noise
level within town. Yes, there
were sirens and diesel
engines all the time, yet
there was also a certain
quiet in town. It was as if
everyone’s interest was
focused on the fire, as if
verbal conversation was
kept at a minimum. There
was a tension in the air, but
there were very few ambient sounds. It was like this
for a week or more during
the closest call with the fire.
The only superfluous
sounds were the spontaneous cheers and applause
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Big hearts save small souls
Ojai’s animal lovers rally behind their pets and wildlife
by Mary M. Long
The fire of ‘85 was a monumental disaster that still
lives in the memories of
those who lived though it.
More than 118,000 acres
were burned with the casualties in animal life being
unimaginable
and
uncountable. Kathy Jenks,
who was director of Animal
Control at the time of the
fire, will never forget the
unanticipated carnage that
one lone arsonist premeditated.
“I was driving up Gridley
when I realized there was
something on the road. I
slowed down and I saw
rats, great big rats running
across the road. I kept on
driving past my house up
to the top of Gridley where
the Gridley Trail starts and
just parked and watched.
Animals were running out
of the fire, rats, rabbits,
squirrels, those that had
waited too long to run,
were on fire — to watch an
animal running on fire,
burning,” she shook her
head and paused. “Deer,
bears — even to see a coyote running on fire,” her
eyes went down and she
was silent for a moment.
“That’s often how a fire will
move from one spot to
another, an animal will run
out of the flames on fire,
run into a spot that hasn’t
ovn file photo
Residents with an overflowing Jeep get ready to
evacuate. Many had no room for beloved pets.
PAGE 18
been hit yet and boom!”
Jenks turned in her chair
and said quietly, “That’s
when you have to make
hard choices. That’s when I
authorized a number of my
staff who had firearms
training to dispatch those
animals that were badly
burned. If we had burned
deer or burned cattle, we
had to put them down. No
one likes to kill, but we
have to. Doc Humphrey
had taught me early on
exactly where to put a bullet in a horse or cow and I
trusted him. There were
some singed bears, there
were some dead bears — a
lot of dead everything.”
Wildlife is the biggest
casualty in any wildfire,
and in the ‘85 Wheeler Fire
there were thousands of
victims with so many acres
of forest being burned. The
Forest Service was finding
injured animals everywhere and bringing them
in. There was a singed bear
cub found near Lake
Casitas that was brought in
and turned over to wildlife
rescue. Dr. Koerner was the
county vet back then, Jenks
said, “but we had John and
John who were at our disposal —- Dr. Bee and Dr.
Lyons, and they went out
on a lot of calls, day and
night.”
Fire! The call went out
about 3 a.m., remembers
Jolene Hoffman who was
an Animal Control officer
at the time. She remembers the call that came in
from Jenks, who directed
the rescue efforts. “It was
so hot the night the fire
started,”
said
Jenks,
“nobody could sleep — we
just sweated, tossed and
turned.” The fire started
somewhere near the top of
Foothill so the Arbolada
was among the first areas
to be evacuated. The
Arbolada was originally
conceived as small equestrian estates, so at that
time, nearly everyone had
a horse or two in their back
yards. Many people didn’t
have trailers so they were
hand walking their horses
out of the danger — people
were leading their horses,
walking down the middle
of Ojai Avenue to Nordhoff
High School. At Nordhoff
horses were everywhere —
tied to the goal posts, tied
to the chain link fences,
tied to bleachers. Many
horses ran loose on the
football field, terrified and
at odds with liberty. The
narrow winding roads of
the Arbolada were difficult
for rescue equipment to
get through, so Jenks was
driving a dog control truck
down the streets, looking
for animals that had been
left behind. She recalls
finding an elderly lady,
scared to death, who ran
out and exclaimed, “Thank
THE WHEELER FIRE OF 1985
God someone is here!”
Jenks asked her if she had
any animals, and the
woman replied “No,” but
she couldn’t leave her husband’s boat behind. Jenks
reassured her that her husband would understand if
she sacrificed the boat and
just saved herself. The lady
said, “No, you don’t understand. My husband died
last week and his boat is all
I have left.” So Jenks
hooked the boat to the
back of the dog truck,
hauled it out of the
Arbolada and parked it at
Nordhoff with its frightened owner.
“She wasn’t going to
leave without that damn
boat, and I wasn’t going to
leave her, because she was
old and scared,” said Jenks.
In the summer of ‘85, the
horses
from
Thacher
School were pastured in
Upper Ojai. As the Upper
Ojai fire roared into life this
quickly became a dangerous place for them to be,
and many were taken
down to the
Ventura
County
Fairgrounds.
Horses would be evacuated from one area only to be
rotated around back across
the valley as area after area
became unstable and fire
after fire sprang up or was
lit. Nobody knew what to
expect next.
Hoffman
remembers
getting a call that there was
a goat that needed to be
rescued on Rice Road. The
area had already been
evacuated and blocked off.
“They waved us through,”
said Jolene. “Jeff, my husband, drove the rig in front
of me and I followed in
another
truck.”
She
remembers
suddenly
being engulfed in a tunnel
of fire. “It was the most
frightening experience of
my life,” she said. They
found the recalcitrant goat,
who had resisted previous
attempts to rescue him,
heading down in the bottom of the dry river bed. As
Jeff approached him, the
goat showed his appreciation by charging him at full
throttle. Jeff promptly tackled him, grabbed him by
the horns, bulldogged him
to the ground and dragged
him to the trailer for safety.
In Santa Paula people
were cutting gates to let
cattle out, as fire swept
across the dry, parched
summer pastures. Loose,
bewildered cattle wandered the roads, creating
an even bigger problem for
firefighters
that
were
already struggling to get
equipment down the narrow canyon roads. Steckel
Park was evacuated and
more than 200 of its birds
were crammed into the
Humane Society on Bryant
Street. Resources were
spread so thin, recalls
Jenks, that there were no
officers available when the
call came to evacuate the
Steckel Park aviary. “I
grabbed my office staff,
since everyone else was
out, and we went out to get
THE WHEELER FIRE OF 1985
those damn birds,” said
Jenks. Armed with nets and
burlap bags they netted the
birds, using the bags to
transport them to the
Humane Society. “We just
sort of nabbed them as
they flew past,” said Jenks.
“We had birds everywhere,
we had everything you can
imagine, turkeys, pheasants, doves,” said Jolene.
“The lobby was full of
PAGE 19
birds, we had them in my
office, and in Jeff’s office.
We had them stashed in
the kitten room, and then
we just had to move them
again when a woman came
in with 70 cats.” The ruckus
of over 200 birds in the
offices made communications even more chaotic as
officers yelled over the din,
adding even more stress to
the already-overwhelmed
staff. With more than 40
horses at the Humane
Society, horses at Nordhoff,
horses at the fairgrounds,
Jenks was still running out
of space for evacuees.
“Back then,” said Jenks,
“the Lambs, Bob and Suzy,
didn’t have many horses,
so I put a lot of horses at
their house.” As she ran out
of space, she would call
Realtors and ask them if
they had any empty ranches for sale. If they had a
vacant ranch, then the
Animal Control signs
would go up, and she
would take possession of
the property for emergency evacuations. Horses
went
to
Moorpark,
Camarillo, any place that
seemed safe. Courtesy
Chevrolet Stables owned
by R. Mitch McClure in
Moorpark, had room for
horses, so off they went to
Moorpark, in search of
safety.
Crews were exhausted,
with Humane Society officers crashing at their
desks. According to Jolene,
she and Jeff ran home to
try to get a shower only to
find that their back yard
was on fire. Jenks recalls
that the command post for
the firefighters was at
Soule Park, and between
calls and meetings, she
would drive home to keep
an eye on her mother’s
house. Along with everything else, she said, she
made it a point to keep the
firefighters in clean socks.
“At some point there is
nothing more you can do.”
As evening fell, after a long
day, she and her crew gathered at her mother’s house
on Gridley Road and
watched the flames. “My
brother, Dennis, was on
the roof she recalls, doing
the play-by-play. Of course
Dennis had never seen a
fire of that size before, so
every time a tree would
flare up he would be sure it
was someone’s house and
he’d be shouting, ‘There it
goes!’ We took
bets on which side of the
fire would reach us first.
Then we took side bets on
which fire was moving the
fastest.” The Upper Ojai
fire was burning toward
them from one direction
and the Foothill fire was
blazing from the other
side, both fanned by
churning winds. “When
the fire met up behind our
house it sounded like
freight trains coming in, it
was so loud,” said Jenks.
The whole mountainside
was a fireworks show —
there was a time when the
entire valley was rimmed
in a grotesque ballet of
flames. “When I got up in
the morning,” said Jenks,
“there were 30 chairs lined
up by the pool where my
crew had been just sitting,
watching the show.”
“One of my funniest
memories,” said Jenks,
“was at your dad’s ranch,
funny, and sad, at the same
time.” Jenks had rolled in
to help evacuate my dad’s
Thoroughbred racehorses.
Black Mountain had been
set on fire, with what firefighters told me later, were
three incendiary bombs.
From a delicate plume of
smoke, the mountain
became a raging inferno
within minutes. Wind had
picked up and the fire was
burning south down the
mountain toward the valley at an ungodly speed.
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PAGE 20
THE WHEELER FIRE OF 1985
no time for preparations.
Horses lose their minds in
fires, often running back
into the flames to burn to
death in their own barns.
“We took the stock trailer
right into the corral where
your dad’s colts were that
weren’t broke to lead,” said
Jenks. “We were just trying
to herd them right into the
trailer.” Harold and Paquita
Parker had arrived to volunteer their services to
friends and were trying to
help. As the wind picked
up, pieces of burning
brush and dead trees were
floating in and starting
spot fires in the pasture
where the wild-eyed colts
were running. Harold was
trying to stomp out the
fires with his boots until
the soles of his boots
caught on fire and Paquita
was screaming for help. “I
was between them, trying
to keep them calm,” said
Jenks. As the situation grew
increasingly
dangerous
and her crew kept asking,
“Do we have to do this?”
she said, “Yes, these are
friends.” The fire was coming fast, the wind was
howling, and there were
more
than
20
Thoroughbred horses on
the Long ranch to be evacuated.
“We finally got those
damn horses in the trailer,”
said Jenks, and I told my
crew, ‘We’re not unloading
them.’ We just parked them
over at the Coultas ranch
and waited until the crisis
at your dad’s ranch was
over.”
I had more than 20 horses to evacuate, and quickly
had to prioritize who
would go where first. Well,
necessity makes many of
the choices for you as horses that are normally
tractable can change dramatically in a disaster. Fire
helicopters were flying low
overhead and just as I was
trying to load one of my
horses, one came in so
close I could feel the wind
from the propellers. Up
went my mare in terror,
rearing and running backwards until she hit the
hood of my dad’s Chevy,
flipping over, landing
upside down. KEYT news
was there, filming the incident, with dispassionate
journalism. I wondered
how they would feel if my
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horses burned in front of
them. Horses that wouldn’t
load were walked across
the San Antonio Creek barranca to Bob Lamb’s stables, and those that wouldn’t lead were left in the big
arena to fend for themselves. I will never forget
my gratitude at the generosity of the horse community, and the outpouring of help from friends,
neighbors, strangers and
rescue personnel. After the
last horse was moved,
Jenks and I stood in the
yard of Lambs’ property on
Ojai Avenue and there was
nothing more we could do.
The air was thick with
smoke and the whole valley had a dark red glow.
Jenks disappeared into the
house and came out with a
bottle of champagne that
Bob had given her. “Well,”
she said, “we might as well
have some champagne,”
popping the cork as she
spoke. And so we did, we
poured champagne into
champagne glasses and
with glazed eyes and a sort
of skewed gallows humor,
we watched helplessly as
the whole valley burned
around us. There was nothing else we could do.
Nobody ever expected it
to get so big, nobody ever
had any idea that something of this magnitude
could happen. Nobody
ever imagined that a disaster this enormous could
happen in Ojai. We had all
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THE WHEELER FIRE OF 1985
PAGE 21
were held at Soule Park and
word finally went out to
those in charge that Ojai
was within 20 minutes of
being ordered to completely evacuate. A firestorm
was brewing, which they
feared would engulf the
entire valley. “I couldn’t tell
anyone until we were ready
to move,” said Jenks, “we
didn’t want to create panic.
I just had to figure out what
I was going to do.” Her plan
was to evacuate the animals from the Humane
Society to the Ventura
Fairgrounds buildings. “I
figured we would just get
all the dog and cat crates
and put them in the buildings at the fairgrounds,”
she said. For the horses,
she had planned to com-
mandeer the Ojai Valley
Inn golf course. “As director of Animal Control I had
the right to take over usage
of private property in a crisis. I had signs all made up
to post that this property
was being used by Animal
Control. The golf course
wouldn’t burn, so we figured if we just turned the
horses out on it. they
would be safe.”
“We learned a lot from
the Ojai fire,” said Jenks.
“In Ventura County you
usually have one or two
wildfires a year. Now we
have volunteers who are
trained and we are prepared.”
According
to
Hoffman, the best thing
you can do as an animal
owner is prepare in
advance for a disaster.
“Make sure you have identification on your animals,”
she said. “If you are worried about collars, then
make sure your animals
have microchips, and
make sure the chip is one
we can read. Call your local
shelter and find out what
chip they recommend for
your area and use that
chip. Make sure your horses are trailer trained and
halter broke. Leave halters
for each animal that are
easily accessible. Our rule
at the Humane Society is, if
we can’t load your animals
in 15 minutes we have to
move on to the next victim,” she said, shaking her
head.
According to Jenks, ani-
mal owners who don’t own
trailers can borrow one
from Animal Control to
feed their horses in until
they become comfortable
with trailers. “It’s because
of the Ojai fire that we
implemented that policy,”
she said.
“Many animals were
never claimed after the fire
was over,” said Hoffman.
“That’s the heartbreaking
part of this job, not being
able to reunite pets with
their owners.” She thought
for a moment and said quietly. “I will never forget the
heat. It was over 103
degrees in the middle of
the night. I will never forget
the dazed looks on people’s
faces.”
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PAGE 22
able sickness. It’s hard to
believe that someone
walked among us who was
capable of creating such
carnage. So many innocent animals charred to
fiery, agonizing deaths. So
many pets who never
found their way home
again after the fire, or who
were never retrieved by
their owners. The only
bright spot out of the
tragedy of the ‘85 fire is the
affirmation of humanity,
as people clung together,
helping each other. And
the moment of clarity that
follows the frenzy of evacuation when for once in
their lives, in a split second
— people had to decide
what was really important
to them.
405 W. Ojai Avenue
• PO Box 1387 • Ojai, Ca
THE WHEELER FIRE OF 1985
Everyday Heroes
by Misty Volaski
photos by Shalom Joshua
Having grown up
in Ojai, I thought I
knew all about the
1985 blaze that
almost consumed
our valley. Stories of
the “ring of fire on
the mountains” and
the
evacuations
have long been a
favorite topic at
family get-togethers.
I knew that many people
stayed to protect their
homes, including some of
my family members. What I
didn’t know is that the
things my father and
grandfather did would easily qualify as heroic.
Tony Volaski, my dad,
and Jim Wooff, my grandfather, were among the few
who stuck around north of
Grand Avenue, in the Topa
Topa School area, after the
firefighters were forced to
pull back to Grand Avenue.
My father, Tony Volaski,
joined his longtime friends,
the Bowman family, on
North Daly Road.
“The Bowmans’ dad
wouldn’t leave their house,”
said Volaski. “At first I
thought it would be kind of
fun, to help them out and
check out the fire up close.
We thought we had a plan
— if the fire came over the
house, we’d just jump in
the pool.”
But soon, that adventure
went from “idiotic,” to
“Sh—, I might die out
here.”
The men, then in their
early 20s, had dunked Tshirts in the pool and
wrapped them around
their faces. They battled the
fire with garden hoses, but
quickly realized they needed more water power.
When the blaze hit the
backyard fence, Bryan
Bowman yelled at Volaski
to jump the fence and get
the neighbor’s hoses.
When Volaski landed on
the other side, he was filled
with dread: the neighbor’s
wooden eaves were cracking and burning. He had to
make a decision: go back to
the Bowmans, where he
was sorely needed, or
spend precious time to put
out the neighbor’s house?
“Their shingles were on
fire. That house was going
to go. So I put it out, hosed
it down and jumped back
over the fence” to continue
fighting at the Bowmans
and at other places on the
street. “I can’t even remember how long we were out
there — a long, long time.”
The group kept dunking
their T-shirts in the pool
and fighting till finally, “the
fire didn’t have much left to
burn,” having consumed
most of its fuel. By that
time, my mother Candee —
who was in Ventura with
her siblings, mother and
myself — had called my
dad in a panic.
“She was crying, begging
me to leave,” my dad said.
“There were these fireballs
rolling down the street.
Tumbleweeds of fire. You
know how fire creates its
own wind? It had these
things blowing all over the
place. They were huge.
Man, it was the scariest
thing I’ve ever seen.”
“When everyone else,
even the firemen, gave
everything up above Grand
Avenue for lost, your dad
and his friends stuck
around to help,” said my
grandmother, Sandy Wooff,
with a tinge of pride in her
voice. “I think if your dad
and friends hadn’t done
that all our houses would
have gone up in smoke.”
While my father was
working to save the houses
on North Daly, my grandfather, Jim Wooff, was a few
blocks east, on Ayers
Avenue. He had long evacuated my grandmother,
Sandy, and my mother’s
four siblings who still lived
at home.
“I remember the first fire
that I saw in Ojai in 1949,”
my grandmother recalled.
“It was so exciting at the
time, until we had to leave
— with whatever we could
pack in a bag. I said that
would never happen to me
again, so I packed (well in
advance).
Everyone
laughed at me.”
But as the police drove
down the streets with the
loudspeaker blaring the
evacuation warning, she
said, “I just drove off, and
they ran around yelling and
wondering what to pack.”
After the rest of the family left, “Papa” Wooff stayed
with the sprinklers going
full blast on the roof, refusing to leave until he could
no longer see the houses
across the street.
But there was a problem.
When police gave the evacuation order, they were
unaware that a mentally
handicapped neighbor was
refusing to leave her house.
“She had a lot of problems,
and wouldn’t leave her
house,” Woof said. So my
grandfather took charge,
flagging down a police car
and directing him to the
neighbor’s house. With
some coaxing from both of
them, the woman finally
got in the car with Wooff.
He drove her down to
Sarzotti Park’s Boyd Center,
made sure she was taken
care of, and proceeded to
go back up to his house.
But at Grand Avenue and
Park Road, “I was informed
that Grand Avenue was the
big stopping point,” Wooff
said. “They just wouldn’t let
me back up the street.”
So he joined the rest of
the family in Ventura, hoping for the best. Legend has
it that the winds “miraculously” died down just minutes before the decision
was made to evacuate the
entire town.
On North Signal Street, the flames traveled all the way to Shalom Joshua's new back
porch, and came right to the edge of several properties.
THE WHEELER FIRE OF 1985
PAGE 25
The staff and
families of Monica
Ros School would
like to thank our
courageous and
dedicated firefighters
for protecting the
Ojai Valley.
Thanks to Artist, Elizabeth
Mahoney, and to the Wademan
family for allowing us to use
their painting.
www.monicaros.org
ocated in Ojai’s coveted East End, this home has just
undergone a complete remodeling from the studs up,
with meticulous attention to detail. Highlights include
3 bedrooms, a lovely master suite-wing with travertine
flooring & courtyard, 2.5 custom-tiled bathrooms, spacious
gourmet kitchen with Viking appliances, bamboo flooring,
two-zone air conditioning, and a two-car garage with
laundry & storage. Set well off the road, the estate-quality grounds afford a serene
sense of privacy, a delightful loggia, olive orchard, and enchanting vistas of Sulphur
Mountain. The level acreage offers intriguing possibilities for the addition of a tennis
court, swimming pool, or equestrian facilities.
Offered at $2,195,000
Victor Plana, G.R.I.
Coldwell Banker
Previews International
805.895.0591~mobile,
805.565.8807~direct
www.VictorPlana.com
Open Sunday 1-4 ~ 3560 Thacher
Rosemary’s Story
The following is an excerpt from Del Norte Road resident Rosemary Schumacher’s diary,
from July 1 to July 4, 1985.
• Monday, July 1, 1985
Bill (my husband) has
taken the week off to be
home with me. He left at 3
p.m. to have his truck tuned
up in Ventura and then for
an executive board meeting
at the union hall. I have just
sat down to read the paper
in the den when I look out
toward the mountain and
see a thin, tall puff of smoke
going straight up in the sky.
It is a few minutes after 3
p.m. As I watch it builds so
quickly I know this is going
to be the grandaddy of all
fires. I get the binoculars
and the camera.
By the time Bill gets home
we can see flames leaping
behind the tallest ridge. The
sundowners are beginning
to blow. We guess that the
tallest leaping flames are
oak trees exploding and
sending firestorms in all
directions.
It is 10 p.m. and we are
going to bed. I cannot sleep
so I get up and watch the
fire from the den. It is 11
p.m. and the flames are
sloping over the ridge. I
watch through the binoculars as the flames leap frog
along the ridge top.
• Tuesday, July 2, 1985
It is now 3:50 a.m. Lights
from cars, our neighbors’
lights, noisy voices, shouting, wake me up. Our dogs
are strangely quiet. I get up
and look out the window.
Everyone is taking their
horses out — some by trailer, some by leading them.
PAGE 28
Cars are going down the
street — there are so many!
I run to the den and look
out — the fire is moving
down some but not enough
to panic. I go back to bed,
but the car lights and noises
keep me awake. At 10 to 5 I
get up and go out on the
patio with Ralph (dog). It is
quieter now. Suddenly I
hear the sheriff’s voice over
his car mike saying, “All residents of (something) Road
evacuate immediately. Fire
danger imminent!” I cannot
understand the name of the
road. He repeats several
times. Now Judge Hunter
and a neighbor on the hill
behind us are shouting to
each other. I hear one say,
“It’s coming fast!”
I wake Bill and tell him we
may have to evacuate. We
get dressed and I fix breakfast in case we lose the
power. It’s just after 6 a.m. I
call Daddy and Mother so
they won’t worry if they
don’t hear from us for a few
days.
There is a constant
parade of cars up and down
the road. Highway 33 up
the canyon is closed and all
these stupid people are trying to get a closer look at
the fire. If there IS an emergency the residents can
never get out quickly
enough. As I watch the
flames moving down the
ridge, two gawkers run each
other off the road in front of
our house. One skids off the
road under the big oak near
the street. The CHP pulls
them out of the soft dirt and
they are on their way.
I try to cross the road to
the mailbox but the parade
of cars is endless. Finally I
shout, “Go home!” and get
the mail.
Bill is napping on the
couch in the den with the
dogs. I cannot sit still. I go
across the street and talk to
Jim, who is up on his roof
watering. Thank heaven we
have a rock roof instead of
wood shingles.
The day seems to drag on
and on. I sit down and
make a list of things to pack
as it becomes more evident
that we could be in danger.
My list is small, considering
we’ve lived in this house 19
years
this
month.
Important papers, jewelry,
medication, antique silver,
pictures, a change of
clothes, money and makeup. It all fits into a large tote
bag. The dogs’ leashes and
water bowl are by the door.
If we must leave I will take
Ralph and Bill will take
Sassy and we’ll meet at
Nordhoff High School,
where an evacuation center
is set up.
It is getting dark and the
heat is terrible. The smoke
is heavier as the sundowners continue to blow. The
flames appear closer. The
fire has burned down both
ridges and is in the foothills
now. It has reached the end
of Palomar Road which is
one block east of us. Bill is
on the roof with the hose
and all the other hoses are
connected
should
firestorms throw burning
materials on the roof or
trees.
It is about 10:30 p.m.
Del Norte Road resident Rosemary Schumacher snapped this shot of clouds of ash
billowing out of the mountains just north of her home.
THE WHEELER FIRE OF 1985
They have brought a brush
trencher and some water
trucks to the end of our
driveway. I go get the tote
bag and put it in the trunk
of my car. The pickup and
car are parked in the driveway ready to go.
It’s strange that I feel no
regret about leaving, knowing that when we return
everything could be gone.
Things seem unimportant
in the face of such danger.
We started early this spring
cutting brush and doing
everything we could to be
prepared, since we knew
that this could be a bad fire
season.
The sirens continue to
scream. They are evacuating Grey Gables (a retirement complex) and Acacias
(a convalescent hospital).
It’s after 11 p.m. The
winds are shifting and
blowing the flames away
from us. There is an eerie
orange glow in the sky. The
heat and smoke are stifling.
We are tired and go to bed
at 11:30 p.m.
• Wednesday, July 3, 1985
Sounds of chain saws and
brush shredders come from
every direction.
The fire has come down
the canyon to the west of us
and we understand that it is
burning through the Lake
Casitas area, and the
Ventura River bottom.
I keep watching the
smoke and flames. As I look
to the east there is smoke
billowing skyward from a
new fire.
Another fire has been set
south of us also. It seems
that someone is trying to
burn Ojai to the ground.
The sundowners are
blowing toward us now. The
heat and smoke are unbelievable.
The fire camp is at Soule
Park, which is on the other
side of town to the east. It is
a beautiful clean park that
holds a lot of happy memories for us. I trained Bud at
the park. Now it is being
used as a base for the
courageous firefighters who
have come from everywhere.
It is so quiet. It’s eerie.
The sun is visible as an
orange ball through the
smoke. The winds are
swirling the thick smoke
and we can barely see
across the street. The fire
has knocked out the power
and we cannot use the air
conditioner. It is so quiet.
There is not a sound at all.
The sundowners are
blowing harder now, bringing the fire closer to town.
(We learned later that there
were plans to evacuate all
residents of the entire Ojai
Valley today, Wednesday).
We are tired and uneasy.
The dogs have been so
quiet and inactive considering what has been going
on. They haven’t played like
they usually do nor barked
at people or noises. Nor
have I noticed other dogs
barking. The cats come to
be fed, but disappear
promptly.
Bill and I decide to go to
Antonio’s for dinner since
we don’t know how long the
power will be off. Anyway,
we both have “cabin fever”
as we have not left the
house since the fire started.
With all the emergency
vehicles on the streets, we
don’t want to be in the way.
On our way to the restaurant we cannot comprehend the awful devastation.
It is even worse than I could
ever imagine. There is nothing but ashes — black and
gray ashes — all over the
once-beautiful Topa Topa
“It defies description — moonscape or
war zone comes close.”
~Rosemary Schumacher
THE WHEELER FIRE OF 1985
Mountains. High light-colored boulders that I have
never seen before cling to
the hillsides. I cannot imagine what holds them up
there. It is such a depressing sight. It defies description — moonscape or war
zone comes close.
• Thursday, July 4, 1985
The danger is finally past
us and the fire is burning
into the backcountry.
The cats have come
home. Things are looking
up. The birds are back —
singing. We will survive,
thank God. 403 Del Norte
Road seems safe, for now, at
least!
photo by Katie Carr
PAGE 29
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Located just a short distance
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$450,000
Nestled off the road, level
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$289,000
Country cabin, 2BR+1BA,
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$129,900
2004 Manufactured home,
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favored family park.
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805.207.6177
The Davis Team
Ojai Valley
A Way of Life
www.OjaiValleyEstates.com
ndavis3128@aol.com
Lic.# 01046067
Katie
Montague
818-625-8313
Private setting, 3BR+2.5BA,
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Scott
805-797-2044
Ginger
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805-312-3903
Brenda
Cloud
805-901-1156
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805-798-3321