A Bucket Brigade Saves the Barn, but the Gleichman Ranch House Is Gone
An early-evening blaze of unknown origin destroyed one of the finest houses on the Highlands Fruit Company ranch — a $4,000 loss that neighbors could only stand and watch.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
One of the most disastrous fires in the history of the Highlands occurred last Saturday evening when the O. L. Gleichman house on the ranch of the Highlands Fruit Company burned to the ground. The fire, which was of unknown origin, was discovered about five-thirty o'clock, but had made such headway that it was impossible to do anything to save the building. A bucket brigade was formed and the barn, which was threatened because of the wind carrying the sparks from the burning house, was saved after a hard fight. The house was one of the finest on the Highlands, built at an original cost of something over four thousand dollars. The loss was partially covered by insurance.
“The fire, which was of unknown origin, was discovered about five-thirty o'clock, but had made such headway that it was impossible to do anything to save the building.”
Before rural fire districts and hydrants, a house fire in an orchard tract was fought by whoever could form a line of buckets — and the outcome usually depended on the wind. The Highlands Fruit Company's ranch house was one of the best buildings in the district, and its loss in a single evening shows how thin the margin was for the families who planted the valley's orchards. Today the same ground is served by trained crews and tanker trucks, but the calculus of what can be saved and what cannot still comes down to minutes and wind.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.