1936 — Sep 26-29, Wildfires, SW OR, esp. Bandon & Prosper (Sep 26), (also NO CA) — 11

–13  National Fire Protection Association. Key Dates in Fire History. 1996.[1]

–11  Associated Press. “Flames Checked.” Daily Chronicle, Centralia, WA, 9-29-1936, p. 1.

–11  NFPA. “The Bandon Conflagration.” NFPA Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 229-235.

–11  OR Dept. of Forestry. A Short History of Wildland/Urban Interface Fires in Oregon. 2004.

–11  Sullivan, William L. Oregon’s Greatest Natural Disasters. Navillus Press, 2008, p. 181.

–10  (Bandon)  Andrews. “Bandon Fire, 1936.” The Oregon History Project, 2-20-2015.

—  9  Oakland Tribune, CA. “Nine Persons Lose Lives, 2000 Made Homeless…” 9-28-1936, 3.

 

Narrative Information

 

Oregon Department of Forestry: “….The 1933 Tillamook Fire, which burned in the dense timber of the northern Coast Range, was so large and frightening that it became a permanent fixture in Oregon history. These fires took lives and burned remote farms and homesteads, but most of the damage was to the forests themselves.

 

“Then, in 1936, an outbreak of fires hit communities and forests with equal destructiveness. The most famous of the 1936 fires was a wildfire that burned the coastal city of Bandon and killed 11 people. ‘Carried by an east wind of gale­-like force, a forest fire swept into the town of Bandon late on the evening of September 26, practically wiping out the town and resulting in the death of 11 persons,’ said an article in The Forest Log, the Oregon Department of Forestry’s newsletter.

 

“‘The fire fighters were helpless. Fire lines were wiped out, the men were forced to flee…. Efforts were then centered on evacuating the town. Many of the citizens, especially the older ones, seemed stunned, unable to realize that the town was doomed and that they must leave. It was among those that the casualties occurred. When found the majority of them were clutching some of their personal belongings, evidently attempting to save something but realizing the danger too late. Many stories are told by the men who accomplished heroic work in saving individuals, how some of them refused to leave and had to be taken from the town by force.’

 

“The fire had first swept into Bandon’s residential area, then into the business section. Nearly every building in town burned ­­ even the telephone company. Ships ́ radios were the only source of communication. Only 16 buildings out of 500 survived.[2]

 

“The towns of Coquille and Myrtle Point were also threatened by the 1936 fires, but saved due to the aggressive use of bulldozers and backfires. ‘However, there has been a large loss in buildings and other improvements to the settlers who were located in the fire area,’ reported the Log. Farther north, in Lincoln County, other fires licked at populated areas. Buildings and a schoolhouse burned near a logging camp. Flames destroyed an ‘auto camp’ near Yachats, and then continued toward the town. Some residences were lost, but the town was saved. Another town, Depoe Bay, also lost homes to the flames, but firefighters kept the town from burning. Inland, flames swirled in the Siuslaw National Forest around the town of Alsea. Miles to the east, on the western slopes of the Cascade Range, other fires were within sight of Detroit, Niagara, Mill City and Estacada.” (OR Dept. of Forestry. A Short History of Wildland/Urban Interface Fires in Oregon. 2004.)

 

Randall: “The forest fires of late September, 1936, which burned over 100,000 acres of territory in southwestern Oregon and destroyed the towns of Bandon and Prosper, again illustrate the danger to communities and settlements adjacent to wooded areas and show the importance of weather conditions, particularly low humidity, in determining potential forest fire danger. Federal and state forest service agencies did effective work in controlling the many serious fires which covered a two-hundred-mile front. The destruction of Bandon is an­other instance of the failure of local fire protection facilities to control a forest fire attacking a town on a long front. Water supplies and fire protection forces are usually weakest at the outlying sections of a community. Adequate forest fire fighting equipment should be an essential-part of-the fire depart­ment of any community exposed by wood or brush lands.

 

“Drenching rains fell in northwestern Oregon early in September, and the temperature fell to low levels. It had been a beautiful summer, rainless since early July, but unusually free from forest fires.

 

“Fortified by assurance that came with the heavy rains, federal and state officials relaxed somewhat the fire season restrictions.  It seemed a reasonably safe time for farmers and loggers to burn their slashings and dispose of hazardous debris. Closures were lifted on certain forest areas, entry to which had been restricted during the summer. The deer season opened on September 20 and hunters were swarming into the woods. Farmers’ land clearing fires and slash burning fires of logging operators were clouding the atmosphere.

 

“Then came two weeks of dry September weather. Fire-weather observers, whose daily job it is to take readings of temperature, humidity and wind veloc­ity, those unerring indicators of forest fire danger, found conditions decidedly worse. Relative humidity below 35 means dangerous fire weather.

 

“On September 26 from Powers, center of the Coos Bay logging district of southwestern Oregon, came the report “temperature 90°, strong easterly winds, relative humidity 7.”  From Marshfield, the principal seaport in the same district, the weather bureau recorded “temperature 88, relative humidity  20 smoky.” All along the Oregon coast range came similar reports, and on that day smoldering fires spread as if by magic. Fire calls poured into the U. S. Forest Service office at Portland and the State Forester’s office at Salem. Fires were out of control along the whole coast range, with the heaviest threat in the Coos Bay area near the towns of Powers, Marshfield, Coquille and Bandon.

 

“The fire base headquarters of the U. S. Forest Service was immediately established at Gold Beach near the mouth of the Rouge River. Short wave radio and field telephones were installed. Truckloads of C.C.C. men, equip­ment and supplies began to arrive that afternoon and night at large fires at Pistol River and Euchre Creek along the Siskiyou National Forest border in Curry County.

 

“In the Coos Bay area farther north more serious fires were the problem of state and local protective agencies. Civilians and C.C.C. men were rushed in to protect settlements and towns. During the night the town of Bandon was wiped out. North of Coos Bay, 150 miles of coast mountains territory, includ­ing the Siuslaw National Forest, were spotted with fires. By Sunday night heavy fire fighting was going on at many points along a two hundred mile line.

 

“State and federal forestry officials who flew along the coast on Sunday, September 27, could see dozens of fires north and south of Coos Bay and Marshfield. Near Coos Bay they reported an area of some 500,000 acres centering near Coquille like a great semicircle against the Pacific Ocean. Inside of this semicircle little could be seen except the column of smoke which arose to a three-mile elevation. Within this area many large fires were burn­ing, including those which had destroyed the towns of Bandon and Prosper. Into this area came hundreds of fire fighters, including civilians, C.C.C. tree troopers, E.R.A. and Resettlement Administration workers, along with state and federal forest service personnel. Men from thirty-two C.C.C. camps from both Oregon and Washington were brought distances up to six hundred miles by special trains and trucks. The army efficiently handled the service of supplies.

 

“When the major Curry County fires, first attacked by the U. S. Forest Service, were under control the U. S. Regional Forester made available five hundred additional C.C.C. men to help local authorities protect still threatened towns with fire breaks and other measures. He also took over the work of fight­ing fire on 100,000 acres of forest area hear the national forest  boundaries. Nearly a thou­sand new fire  fighters were concentrated in the critical area, and fires were controlled or checked within a few days, although the fires were not completely extinguished for a longer period.

 

By no stretch of the imagination could the Coos Bay district be considered an un­broken forest area. Hundreds of ranches,  dairy farms and clearings lay along stream courses. Interspersed with these ranches and cleared valleys were thousands of acres of logged-over lands and young forests of Douglas fir and Port Orford cedar, for the most part growing on the mountain sides. As the various small fires started by ranchers and loggers got out of control and assumed major proportions, ranchers began setting backfires to save their homes. These fires in some in­stances caused more damage than the original blazes. The loss in ranch and other improved property has not been estimated….” (Randall, Charles (Division of Information and Education, U.S. Forest Service).  “Oregon Forest Fires.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 30, No. 3, Jan 1937, 226-228.”

 

National Fire Protection Association:  The Bandon Fire

 

“On the evening  of September 26, 1936 the town of Bandon at the mouth of the Coquille River in Coos County, Oregon, was destroyed by a conflagra­tion when a forest and brush fire swept into the town. Eleven lives were lost and the eighteen hundred inhabitants were made homeless.

 

“The town was a summer resort with lumbering and fishing industries. One sprinklered sawmill, one small planing mill, and a veneer and battery separator plant were the chief industries. The business district located along the river was largely of frame construction and was partly built on piles. The resi­dential district was located on a bluff about fifty feet high back of the business district. Fire limits were of little effect, as frame buildings were permitted inside the limits. A large number of buildings had wooden shingle roofs.

 

“One of the most important factors in the destruction of Bandon was the prevalence of the gorse or Irish hedge in the vicinity. The gorse, an orna­mental plant highly thought of in Ireland, where it is also used for forage, was imported to the Oregon coast by George Bennett, one of the founders of Bandon, in 1873 or 1874. The plant is spiny and has numerous branches with very oily leaves. The hedge spread wild around Bandon and more than doubled its size, growing to a height of eight or ten feet, making extremely combustible fuel for the forest and  brush fire attacking the town.

 

“A municipally owned water system was supplied by springs, with two reservoirs of 2,066,000 gallons combined capacity located one and a half miles from the town…. The fire department consisted of a chief and twenty-eight call men, and was equipped with one 500-gallon triple com­bination pumping engine, a combination chemical and hose truck, and a total of 1700 feet of hose.

 

Story of the Fire.

 

“During the day of September 26 a brush fire, which had originated in slashings seven miles away, approached the town. The fire had been burning for several days without causing worry to the inhabitants, as farmers and stock men had been given permission to burn their ranges. On this day, however, the temperature had reached eighty-seven degrees and an east wind was blow­ing at a velocity of between twenty and thirty miles per hour. The relative humidity at noon was at the extremely low point of eight per cent.

 

“The fire department during the day had several calls to grass and brush fires, some of which threatened the redwood water supply mains. Alarms came more frequently and by evening the department was out all of the time. The fire traveled rapidly, but up to about 8 P.M. the safety of the town was not considered seriously menaced. Toward the middle of the evening flames ap­peared at the outskirts of the town, spreading from the forest timber to the gorse or Irish hedge which blanketed the countryside and extended into the town itself. Embers carried by an east wind fell on the nearest wooden shingle roofs and the first house was ignited at 9 p.m. At that time the fire chief went to the local theatre and asked all able-bodied men to fight the fire, and about four hundred men answered the call.

 

“A stand was made at Eleventh Street, running east and west, and also along the highway south. Short lines of hose were laid at important points along Eleventh Street. At times it looked as though the fire would be checked, but strong gusts of wind caused flames to jump one hundred feet or more, while sparks ignited the wooden shingle roofs of houses in the rear of the fire fighters.  This caused the abandonment of the stand at 11 P.M. Orders were given for all families to leave their homes and go to the waterfront. At the time the fire crossed the street and started through the town, help was called from Marshfield, Myrtle Point and Coquille. Marshfield sent a 1000-gallon pumper, and the other towns sent hose.

 

“The fire destroyed the residential section in an hour and then spread down into the business district near the river.  It was first believed that the business district would be saved, but within another hour, or by one o’clock, the town was almost completely destroyed. The water supply was adequate for a town of that size, but was a low pressure system and pumpers were necessary for fire fighting.  Near-by towns had high pressure water service and did not have fire department pumpers. When they went to Bandon they had to depend upon two pumpers to fight a fire a mile long. Another handicap was  the loss of water through abandoned hydrants which could not be shut off due to the intense heat. Also one of the ten-inch redwood mains supplying the town was broken by the burning of a trestle. Hose lines which firemen were using were burned. During the destruction of the mercantile district the operator of the Bandon pumper was driven from the machine by the heat.   The pump was left running, however, so as not to endanger the men manning the hose….

 

“Some property in the business district was saved by three hose lines supplied by a harbor tug.  Unfortunately, the shearing of a pin on the tug’s pump cut off the supply from these streams.  Great credit is given to the Marshfield fire department for saving several business buildings at the east end of Second Street and preventing the spread of the fire to the three industrial plants….

 

“Eleven persons lost their lives.  It seems remarkable that more per­sons did not lose their lives in the rapidly spreading fire. It was not realized that the town would be destroyed until it was almost too late for escape. The forest fire was burning along the highways and had practically isolated the town. The victims of the fire were five men, five women and one child.  Most of the adults who lost their lives were aged. Many of the inhabitants were carried across the river by harbor vessels and spent the night on sand dunes. Others were driven out on the beach at the business district, where they were endangered by the burning of fourteen cottages and heat and embers from the main fire.  The burning of many automobiles driven to the beach to escape the fire added to the life hazard.  Other automobiles burned on the bluff above the beach, where they had been abandoned by their owners. Approximately 150 automobiles were damaged or destroyed, with an insurance loss of $50,000. The loss to buildings and contents was $1,250,000. The insurance loss was approximately $550,000. Mercantile buildings and contents were insured for between twenty-five and thirty per cent of their value….

 

“The two-story garage building [Capp’s Motor Company] was the only fire-resistive building in the town.  When the fire approached, many of the residents brought their belongings to the garage and filled the building to the ceiling.  When these good became ignited the fire was so intense that the building was destroyed….” (NFPA. “The Bandon Conflagration.”  NFPA Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 229-235.)

 

NFPA: Buildings destroyed:  386.  (NFPA. Key Dates in Fire History.  1996.)

 

Newspapers

 

Sep 28: “Marshfield, Ore. — (AP) — A town of 1,500 and a nearby settlement were in ruins, seven persons were dead and other small towns were threatened today as forest fires converted virtually the whole of southwestern Oregon’s timber-clad region into a giant torch. Another settlement was wiped out in northern California.

 

“U.S. forest service information that a third of Myrtle Point, Ore., was in flames was disproved later, but M. M. Craven, Myrtle Point fireman, said a shift in wind would endanger the town of 2,000. It is 30 miles inland from Bandon, destroyed Saturday night [Sep 26].

 

“Fire crackled at the outskirts of Coquille, North Bend and Marshfield. The settlement of Prosper was wiped out. Damage was in the millions.

 

“Fifteen hundred were homeless. Armories and hospitals were crowded.

 

“Only a shift or diminution in daily winds or a rain could save at least three towns and thousands of acres of timber land, authorities said. More than 3,000 men were on the fire lines.

 

“In northern California, thousands of acres lay blackened by fire. Near Redding two small communities, of less than a half hundred inhabitants each, were threatened by the flames. Cherokee, an old mining settlement, also was endangered. Authorities said the situation in Butte and Yuba counties was especially dangerous because of numerous stores of dynamite for use in the mines. California authorities estimated 200,000 acres had been swept by fire in that state in the past two days.

 

“The Oregon holocaust broke loose northeast of Bandon late Saturday. By Sunday morning that town was in ashes. Prosper, across the river [Coquille], shared the same fate. Traveling with incredible speed, small fires joined forces, crowned through tree-tops toward Coquille, destroyed suburban buildings on the outskirts of that town and sent off-shoots for miles around the country. Other fires, nourished in tinder-dry underbrush and fanned by a swirling breeze, sprang up along more than 200 miles of coastline.

 

“Coquille, Coos county seat, with a population of 3,000, about 18 miles inland from Bandon, was saved, at least temporarily, by a cessation of wind. The same held true at Marshfield, about 6,000 population, on Coos bay, 18 miles north of Coquille, and at North Bend, of almost equal size, three miles north of Marshfield.

 

“In Curry county, to the south, the towns of Port Orford (500 population) and Langlois, a hamlet, were surrounded. More than a thousand men battled two conflagrations over an area of 10,000 acres in the inland behind the two settlements. Still farther to the south, 500 men fought a blaze at Brookings near the California-Oregon line.

 

“National Guard trucks rushed federal, state and Red Cross supplies to Bandon. National Guardsmen were mobilized. Two score state policemen maintained order. Hundreds of homeless spent a night of anguish beneath the smoke-hidden stars. At Bandon, coast guard boats stood off shore with supplies. Smoke prevented their immediate entrance into the harbor.

 

“Brig-Gen. Thomas E. Rilea informed Governor Charles Martin at Salem last night that Coquille, Marshfield and North Bend ‘will go’ if yesterday’s wind springs up again.

 

“Governor Martin termed the fire a national disaster.

 

“The sun was still but a red glow in the skies today. Lights were needed. The smoke was a pall — a thick pall — of death and destruction.

 

“A succinct picture of the fire’s uncontrolled advance was given by City Manager John Fasnacht of Bandon. In that community of 1,500, he saw the flames leap from tree to tree, sending burning embers crashing onto roofs and in streets. ‘I heard of one woman who was saved but insisted on going back for her pet goats,’ he said after his arrival with his wife and three children at Salem. ‘She was burned to death. I don’t know how many people were trapped.’ He told of aiding in fighting a fire at Bear Creek, five miles east of Bandon, late Saturday; of subsequent and futile attempts to save the city’s reservoir; and then of the rush for the beach and safety when firemen finally were forced to abandon their equipment to the flames. ‘The sick and invalid people from the hospital at Bandon were taken across the Coquille river by the lighthouse tender Rose and placed in safety at the Bandon lighthouse,’ he said. ‘Many others drove through the fires on the highway to escape the zone.’ Residents saved nothing but that which they could carry.” (AP. “Oregon Fires Raze Two Towns; Others Periled.” Janesville Daily Gazette, 9-26-1936, p. 1, 12.)

 

Sep 28: “….The smoke is terrible. It starts about 10 miles east of Myrtle Point, and you can’t see for more than a block at the most, and as you draw near the scattered firs you can’t see more than 50 to 100 feet….The mental attitude of the people depressed by the holocaust at Bandon is aggravated by the smoke. It makes your throat feel as though it had been filed and your eyes suffer from extreme irritation. An automobile can not travel more than 10 miles an hour in the worst smoke areas.

 

“There is fire everywhere — along the gullies beside the roads, brandishing out of the tops of trees. It is a scene that gives you a feeling of dread, and the faces of the people plainly reflect it. Nobody talks much, and everyone who can work is on the fire lines, hoping to save what little they have.

 

“While the main fire area was in the Bandon sector, scattered blazes stretched far up the Oregon Coast and down into California.[3] Stands of age-old redwood timber in California, were threatened by the fire, which probably menaced a million acres all told. How many acres had been burned is guesswork, so scattered are the fires and so great the territory in which they are burning….

 

“Officers investigated reports a fire bug was responsible for the Bandon blaze. Matt Coy, chief of police at Marshfield, said he found kerosene soaked rags in the area between Marshfield and North Bend and other rags were reported found at Bandon. Other officials said the flames might easily have resulted from the extremely low humidity and careless campers, lighting or burning of slashings following logging operations.

 

“Supplies were being rushed to the stricken area from Roseburg, 100 miles east of here, the Roseburg road being the only route of entry. Burned bridges blocked other highways. Myrtle Point highway remains the only road open from the Curry and Coos County fire areas into the inland sections of Oregon.

 

“The Oregon holocaust broke loose northeast of Bandon late Saturday. By Sunday morning that town of 1500 on the banks of the Coquille River was reduced to ashes. Only a few homes, a tourist camp and parts of downtown buildings were standing. Prosper, across the river, shared the same fate….Other fires…fanned by a swirling breeze sprang up along more than 200 miles of coastline.” (Oakland Tribune, CA. “Nine Persons Lose Lives, 2000 Made Homeless as Fire Razes Oregon Towns.” 9-28-1936, p. 3.

 

Sep 29: “Marshfield, Ore., Sept. 29 — (AP) — The discovery of the unidentified bodies of a woman and child this afternoon brought the death toll in the Bandon fire to eleven….

 

“The disastrous fires of southwestern Oregon, deserted by their partner-in-crime, high winds, and attacked by a dense fog, retreated today, bringing optimistic predictions from officials that the remaining towns in this natural wonderland were safe. A late development indicated a danger spot at only one point — Yachats, in central Oregon coast region northwest of Eugene. It is 26 miles north of Florence, also a coast resort.

 

“Mrs. Harold Waldron, a storekeeper, told the Associated Press that reports reaching the town said a fire, believed to have subsided, was being whipped up by wind and was ‘just over the hill abut a half-mile away from the town.’ She said people in the town… ‘were all packing just in case the wind gets worse.’ ‘All of the men folk are out at the fire and we won’t know for a little time just what we are up against,’ she said. Yachats is directly on the coast and in a somewhat similar position to Bandon, logging town and seaport south of here, which was destroyed by fire Saturday night with a loss of nine lives.

 

“District Fire Warden Keith Young estimated that 15,000 to 20,000 acres were burning in the coos-Curry counties here. ‘Probably slightly less than 5,000 acres is virgin timber and the rest brush,’ he said. ‘The fires are not so large as others we’ve had but are more scattered and in more dangerous territory in regard to life and property.’….” (Associated Press. “Flames Checked.” Daily Chronicle, Centralia, WA, 9-29-1936, p. 1.)

 

Sep 30: “By United Press. Marshfield, Ore., Sept 30. — Fire fighters turned to rehabilitation today as fires which ravaged southern Oregon subsided and military rule was lifted in the stricken Bandon and Prosper areas. Nine persons were known to be dead as the result of destruction of the two towns. Fifteen persons still were missing, and it was believed their bodies might be found during further search of ruins. Immediate danger to other cities of Coos and Curry Counties was minimized today as dense fog rolled in from the ocean, aiding fighters in bringing under control the flames which have blackened thousands of acres of the foothill country of this region. Forestry officials said the only danger spot at present in the State was Yachats, in the central coast region….” (United Press. “Start Work of Rehabilitation.” Berkeley Daily Gazette, CA, 9-30-1936, p. 3.)

 

Sources

 

Andrews, Wesley. “Bandon Fire, 1936.” The Oregon History Project, Oregon Historical Society, 2-20-2015. Accessed 12-15-2017 at: https://oregonhistoryproject.org/articles/historical-records/bandon-fire-1936/#.WjQXIjdG2nI

 

Associated Press. “Flames Checked.” Daily Chronicle, Centralia, WA, 9-29-1936, p. 1. Accessed 12-15-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/centralia-daily-chronicle-sep-29-1936-p-1/

 

Associated Press. “Oregon Fires Raze Two Towns; Others Periled.” Janesville Daily Gazette, 9-28-1936, p. 1. Accessed 12-15-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/janesville-daily-gazette-sep-26-1936-p-17/

 

National Fire Protection Association. “The Bandon Conflagration.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 229-235.

 

National Fire Protection Association. Key Dates in Fire History. 1996. Accessed 2010 at:  http://www.nfpa.org/itemDetail.asp?categoryID=1352&itemID=30955&URL=Research%20&%20Reports/Fire%20statistics/Key%20dates%20in%20fire%20history&cookie%5Ftest=1

 

Oakland Tribune, CA. “Nine Persons Lose Lives, 2000 Made Homeless as Fire Razes Oregon Towns.” 9-28-1936, p. 3. Accessed 12-15-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/oakland-tribune-sep-28-1936-p-3/

 

Oregon Department of Forestry. A Short History of Wildland/Urban Interface Fires in Oregon. 11-3-2004 update. Accessed 12-15-2017 at: http://www.oregon.gov/ODF/Documents/Fire/UrbanInterface/WildlandUrbanHistory.pdf

 

Randall, Charles (Division of Information and Education, U.S. Forest Service). “Oregon Forest Fires.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 30, No. 3, Jan 1937, 226-228.

 

Sullivan, William L. Oregon’s Greatest Natural Disasters. Eugene, OR: Navillus Press, 2008.

 

United Press. “Start Work of Rehabilitation.” Berkeley Daily Gazette, CA, 9-30-1936, p. 3. Accessed 12-15-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/berkeley-daily-gazette-sep-30-1936-p-3/

[1] Perhaps, given the number of persons reported missing in the press at the time, thirteen (or even more) people died. However, neither in the press at the time nor in accounts up to today (12-15-2017) have we seen other reports of 13 deaths, thus we do not use as figure for the number of deaths in Bandon. (No reports of deaths elsewhere.)

[2] In document is photo of burned cars on the beach which “didn’t escape destruction in the Bandon Fire of 1936.”

[3] A sidebar map shows three major forest fires besides Bandon area — up the Coast at and to the East of Coos Bay (including North Bend and Marshfield areas), to the South (with Langlois at the north end and Port Orford at south end of fire area, extending east inland), and farther down the coast north of and extending past the California border showing Brookings, OR, on the west side of the fire area which extends east, going north and south.