Fire at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center causes $350,000 in damage, destroys venerable barn

Fire destroyed a cupola-topped wooden barn considered a “legacy building” at the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center on Tuesday night but left unscathed the rest of the 80-acre rural property, including an organic garden, farm animals and homes for about two dozen people in a ?purpose-driven community started 26 years ago.

No one was injured in the blaze that erupted about 8:50 p.m., drawing a practiced response from residents who were alerted by explosions likely triggered by propane tanks, with quick support from local firefighters.

“It was up in flames immediately,” said Dave Henson, executive director of the research and education center on Coleman Valley Road west of Occidental. “There was no saving it.”

Henson, one of nine co-founders of the community in 1994, said a “robust” fire response started with prolonged ringing of the dinner bell that prompted a meeting to count heads. ?Vehicles were moved to safety along with sheep, goats, chickens and ducks and fire hoses were unrolled to protect buildings and vegetation.

Occidental volunteer firefighters, stationed less than a mile away, arrived quickly and found the barn engulfed in flames, Fire Chief Ron Lunardi said. Burned ground was limited to an eighth of an acre.

Lunardi spent the night there in his pickup truck to guard against a flareup, with a fire engine nearby. His family owned the property for decades before selling it in the early 1960s.

“They were awesome,” Henson said, complimenting the firefighters.

Fire investigators checked the scene Wednesday morning, attempting to determine a cause. Henson said he had no estimate of the damage, but fire officials put it at $350,000, including tools in the two-story, 3,500-square-foot barn.

The venerable barn was handbuilt in 1978 by members of the Farallones Institute, the previous landowner, using posts and beams from a disassembled Oakland pier to frame the building, said James Pelican, the center’s facilities manager.

They used a mortis and tenon style of construction, thousands of years old, to join pieces of wood with dowels rather than nails, he said.

It was built as a hay barn, housed livestock for years and was fully remodeled in 2010 to serve as a shop and event space for the center.

Susan McGovern, another co-founder, recalled the numerous celebrations, parties and rites of passage for members of the community, called the Sowing Circle, and their friends.

Pelican called it the “heart and soul of the buildings” at the center.

Henson said the barn’s destruction was the worst harm done to the center in more than a quarter-century, as it avoided the recent wildfires.

Sloping toward the east, the land includes coastal prairie grass and forests of mixed hardwoods, redwoods and fir trees laced with seasonal creeks. Ten acres enclosed in deer fencing include all the structures and a 3-acre organic garden, with 70 acres of wildlands preserve.

Shut down by the coronavirus pandemic, the center has lost revenue from workshops, trainings and retreats accounting for about one-third of the revenue for its annual budget of nearly $2 million, Henson said. A federal payroll protection loan has enabled it to retain about 40 full-time and part-time workers.

Well-known organic plant sales are continuing through online orders and onsite pickups, he said.

The center’s purpose, Henson said, is helping communities “to become more resilient and adaptive to changing economic and ecological conditions” - a principle it intends to follow.

McGovern, a center board member and an Occidental school teacher, said the center is well-?insured and plans to rebuild the barn.

Nothing remained from the old building, except for heat-singed documents in a file cabinet in Pelican’s office, including the barn’s original plans.

They may not be able to replicate it, McGovern said, calling it “an opportunity to build something new and bring the spirit of the place forward.”

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 707-521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @guykovner. You can reach Staff Writer Lori A. Carter at 707-521-5470 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @loriacarter.