Pescadero Christmas tree farm suffers extensive fire damage

Family members and friends helped him fight the flames. Due to their efforts, most of the Christmas trees, an orchard, garden and barn were saved, but the damage was extensive.

Three structures including a cabin, nearly all of the farming infrastructure, tools, a pump station and trailer were destroyed. And almost all of the forested land at the back of the property had been burned to the ground.

“The sadness is deep and the loss heavy,” Kosek said.

Longtime patrons of the farm on Wednesday set up a GoFundMe to support the rebuild. Within 24 hours, 71 people had donated nearly $22,000.

“That money is huge for us,” Kosek said. “We didn’t realize how much [the farm] means to this many people and that’s been really gratifying to us.”

While Kosek said the rebuild will take years at least, he looks forward to welcoming visitors before long. A first ever Fall Fest in October, complete with sunflower and pumpkin harvesting, may still be possible.

Kosek, who is also a teacher, is one of five siblings who run the farm along with many friends. The property was purchased by his parents, now in their 90s, in 1964. In the 1850s, it was home to the famous Steele dairy farm.

When the lightning storm that started the CZU Lightning Complex fires arrived on Aug. 16, Kosek knew there’d be fires, but he expected them to fizzle out.

Two days later as conditions grew drier and winds picked up, Kosek realized a fire at the farm was a possibility. He and his siblings and friends moved tractors and equipment to a safe place and worked until 4 a.m. as they watched a firestorm approach the farm.

That firestorm passed his property to the east, but by Wednesday morning a larger one headed toward them. They immediately began watering around the barn, orchards and perimeter of the farm.

Soon after a Cal Fire crew arrived, but determined there was little they could do because of the steep topography at the back of the farm and they were short on resources, Kosek said. But the crew advised them to soak the premises with hoses and sprinklers and create fire breaks with their small bulldozer.

They worked tirelessly on Wednesday and even had to repair the water pipes as they worked because the flames kept melting them. Despite their best efforts, they kept losing ground that day and eventually the cabin and two sheds that house most of their tools and woodshop went up in flames.

At about 9 p.m., a Cal Fire patrol raced onto the property and said the fire would reach them within the hour.

The power had been shut off at that point so water pumping was no longer possible, but they still had some water pressure through gravity from an irrigation pond. They completed one last round of watering and while they worked Kosek said he had to yell to be heard over the sounds of the fire.

As they fled, the property was fully engulfed in smoke and flames.

“I couldn’t see anything when I left,” Kosek said. “It was just an orange gray brown cloud of sparks and smoke.”

They went to a nearby hilltop that was also popular with neighbors because it was the only spot in the area with cell reception. While the fires burned, it was also used as a meeting area for neighbors to share information and resources.

“You’d always see pickup trucks on this hill and everyone got to know each other and it became a social center and a grieving center,” Kosek said.

That night it was a grieving center as the neighbors together watched their farms burn from the elevated vantage point.

“Someone had a bottle of whiskey and we all had mugs and drank and just sat there stunned,” Kosek said. “There was nothing we could do.”

Kosek said the view was an “orange glow with huge plumes of sparks and then flames would suddenly ignite” and said he saw “huge 120-foot flares just jumping.”

“I was in awe of the beauty of it and it was just terrifying,” he said.

The next morning, he walked the length of the property he’s known his whole life and wept. He said it was like walking through a moonscape.

While the worst of it was over by Thursday, plenty of firefighting ensued. Since then, Kosek and others have been patrolling the smoldering property and extinguishing spot fires wherever they find them.

During that work, his brother, Peter Kosek, tripped and accidentally plunged his hand into a burning bright orange log. He suffered third degree burns and spent the next few days in the hospital where he received skin grafts.

Kosek said the property is eerie, especially at night when the still burning woods appear to be filled with countless orange lights.

Kosek said many homes didn’t actually burn in the firestorm, but later after smoldering fires erupted nearby. He said many of those fires were stoppable if there was anyone around to stop them.

“If you’re there you can save a house and people who did come back saved houses,” Kosek said. “Watching houses burn that didn’t need to burn is brutal.”

Many of Kosek’s neighbors lost homes and other structures to the fires. The CZU Lightning Complex fires as of Thursday have destroyed a total of 746 structures. 

Experiencing such loss can be hard for some to talk about, but Kosek feels it’s important to share his experience.

“People don’t want to be forgotten,” he said. “It’ll be decades before we’re over this, but weeks before people stop talking about it.”

Go to gofundme.com/f/wildfire-relief-for-rsv-christmas-tree-farm?utm_campaign=p_cf%20share-flow-1&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer for more information and to donate.

zachary@smdailyjournal.com

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