Investigators still don’t know what caused a fire that destroyed a large two-story home in Alpine built nearly 80 years ago by the community’s former librarian and her husband.
The blaze caused an estimated $1.5 million in damage to the home on La Force Road off South Grade Road on Tuesday, said Alpine Fire Marshal Jason McBloom. When firefighters arrived at the house around noon, they found smoke coming from several sides of the structure. No one was home.
The house was known as Sky Mesa Ranch and was built in 1946 by Alpine settlers Beatrice and Clayburn La Force, according to a local historian. Much of the property around the house was purchased and developed in the early 2000s — but the ranch house remained.
Beatrice La Force wrote “History of a Mountain Settlement,” a book about Alpine’s roots which was published in the early 1970s and is still sold by the Alpine Historical and Conservation Society and in some stores around town, said Carol Morrison, society archivist.
“It is almost like a death in the family,” Morrison said, after hearing the house had been destroyed. “Bea La Force was a very important person in our history.
“It is something that we cared about and there is so much history that is related to that house. It is sort of like your parents have a history about them,” Morrison added. “This house has a history about it also. It shows our roots of the community.”
The house was built out of railroad ties, native stone and cement blocks. For years, third-grade students were invited to the home when they were studying Alpine history and La Force would show them how to grind corn to make tortillas, according to a story in the Alpine Sun Shopper published in 2009.
“I think it is all burned. I don’t know at this point if anything is salvageable,” the owner of the house, David Bray, told NBC 7 San Diego. “Emotionally we are devastated, obviously.”
Fire officials said a total of 11 people lived at the home.
A GoFundMe campaign is seeking donations for the displaced family members. Anna Cummings said the home was owned by her grandparents.
“Each of my siblings lived there with their spouses and kids. My Grandpa, parents and younger brother lived there as well,” she wrote in the fundraising appeal. “Everyone was safe but nothing else was. This house was my grandparents house, which held decades of memories.”
She said donations would assist the family as they move forward and would be spent on clothes, food, furniture, pots and pans, blankets and a new place to live. As of Wednesday afternoon, more than $9,000 had been pledged.
“Please support them in any way you can, if you can’t give financially could you please pray for them as they navigate this long emotional road ahead,” she wrote.
The roof and ceiling collapsed as the fire burned, and it was still smoldering Wednesday, so investigators did not have the chance to take a close look at the south wing of the building, where it is believed to have started, McBloom said.
When it cools down, they’ll be able to start their investigation in earnest, he said.
