How blazes revived a rustic local store
Lonely Loma Mar spot now firefighters’ hub
Four Cal Fire firefighters parked their engine in a small lot and lined up outside the front doors of Loma Mar Store.
The store had been a place where the 100 or so residents of the forested community between Pescadero and La Honda could buy fresh eggs and delicious meals — until the pandemic shut off the steady dribble of tourists who kept the business viable. It was a wildfire that brought the store back to life. With the area under evacuation due to the CZU Lightning Complex, the store has become a base of sorts for the dozens of firefighters who are saving the towns from destruction. It’s a place where firefighters can grab a free warm meal, “park their trucks and cat nap before running to an emergency,” said store owner Jeff Haas.
Local businesses in Pescadero, including Downtown Local, a coffee shop, Duarte’s Tavern and Arcangeli’s Grocery Store, helped provide the free food.
Just after 6 p.m. Tuesday, a dinner of artichoke soup and chickenandcheese sandwiches from Duarte’s was ready to be served to the firefighters and other first responders who came to the Loma Mar Store.
Loma Mar residents live on farms, homesteads and homes nestled among tall redwoods and surrounded by hills. It’s home to Memorial Park with 673 acres of redwoods with hiking trails and picnic areas. The town has been evacuated for nearly a week, but Haas and his
wife, Kate Haas, have opened their store every day to serve as a refuge for firefighters continuing to battle the flames.
The CZU fires, which are burning in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties, scorched 79,640 acres and were 19% contained as of Tuesday evening, Cal Fire said. The blazes have destroyed 443 structures, 11 of which were in San Mateo County and 432 in Santa Cruz County. Some 24,000 other structures continue to be threatened by the fires, including the homes in Loma Mar.
As firefighters gathered in the Loma Mar Store parking lot on Tuesday evening to scarf down their dinners, small spot fires burned in the hills surrounding the store. A tree trunk behind the store smoldered.
“If you’re here after dark, you’ll still see active fire in the hills,” Kate Haas said.
Kate Haas and her husband live near the store, but evacuated to a friend’s home. The couple comes to Loma Mar every day to run the store before returning to their friend’s house.
Nathan Abrego, a fire apparatus engineer for Cal Fire, and his crew had just stopped at the store on Tuesday evening after checking on a nearby home that had smoke drifting from the backyard. Abrego, who came from San Luis Obispo to fight the fire, said his main job is to protect homes. So far, no homes or structures had been destroyed in Loma Mar.
“We haven’t seen too much of the main fire because it’s burned out,” Abrego said. “The weather conditions have been good.”
He sat on a log outside the store scraping his cup of artichoke soup for the last remaining mouthfuls.
“It’s really good,” he said laughing, his face covered in dirt. “Having something warm like this, it’s good.”
Jeff and Kate Haas bought the nearly 100yearold Loma Mar Store, which includes a post office, in 2014. The ceiling was refinished with wood from redwoods on the property. The couple built a commercial kitchen in the space. Their hope was to create a community space for their neighbors, and a place where they could sell eggs from the 100 chickens they have on their homestead.
For the first year that they opened, that’s exactly what it was. They hosted a locals’ night every Thursday where their chef would create a menu of chile relleno or meatloaf. Sometimes they had live music. On Halloween, Kate Haas dressed as a “hippie chick” and Jeff Haas wore a vampire costume. Their neighbors came dressed up, too — an unexpected treat, they said.
But their budding business came to a standstill when the coronavirus pandemic hit and Memorial Park closed to visitors.
“We are learning a lot of lessons very quickly by perseverance,” Jeff Haas said.
The lessons didn’t end at the pandemic. On Sunday, the fire bore down toward their store and home. Jeff and Kate Haas watched in horror as flames engulfed the hills behind their store. Embers battered the roof of their business. But Cal Fire firefighters already there beat the fire back before they suffered even more loss.
On Monday, a redwood caught fire outside the store. But firefighters told the couple to trust them and let it burn. It would be OK, they were told.
Ronald Gonsalves was at the store eating dinner with his 28yearold son, Andrew Gonsalves. The two make up half of the Loma Mar Fire Department’s volunteer crew.
The CZU Lightning Complex is Ronald Gonsalves’ first wildfire. He graduated from the fire academy just last December.
“I’m a 58yearold rookie,” he said as he waited for his chicken sandwich.
Since the blaze ignited, Ronald and Andrew Gonsalves were recruited by Cal Fire to protect their town. Andrew Gonsalves said in the past week, he’s used everything he’s learned about wildland firefighting from the academy: structure protection, how to put in line and evacuating residents as the fire came closer.
“We saved a house,” Ronald Gonsalves said. “That was cool.”
Nearby, Mark Obrien, a water tender operator, finished the last of his soup. He’s had three hours of sleep over the past four nights. On Tuesday, he hoped for a few extra hours.
“You never know where you’re going to go these days,” Obrien said. “Where it is, it’s fire and it has to be put out.”
Like Obrien, Gonsalves said he stops regularly at Loma Mar Store to use the internet, stock up on supplies of water and Gatorade, and have a warm meal. It’s the only open store in town. His own home is nearby, and he said he has food in the refrigerator, but after a 24hour shift, he’s too tired to cook.
“Everybody is doing what they have to do,” Ronald Gonsalves said.