Firefighters have contained a fireplace that engulfed the top of the Oceanside Pier, an area landmark that has been destroyed by hearth and storms and rebuilt a number of instances in its 136-year historical past.
On Friday, the wooden pylons of the 1,954-foot picket construction have been nonetheless smoldering from the blaze that ignited Thursday, officers stated. No accidents have been reported.
Oceanside and Strand seashores are nonetheless closed to the general public as an environmental group cleans up the particles that has washed ashore. The hearth additionally broken a vacant restaurant that was once Ruby’s Diner and a snack store that housed the Brine Field, a seafood eatery.
“90% of the pier was saved because of a very fast response,” Oceanside metropolis Public Data Officer Terry Gorman Brown stated. “A number of instances when piers catch, they’re made from wooden — they’re toast.”
The construction sits so excessive above the water that the ocean spray couldn’t dampen the flames, she stated.
“We don’t know [the cause] but as a result of till [the fire] is absolutely out we are able to’t actually get on the market,” stated Brown.
Town engineer is assessing the injury and evaluating when the pier may reopen to the general public.
This isn’t the primary time the pier has caught hearth. The final time was in 1976, when a blaze destroyed components of the pier’s fish market, in keeping with Kristi Hawthorne, director of the Oceanside Historic Society, who wrote a short historical past of the pier for the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce.
The picket pier is the longest of its form on the West Coast and has been rebuilt 5 instances because it was first constructed in 1888, so many instances that it is probably not thought of the identical pier.
“It’s by no means the identical pier,” stated Hawthorne. “However in our hearts and in our minds, it’s nonetheless all the time the Oceanside Pier.”
The pier was initially constructed as a industrial delivery wharf to convey enterprise to Oceanside, which was included the yr the pier opened. However two years later the wharf was destroyed in a big storm and was rebuilt 4 years later as a sightseeing pier with iron pilings.
The pier has been torn down or broken in storms a number of instances. Immediately’s sixth iteration of the pier was inbuilt 1987 at a price of $5 million.
The worn nubs of the primary wharf can nonetheless be seen at instances in low tide, and different components of the construction have managed to outlive the take a look at of time. The entry bridge connecting pedestrians to the pier is nearly 100 years outdated, and the town is utilizing funding from a gross sales tax measure to assist demolish and assemble a brand new bridge that shall be roughly three tales excessive and home eating places and different companies.
Oceanside continues to be in the preliminary design section of that plan, with the brand new constructing estimated to price round $40 million.
Regardless of the pier’s battered historical past, Hawthorne stated, the town’s residents have all the time been decided to rebuild as a result of it is part of the native id.
“It’s the pleasure of Oceanside,” stated Hawthorne, who began researching the pier in 1987 as a volunteer with the Oceanside Historic Society.
The pier has been part of landmark moments in Oceanside historical past. In 1916, an enormous flood washed by way of San Diego County. Roadways and railroads have been minimize off from the realm, Hawthorne stated, and the pier was used to ship emergency provides by boat.
Throughout World Struggle II, the pier turned a navy lookout for enemy planes and submarines.
Hawthorne’s youngsters have grown up visiting the pier and consuming there on particular events. She stated native residents have their commencement photographs taken overlooking the water. It’s one of many first locations she recommends vacationers go to.
“You’re taking one of the lovely, iconic walks,” she stated of the view from the pier.
The present pier might must be rebuilt once more by 2037, because it has an estimated 50-year lifespan.
Its ever-changing nature provides to its appeal, Hawthorne stated.
“We’re not taking [the fire] as a loss,” she stated. “It’s only a new chapter.”
