... The Fuel Line Bombing and Canyon Fire of 1969?

In a casual conversation with Patch reader and long-time Moraga resident John Eriksen the topic came up: "Do you remember the pipeline bombing and fuel fire in Canyon back in 1969?"

John has one of those memories you envy and even though we were both young scuts back then he recalled another friend, Cosette Ellison, mentioning the blast - which was huge news and probably equal in "local buzz" to the recent conflagration in San Bruno - even though there were a lot fewer of us around back then.

"She told me how it woke up her family, and how it burned the store and post office," John said. "No one is really sure who did it."

A lot of Canyon residents, in fact, thought the initial blast was a sonic boom. In mid-March of 1969, with the Weathermen and other dissident groups bombing police stations and other hard target examples of the capitalist oppressors, an  exposed stretch of 10-inch Shell Oil pipeline running from Martinez to a fuel storage site near the Oakland Airport made a tempting target.

No one knows for certain who set the charge or why, as no one was ever brought to justice for the bombing, and along with the Weathermen Shell was having some union difficulties at the time. What is known is that someone with a insider's knowledge of the pipeline knew that it was above ground in only one 25-foot section crossing San Leandro Creek in Canyon, and was comfortable enough with explosives to touch it off. Investigators said that the bomber may have been trying to time the blast to coincide with a fuel transfer from Martinez to Oakland - missing that transfer and avoiding creation of an even bigger firestorm by seconds.

As it was, six men were badly burned; 12 cars were destroyed - including three police cars and a Highway Patrol cruiser - and the landmark Canyon Store was left in ruins. Conjecture over who was behind the bombing was Topic No. One in the fledgling Moraga Valley for weeks.

The Night The Sky Turned Red

There were 60 homes in Canyon back in 1969, most of them drawing supplies and getting their local news and gossip during routine visits to the Canyon Store and post office, built in 1885 and so precious to the town they formed a trust to save it from destruction by the East Bay Municipal Utility District three years earlier.

On Monday, March 17, Elizabeth Hathaway and her mother, W.I. Garibaldi, were asleep in their Pinehurst Road home about 100 yards away from the pipeline when the first of several explosions awakened them at roughly 10:30 p.m.

Hathaway said the concussion blew out nearly a dozen windows in her home. It was clear something bad had happened and help was summoned, with the Moraga Fire Department, county sheriff's deputies, and a highway patrolman all responding. Also racing into Canyon that night was Earl J. Davis, a Shell Oil Superintendent, who arrived to assess the situation after technicians in Martinez realized the pipeline had lost pressure.

Gladys Shally, Canyon's "unofficial historian," was in bed reading when the first explosion rocked the town. Like many townspeople, she thought it was a sonic boom, and she looked outside to see if she could hear a plane.

About an hour later, George R. Menge told the Oakland Tribune, a second wave of explosions touched off as 20,000 gallons of 115-octane fuel spilled out into San Leandro Creek and caught fire.

"We heard two explosions, close together, and looked down the hill," Menge said. "Oh Boy! Everything was red. The sky was red. Everything looked pretty horrible, pretty frightening - everything around 300 yards from the store was burning. I saw the guy in the phone booth. He had real courage."

The "guy in the phone booth" was Earl Davis, phoning in his initial report when the fuel line touched off and he suddenly found himself in the middle of a fireball. Davis lost all his hair, his clothes were burned from him, and he was burned over 70 percent of his body. Firefighters and town men rushed in, rolled him into a blanket and raced him to safety as fire engulfed Canyon Store and crowned in the grove of second-growth redwoods for which the town is known.

Capt. John Huff of the Moraga Fire Department said a fire engine sent out after the first explosion had just pulled away from the store when the gasoline went off. Three sheriff's cars, a 2 1/2 ton truck, Davis' car, a carry-all van and two other cars were aglow and burning. Another deputy was credited with saving the lives of several evacuees when the explosion went off virtually in front of his patrol car and he threw the car into reverse in an effort to escape the flames.

"His driving helped save us," said Sgt. H.E. Rellar afterwards. "We were going backwards about 50 mph trying to get away."

At the height of the blaze 50 officers and deputies from the California Highway Patrol, East Bay Regional Parks, Oakland police and Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department were on the scene.

It was found that the bomber's initial charge had torn a jagged four-foot-long hole in the fuel line, which only seconds before the bomb went off was fully pressurized as Shell pumped fuel to Oakland. Had the bomb detonated while the line was pressurized, investigators later said, the conflagration would have been "10 times worse."

Aftermath

As it was, the blast stunned locals and outsiders alike. The Canyon Store was a total loss with damage assessed in 1960's valuation at $50,000. Richard Rivind, a Canyon resident found wandering in a daze on Skyline Boulevard, was treated for shock and minor burns, telling police he was on a hillside and knocked to the ground when the blast went off. Sgt. H.E. Rellar, deputies Al Moore, Ken Sandy, Hans DeGraef and Ron Michener were all treated for burns at Kaiser Hospital in Walnut Creek.

Shell Oil offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the saboteur, officials noting that "oil facilities in the area have suffered four explosive attacks, two of which have involved Shell facilities."

Earl Davis, the 45-year-old Shell employee from Pleasant Hill, was the most severely injured of those caught in the Canyon fire that night. He was taken to St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco the night of the blast and listed in critical condition there for several days. Family members contacting Lamorinda Patch in the wake of this story said he passed four days after the fire, but not before making sure arrangements were made for his family.

As for the Canyon pipeline it was subsequently repaired and the vulnerable 25-foot section the bomber chose to make his attack was placed underground.

As this is written we do not know if the line is still utilized, or under which of our towns, if any, it is buried.

Editor's Note: Thanks are due to John Eriksen, and his remarkable memory, as well as to Ms. Elsie Mastick, another longtime Moragan and chief researcher at the Moraga Historical Society. Lamorinda Patch is grateful to both of them for sharing this story with us.