The New Life Fire - Keeping Meher Mount through Hell, Fire and Damnation
Margaret Magnus
Agnes Baron (1907-1994) was a co-founder and lifetime caretaker of Meher Mount. At one point soon after Meher Mount’s founding in 1946, Agnes wrote to Avatar Meher Baba saying she would keep Meher Mount for Him through “hell, fire and damnation.” In later years when telling this story, she would add, “And that’s exactly what it has been!”
By Margaret Magnus & Sam L. Ervin
Meher Baba’s nickname for Agnes Baron was Agni – a name meaning fire in Sanskrit and a fire-god in Hinduism. With its capacity to destroy and cleanse, fire is a thread running through Agnes’ life.
THE FRONT PAGE of the Ojai Valley News, October 16, 1985, reporting on the Ferndale Fire which struck Meher Mount on Monday, October 14, 1985. Meher Mount calls this fire the New Life Fire because it continued burning Baba’s Tree on the anniversary of Avatar Meher Baba’s New Life which began on October 16, 1949. The burned automobile pictured in the article was the “Woody” station wagon in which co-founder Agnes Baron drove Meher Baba to and from Hollywood on August 6, 1956. (Source: Ojai Valley News)
“Fire proves a disaster for Upper Ojai homes” [1] read the headline in the Ojai Valley News.
On October 14, 1985, the Ferndale Fire, whipped by Santa Ana winds, came up the southwest ridge of Sulphur Mountain. By 9 p.m. on that Monday night Meher Mount, an Avatar Meher Baba Center and the home of co-founder and lifetime caretaker Agnes Baron, was ablaze.
“Plucky lady watches her memories go up in flames”
An accompanying headline said, “Plucky lady watches her memories go up in flames” with that “plucky lady” being Agnes Baron.
The article began:
“Meher Mount, a 173-acre ridge-top estate on Sulphur Mountain with a panoramic view of the Ventura coast, the Upper Valley and the Los Padres Mountains, blessed by a spiritual leader from India and guarded for 30 years by one of his followers, fell victim to the Ferndale Fire late Monday night in a near-fatal standoff by a desperate and isolated three-man crew of firefighters.” [2]
“Agnes Baron, the ‘watchdog of Sulphur Mountain,’ an 80-plus-year-old woman whom Meher Baba told to guard the land and who has fought with oil developers and county officials for a quarter of a century, was left shoeless with just the clothes on her back Tuesday after her home, guest home and outbuildings were totally destroyed.” [3]
ONLY TWO CHIMNEYS remain standing after the October 1985 New Life (Ferndale) Fire burns everything at Meher Mount. The fireplace facing forward was part of the ‘Baba House’ where Avatar Meher Baba gave darshan (His blessing) to His followers on August 2, 1956. That fireplace, now known as Baba’s Fireplace, still stands at Meher Mount as a touchstone of His visit. The chimney on the left was part of Agnes Baron’s home. (Photo: Sam Ervin, 1985)
The fire burned everything – buildings, equipment, fences, Baba’s Tree, and the old Woody station wagon in which Agnes Baron had driven Meher Baba to and from Meher Mount in 1956.
When the fire hit Meher Mount, according to the newspaper article, all available equipment were in use fighting the fire to the east and further south in Malibu.
“Before the battalion chief could even recommend sheriff’s deputies evacuate Sulphur Mountain residents, the blaze had crested the ridge all the way to Sulphur [Mountain] Road.
“The strong-minded woman refused to leave, saying she’d jump into the unused swimming pool, full of heavily mineralized water, several hundred feet from her residence. She’d fought-out other fires up there over the years, she says, but when the strike team arrived about 9:00 p.m., they insisted she get out – immediately.” [4]
“I’m very annoyed with them,” Agnes told the newspaper reporter. “Those damn fools wouldn’t even let me go back in the house for my shoes.” [5]
A BURNED OUT REFRIGERATOR after the October 1985 New Life (Ferndale) Fire at Meher Mount. On this site was a small farmhouse connected to a working garage. In 2012, a workshop was built to replace this garage. The adjacent Topa Topa Patio was later added, where visitors now gather for events and picnics. (Photo: Sam Ervin, 1985)
“What Hurts Me Most Is the Loss of Meher Baba’s Pictures and Writings”
Agnes’ neighbors had already taken her dog and cats. The article continued:
“After a heated exchange of words, Baron went to a neighbor’s [house] where she watched the flames roar over her home by midnight Monday.
“’What hurts me most,” said Baron, “is the loss of my documents, library and Meher Baba’s pictures and writings.” [6]
Agnes said she had the only known copy of an obscure “Canuni Le Dikagin,” an Albanian law book that anthropologist Margaret Meade suggested she check out with another authority who confirmed its rare authenticity, plus many other “priceless” books, documents and photos which were burned. [7]
INSPECTING THE DAMAGE on Saturday after the New Life (Ferndale) Fire on Monday, October 14, 1985, are visitor and volunteer Rusty Bostwick (left), caretaker and co-founder Agnes Baron (center), and visitor and volunteer Margaret Magnus (right). This pile of rubble had been outbuildings that were used when the property was a working farm before it became Meher Mount in 1946. (Photo: Sam Ervin, 1985)
“It was amazing,” said her friend George Stuart. “When the fire started, we all were watching down in Ojai. I tried to call, but the line was down. You could see the flames on Sulphur Mountain.
“Before dawn the next day, she was down at my gate in her car. She moved in and was more concerned about her dogs and cats than herself.
“I thought she was going to have a heart attack, a nervous breakdown, a collapse. She didn’t. She took it all as another one of those goddamned calamities that happens. She wasn’t fixated on possessions. The tragedy is she lost an enormous amount of memorabilia, which would have been valuable to a biographer,” he said. [8]
Meher Mount Calls the Ferndale Fire the ‘New Life Fire’
Meher Mount calls the Ferndale Fire the ‘New Life Fire’ because Meher Baba’s New Life phase started on October 16 (1946). The fire at Meher Mount was still burning right through the start of the anniversary of the New Life.
In the New life, “Meher Baba literally gave up everything and wandered begging with a small group of His intimate mandali [close disciples],” explained Bing Heckman.
“When the New Life Fire happened, it literally required Agni to give up everything and start all over. The buildings were burned down – a house, garage, outbuildings. We cleaned up literally tons of debris” filling multiple dumpsters.
VOLUNTEERS visited Meher Mount for months after the October 1985 New Life (Ferndale) Fire to clean-up the debris. (Photo: Claudia Wenning, early 1986)
“Agni simply adapted and kept going. And her resilience is part of her story. She just rolled with it. It was never a question of any other direction.”
“To me,” Bing said, “it was giving up everything, it was carrying on and not missing a beat.”
“Will you allow Meher Baba to burn you out?”
Larry Pesta described his encounter with Agnes days after the fire: [9]
“The following weekend, I flew down to Los Angeles and drove to Ojai to visit Agnes personally and make sure that she was well. I met her in town at the house of a friend of hers [George S. Stuart] who had taken her in after her devastation. Agnes appeared quite composed and peaceful.
“Walking out near the tree under which Meher Baba once sat on his famous visit, I felt really sorry for Agnes and her situation. I said, ‘This must be horrible for you.’
“She looked at me and said, ‘The important question for you to ask is this. Tell me. Could you handle this? I've been burned out. The important question is will you allow Meher Baba to burn you out as well if necessary?’
“She was not talking about physical fire but spiritual fire.”
BABA’S TREE was severely damaged by the October 1985 New Life (Ferndale) Fire. Fire fighters were still dowsing the smoldering tree days after the fire first struck Meher Mount. (Photo: Sam Ervin, 1985)
George Stuart offered Agnes a room in his home, and she stayed there until Bing Heckman arranged for a trailer to be brought to Meher Mount for her to live in. He later brought on an even larger trailer where she remained until a few months before her passing.
Surrounded by mountains, books, animals and the indignities of old age, Agnes spent her last years in a tiny bed in the trailer. [10]
A TRAILER that was brought on the property after the October 1985 New Life (Ferndale) Fire for co-founder and caretaker to live in. She stayed here for almost all of the the remainder of her life. (Photo: Ray Johnston, during the process of its demolition in 2007)
Fire Again Threatens Meher Mount
Ken Ceder, with his brother Len Ceder, cared for Agnes around the clock for the five years before her passing in 1994.
During that time, Ken remembered another fire that came very close to them. “I remember turning to Agnes and saying, ‘We’re going to die.’”
Meanwhile, Agnes dressed in a red robe and moving across the property in her motorized wheel chair was directing the fire department on where to hook up their firehoses and use water from the pool to fight the fire.
She looked like Little Red Riding Hood directing the operation, Ken laughed. The fire was successfully put out before it could reach Meher Mount.
A New Visitor Center & Home for Agnes Baron
THE VISITOR CENTER/CARETAKER QUARTERS was completed just months prior to the death of co-founder and lifetime caretaker Agnes Baron on July 5, 1994.
At one point during the last years of her life, Ken said to Agnes, “‘Let's build you a house, let's get you in a place that will be safe and healthy.’ She did not agree to build it for herself, she built the house to be used as a center ‘for the visitors who will come.’” [11]
Bing and the Ceders worked with the architect Michel Saint-Sulpice to design and build what is now the Visitor Center and Caretaker Quarters. Agnes lived in the center/house for several months before she died on July 5, 1994.
Footnotes
[1] Thia Bell and Star Smith, “Fire proves a disaster for Upper Ojai homes,” Ojai Valley News, October 16, 1985, pg. A-1.
[2] Thia Bell, “Plucky lady watches her memories go up in flames,” Ojai Valley News, October 16, 1985, pg. A-1.
[3] Bell, ibid., pg. A-1.
[4] Bell, ibid., pg. A-1.
[5] Bell, ibid., pg. A-2.
[6] Bell, ibid., pp. A-1, A-8.
[7] Bell, ibid., pg. A-8.
[8] Elena Jarvis, “The Witch of Sulphur Mountain,” Ventura County Star, September 12, 1999, Section D.
[9] Larry Pesta, “Will You Allow Meher Baba to Burn You Out?”, Meher Mount Story Blog, accessed online July 31, 2022.
[10] Jarvis, op.cit.
[11] Jarvis, ibid.