York Mountain house fire displaces Cambria gallery manager
A house fire on rural York Mountain Road off Highway 46 late Tuesday, Dec. 13, incinerated a small, 130-year-old farmhouse and wiped out the belongings and artwork of the 56-year-old woman who had rented it for five years.
Shari Little — a former gallery owner who is the manager of Ephraim Pottery in Cambria’s West Village — said in a phone interview Monday, Dec. 19, she has lost virtually everything. Little, her Jack Russell terrier, Lily, and her canaries are staying with friends Lynn and Larry Taylor, “who have been so generous,” Little said. “I’m very blessed.”
A few precious possessions, including photos of her two adult daughters, survived because the pictures were stored in an adjacent building.
Daughter Kristen Nicole Stinson has launched a GoFundMe account on Little’s Facebook page (http://bit.ly/2hQ4kR7), and Ephraim’s owners plan to add another GoFundMe effort to the business Facebook page.
In the meantime, Little is urgently trying to find a new home to rent soon in Cambria, someplace where she can literally start over.
She’s managed Ephraim for nearly five years, since the gallery opened, she said, adding that before that, she owned Visions Gallery in Morro Bay for eight years, and the Cliff’s Resort gift shop for five years.
The fire at 6760 York Mountain Road, near Shadow Canyon Road, was reported to dispatchers about 9 p.m., according to Cal Fire. David Kay, Cal Fire spokesman, said Monday that responding units included a water tender from Cambria Fire Department, five Cal Fire units, engines from Paso Robles City Fire, breathing support from Templeton and a battalion chief.
Kay said the initial investigation showed a fire in the chimney spread to the walls, along with fire in the attic. Observers said the roof collapsed, but nobody was inside the house when that happened, and no injuries were reported.
The spokesman said the investigation continues into the cause of the fire.
Little said that, on that chilly Tuesday night, she was working on a drawing, sitting across the room from the fireplace, where a fire was burning. Then she heard a noise coming from the fireplace, “like fireworks going off in it. I opened the door and saw enormous amounts of black smoke, and huge flames coming from the roof. The house was full of smoke.
“I grabbed the canaries, the dog, my jacket and my purse (fortunately),” she recalled. “I lost everything else,” including all the artwork she had collected, and “all my originals, my own artwork, are gone. I’m basically starting from scratch.”
That night, “I was in shock,” she recalled. “I didn’t cry. I couldn’t. It was too shocking for tears. You can’t wrap your mind around it.”
About 11 p.m., she realized her dog was shivering and her birds were very cold in the back of her car. There was nothing she could do at the place she’d called home for so long, so she went to Paso Robles and rented a hotel room.
Little said that since the fire, many friends and strangers have been enormously kind and helpful. The level of “people’s caring, it’s amazing. That’s what makes me want to cry,” she said quietly.
This story was originally published December 21, 2016 at 9:07 AM with the headline "York Mountain house fire displaces Cambria gallery manager."