Dears,
We are so sad to report that our beloved and historic barn at OAEC burned to the ground last night. Everyone, including the animals, is safe albeit devastated. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Thankfully our amazing local fire departments got there in 5 minutes and prevented the fire from getting out of control and burning down the rest of the Center and it environs. Read the short article in the Press Democrat or this sfcbs news story about the fire.
For those of you who never had the joy of being in the barn, it was built by the Farallones Institute staff in the 70′s as part of a timber framing workshop (historic photo below). The timbers were recycled from an old Oakland pier. It later was transformed by OAEC into an amazing open woodshop with work tables and shop tools. It was a hub of creativity for our community that held so many fond memories and will be dearly missed.
Thank you to all for the incredible outpouring of love and support. We are experiencing a wide range of emotions now – thankfulness for our safety and the love of our community, grief for all the loss both physical and sentimental, and also knowing that so many on the planet are experiencing devastation of all kinds at this moment. We will be in touch in the coming days as this all settles in.
With love and gratitude,
the OAEC staff and community
view of the blaze from across the hill, photo by Sashwa Burrows
ashes of the barn, April 29, 2020 photo by Sashwa Burrows
