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• 1 2022-09-23T10:11:47-07:00 Banning Fire, 1951 11 plain 2022-12-02T10:49:25-08:00 Depicted in this photograph are the ruins of a cherry picking community of 12,000 inhabitants that was in the path of the Banning Fire [1]. Although the exact cause was unknown, the fire started on September 13, 1951 in an empty field, around a half-mile north of the Banning city border, located to the east of Riverside in California. By the end of the first day, the flames had burned through 4,000 acres of brush. Concurrently, a blaze on Mt. San Gorgonio, around twelve miles north of Banning, was wildly shifting with the wind; this would later cause the Banning fire’s dangerous development [2].
  
  As the fire moved south it destroyed a Native American school and a large ranch home near the cherry picking community pictured in this photograph. Five other ranch homes and a pea-packing plant barely escaped incineration [3]. The burned appliances and furniture visible in the photograph are likely remains of these buildings. Based on where the photograph was taken, the unidentified woman was likely either an inhabitant of the ranch home that was victim to the fire or a schoolteacher for the Native American school [4]. By the fifth day the fire was still out of control, covering 10,000 acres and growing with topographical downdrafts [5]. Although it managed to burn a power line which temporarily cut the main city’s water supply, most of the impact on humans was limited to the cherry picking community visible in the image above [6]. The sources do not mention how or when the fire was ultimately put out, only that 600 men were still battling the flames on September 18 [7].
   

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  [1] “Brush Fire Sweeps Town: California Blaze Sweeps Homes” The Detroit Free Press, (September 16th, 1951), 1.
  
  [2] “Blaze Sweeps into Banning; One Home Lost, Others in Path: Many Flee New Fire at Resort.” Los Angeles Times, (September 16, 1951), 1.
  
  [3] “Fire Perils Banning City Water Supply: 3000-Volt Power Line Feeding Pumps Menaced by Flames.” Los Angeles Times, (September 17, 1951), 1.
  
  [4] “Brush Fire Sweeps Town: California Blaze Sweeps Homes.” The Detroit Free Press, (September 16, 1951), 1 and “Fire Perils Banning City Water Supply: 3000-Volt Power Line Feeding Pumps Menaced by Flames.” Los Angeles Times, (September 17, 1951), 1.
  
  [5] “Banning Fire Out of Control for Fifth Day.” Los Angeles Times, (September 18, 1951), 1.
  
  [6] “Banning Fire Out of Control for Fifth Day.” Los Angeles Times, (September 18, 1951), 1.
  
  [7] “Banning Fire Out of Control for Fifth Day.” Los Angeles Times, (September 18, 1951), 1.