I don’t remember when I first noticed it, but I have lived on Grand Avenue for thirty years and it seems like it has been there at least that long. I do remember wondering why it had been placed there. And at some point the words to a song I had heard at some time in my life became associated with it each time I looked to the ridge of the mountain peak known as Nellie’s Peak, as I drove up the canyon; “On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross...” is the first line of a song written by George Bennard, 1913, The Old Rugged Cross, and the only words I know.

A few months ago while I was on a walk on Grand Avenue, longtime Grand Avenue resident Regina Stehly stopped to visit. Since we were standing below the location where the cross was stationed high above us, approximately 900’ in elevation west and above 2213 Grand Avenue, I asked Regina if she knew anything about the cross placement. Regina said she did and that her brother Vince Stehly and her father Jim Stehly had placed the cross there many years ago as an expression of their strong Catholic faith. I contacted Vince and he said that in the early 1970’s, when he was about 10 or 12 years old, his family, including cousins, all drove up with their dad to the location where the cross now stands. They placed the approximate eight foot tall white cross made out of wood into the hole they had prepared for it. All the family had carved their names into the cross to memorialize their involvement.

Vince said he replaced the cross about ten years ago because of damage it sustained from another fire that burnt from Piru to Grand Ave. As I recall that fire was named “The Grand Fire” and that fire happened sometime in the late 1990’s. Vince said he will soon replace the cross standing there now because of the damage from the Thomas Fire.

Well there you go. I now knew something about that often viewed cross. But, I believe there is more to wonder about that cross and it has to do with another fire--the Thomas Fire, and the loss of the life of a 32-year old CalFire Firefighter/Engineer from San Diego.

The Thomas Fire began on December 4, 2017 at 6:28 PM, 281,893 acres consumed, 1,063 structures destroyed, 280 structures damaged. It began west of Fillmore and near Santa Paula. The Thomas Fire has been recorded as the largest fire in California History! Not including the 21 lives lost, and the two additional persons that are still missing, from the devastating floods in Santa Barbara after the fire, there were two lives lost as a direct result of the fire. One of those was 32-year-old Cory Iverson, who died in Fillmore in the hills to the west and above Grand Avenue on the morning of Dec. 14, 2017. The other was 70 year old Virginia Pesola a Wheeler Canyon resident who died in a car crash in Wheeler Canyon fleeing the fire on December 6, 2017. The Thomas Fire was officially 100% contained on December 27, 2017 according to CalFire.

Firefighter Iverson was married with a 2-year-old daughter. His wife, Ashley, is pregnant with their second child, due this spring. From the findings of an official CalFire Report, Cory Iverson and four other firefighters were laying hose along a bulldozer-created fire break. All five wore packs, each containing 300 feet of 1.5-inch hose, the report states. Iverson also was carrying a scraping tool. Iverson was attempting to put out a spot fire, which was on the edge of the fire line, with his hand tool. A second fire flared up about 20 feet deep in an unburned area. Iverson, with 200 feet of hose remaining on his back, headed toward it. "As [Iverson] reached the second spot and began to take action, it erupted," the preliminary report states.

At the same time, more spot fires broke out along the fire line west of the original spot fire. Those fires grew quickly and could not be doused by the water one of the firefighters sprayed on them. “Iverson's escape route was cut off,” the report states. He started moving southwest, parallel to the fire break. Faced with the intense fire, he turned and headed south down the slope. He requested air support. It was his last confirmed radio transmission.

Whether you are a person of faith, or not, you do have to consider how that old wooden cross, now scorched and leaning at about a 45 degree angle, could have survived such intense heat and flame of the Thomas Fire? I say this because since the Thomas Fire came over the mountain moving eastward towards Grand Avenue, on the morning December 14, 2017, taking the life of CalFire Engineer Cory Iverson, that old rugged cross now leans a little to the southwest.

I would like to think that the cross survived with now an added duty! Although I don’t know the exact location of where CalFire Firefighter/Engineer Cory Iverson spent his last moments of life fighting the Thomas Fire, I do know where all the after activity and removal of his body occurred. That Old Rugged Cross is now pointing towards the approximate location where Firefighter Iverson lost his life that day, protecting the homes of those of us living on Grand Avenue. I would like to think that the Old Rugged Cross has accepted the duty of forever keeping the sacrifice of his life and his bravery in the consciousness of all that experienced the Thomas Fire by pointing towards the last location Cory walked on this earth doing what he was born to do and loved--being a firefighter!

CalFire Firefighter/Engineer Cory Iverson is truly an American Hero who sacrificed all. Thank you Firefighter/Engineer Cory Iverson for your, and your family’s, sacrifice! “On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross...”