The Thomas Fire began Dec. 4, 2017, chasing people out of their homes by the thousands and destroyed hundreds of those homes within a couple of days. Just as Ojai got back to some semblance of normal in the spring of 2020, came the quarantine orders for Covid-19. People were being chased back into their homes.

Few people felt more direct impacts than Ojai’s merchants and retailers. Not only were their homes at risk, but their livelihoods. Despite the odds, they have shown remarkable resiliency and style, finding new ways to adapt and thrive.

There’s a lot at stake. Of the City of Ojai’s $10.2 million budget in 2022-23, an estimated $4.9 million will come from the hotel tax, with sales tax earning another projected $1.92 million. Tourism directly contributes more than two-thirds, 67 percent, of city revenues. Remarkably, sales tax revenues declined only seven percent from 2019 to 2020; a decrease of $124,083 from 2019’s $1,687,878 to 2020’s $1,563,795. Then, even more remarkably, in 2021 sales tax revenues reached record highs of $2,213,067 before slipping slightly to $1,927,300 in 2022.

That quick recovery seemed unlikely. Those first ashen days after the Thomas Fire left many residents and retailers feeling despondent, “so the first order of business was to try to get everyone back together as a family,” Jamie Fleming, chief executive of the Ojai Chamber of Commerce, said. He credited Liz and Jeremy Haffner, then Azu owners, now Ojai Valley Brewery, for organizing and hosting meetings of business people at their restaurant. As many as 100 people attended the weekly meetings, in which resources and information were shared. “People felt this camaraderie that built up among the businesses as a real positive spirit. You could feel the momentum of people coming together, that we were going to make it through this thing together,” Fleming said.

One sign was that the flow of visitors to Ojai resumed even as the ash was still settling. When Fleming was working the visitor information table at the Libbey Park fountain plaza, he had “a battery of six shocking photos of downtown” with the smoke and fire surrounding the village. “Lots of visitors came just from curiosity, ‘Wow, what was it like? Did you have to evacuate?’”

Amara Bessa was doubly hit by the fire. She owns Kariella boutique, with two locations, the first on Main Street in Ventura, the newer location in Ojai’s iconic Arcade. “I evacuated Ojai around 9 p.m. (Dec. 5) and looking back at the hillsides from Ventura and everything was ablaze. It looked like an apocalypse, it was terrifying and sad.” 

Victoria Johansen, owner of Fig Curating Living and Fig Boutique, was first worried about her 90-year-old neighbor as the Thomas Fire raged. “I wasn’t concerned with the stores at first, I thought it was done, it’s over.” She left town for 10 days. “When the dust settled, well, the ashes actually, as Fig is an outdoor store, we were covered in ashes,” she said. Fortunately, her insurance company allowed her to use her employees in the arduous task of cleaning, re-cleaning and cleaning again the store’s inventory. “We cleaned the store three times over.”

It wasn’t long before customers returned. Then left again, as ash falls swirled around for weeks afterwards. Ojai recovered in fits and starts.

The #OjaiStrong symbol proliferated like, well, wildfire, with ubiquitous bumper stickers and more than 6,000 Instagram posts. Be-tagged trucker hats were a bestseller, as were the two books that came out of the fire. On was the collaboration of Elizabeth Rose and Deva Temple for “From the Fire,” which featured hundreds of photos and essays from Ojai residents. The other was the art book, “Scorched Souls: Ojai Studio Artists Respond to the Thomas Fire,” with more than 60 plates of original art inspired by the fire. These items are still available in Ojai stores and at the Ojai Museum.

The Arcade lost familiar fixtures; Khaled Al-Awar retired Primavera Gallery, Stan and Hallie Katz retired Human Arts Gallery after 47 years and Kathy Francis’ Kindred Spirits closed after more than 25 years. Kindred Spirit owner Kathy Francis retired after a quarter-century in the Arcade, just weeks before the

Covid-19 outbreak. Michele Bosch and Misty Gerry leased the Kindred Spirit site during the early days of the pandemic and on Labor Day weekend, opened Cercana. Bessa opened her Ojai location in December 2018, just a year after the fire, just over a year before the pandemic. 

“It was doom-and-gloom there for awhile,” she said. “Definitely a discouraging time. It was really challenging sitting on inventory for an extended period of time. But once the lockdown let up, there was a huge rush of people into Ojai. I know it made a lot of people nervous at the time, but it was great for business after such a long lull.”

Fleming said that when the state mandate came down in March 2020, “the first thing we did is call James (Vega, the city manager) and Chris (Kandziora — Ojai Valley Inn’s senior vice president) and we needed to figure out a protocol right now, the covid protocol for businesses so stores could still function, and customers would feel protected.” Also involved were city council members and doctors and hospital staff. 

This included the signs on doors about the crisis, with city logos, as well as the portable hand-washing stations. “How many people, how far apart, wearing masks, communicating with store owners and employees to make sure they had the right sanitation, liquids, plexiglass shields, it was pretty comprehensive,” he said. “James Vega sent ours to Ventura County, and they submitted theirs with ours (to the state). That was great validation,” Fleming said.

Those first few weeks in March and April 2020 were frenzied. On one hand, businesses were shuttered without any clear idea of when they could, or would, resume, and how. On the other, people were despondent and isolated. 

“It was disarray,” Fleming said.

Once again, Ojai’s businesses rose to the challenge. Some pivoted to online sales and delivery, using e-commerce platforms to reach customers who were stuck at home. Others embraced the new normal, redesigning their stores and offerings to meet the needs of a socially distanced world. And still others got creative, launching new products and services that spoke to the challenges of the moment.

Dreams delayed are not always dreams denied. After years of planning and narrowly averting a financial catastrophe, Deborah Yahner expanded Ikat & Pearls to 323 East Ojai Avenue in the Arcade, opening on July 18th, 2020. “We were carrying four rents. Our savings dwindled. From going from near-bankruptcy to a new, dream store was remarkable! I had seen so many friends and business associates close their doors.”

The path to recovery from the pandemic for her Ventura location was greatly aided for proximity to Lure Fish House. As stay-at-home orders were relaxed “people from Los Angeles were coming up and waiting up to three hours to dine at Lure. Can you guess where they waited, and shopped?” Yahner said. “We sold 17 large driftwood candles in one day! The rush to shop, feel it, touch it and try it one was like a feeding frenzy!”

An early step for the Chamber and City was getting local residents to come to the aid of Ojai restaurants. Help of Ojai developed an innovative program, supporting local restaurants by purchasing food for their Meals on Wheels program, which had become an even more critical lifeline. At its peak, the Great Plates program was delivering more than 2,600 meals each week. The city then opened up patio and sidewalk spaces for outdoor dining, placed signs for the all-important pickup lanes for to-go orders. The chamber put together marketing materials and listings with restaurant menus and information, “whether they were a chamber member or not,” he added.

Johansen had an advantage with her dual locations; her North Montgomery store had windows that opened to the outside, and she could display merchandise within reach; customers could shop with minimal exposure to the virus. “We restructured the entire store,” she said. “We were taking credit cards with plastic gloves. People were coming from everywhere, coming up for the day, asking where to buy property, saying ‘We need to move here now!’”

During the early days of the lockdown, Bessa at Kariella Boutique boosted her stores’ online presence. “I fulfilled orders from home and tried to stay busy, like everyone else I cooked a lot, exercised more, read books and generally tried to keep my spirits up. We did turn our living room into a roller skating rink that first week. That was fun!”

Several shops offered collections of locally made items; candles, soaps, and ceramics. The response was overwhelming, customers said the gifts brought a sense of joy and connection during a difficult time.

“People generally seemed to be supportive and sympathetic. It felt like people started to appreciate the small business owners and all that we deal with in a crisis like that,” Bessa said. Yahner was featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered” program. “Unpacking our plight as a small business owner was an honor … the risk is real, small businesses need your help or entire towns would lose everything that makes us a community.”

Johansen said her online orders also rose during the lockdown, and that she and her staff made many home deliveries for baby 

showers, anniversaries and the celebrations of life that continued. “It took a lot more work to keep everything going. You’ve got to pay attention to everything to make it work,” she said. 

The Thomas Fire crisis and reaction might well have helped Ojai’s economy recover more quickly from the pandemic. Solidarity and resilience are learned behaviors. 

Bessa said that her dread began to lift about three months after the lockdown, in the summer of 2020. “We got slammed! We had three or four people working the floor at a time and it was still not enough. To put it in perspective we normally only have one person working the floor. I just remember walking into my shop on a Saturday and feeling so relieved that the good energy was back.”

Fleming said one lesson from both the fire and pandemic is that what Ojai has to offer has great value. “In this world with the changing landscape of Amazon and online, it’s just the mass low-end stores like Dollar Stores and CVS hanging in. But because of our mom-and-pops and local brands, people come to visit stores they don’t see in their own downtown.”

Fleming also mentioned the festivals as another big draw for Ojai, one that took time to recover. With “The Ojai” tennis tournament back to full strength, the Ojai Music Festival expanding its reach, and the return of the Ojai Storytellers Festival and resumption of normal programming for the Ojai Film Festival, Ojai weekends have again taken on a festive air. Not that everyone agrees that it’s a good thing. 

Try making a left turn onto Ojai Avenue virtually anytime of night or day for proof. Fig’s Johansen said the parking is a chronic problem, and the opening of the El Roblar Hotel might make it worse. 

Fleming argues that it’s not the fault of retailers. “People seem to lose this realistic perspective that the people who live in or visit Ojai did not choose to come to Ojai because of its stores and restaurants. They’d come to Ojai even if those establishments did not exist! The way I look at it, Ojai with its beautiful setting, this unique offering, is just designated to always be a special place. 

These are things that bring people to Ojai, then when they’re here, they fall in love with the stores and restaurants and patios, the olive oil tasting, the hiking, bike riding and those are the things that pull people together.”

As the pandemic slowly began to recede and life returned to some semblance of normality, the merchants and retailers of Ojai found themselves reflecting on the challenges they had overcome. They realized that their resiliency and creativity had not only helped them survive the fires and lockdowns, but had also strengthened the bonds of their community and inspired a new sense of pride and purpose.

The Oaks at Ojai spa closed during the Thomas Fire as the Cluff family decided to exit the business after 40 years. With its 60 rooms and a tradition of annual get-togethers and reunions of friends, its absence was felt all along Ojai Avenue. Johansen said “We had groups from the Oaks in the stores that came every year.”

The re-opening of the El Roblar Hotel is expected in 2024. Fleming said, “I cannot wait. It will bring such needed commerce to the west end of downtown. The way I look at it, it’s going to infuse energy and economic vitality.” El Roblar Hotel partner Jeremy McBride said the property will re-invigorate downtown much the same way the original El Roblar Hotel did when it first opened in January 1920.

It will have been seven years from the Oaks at Ojai spa closing to the El Roblar Hotel’s expected reopening. A lot has changed in between. Bessa, an Ojai native, said, “I’m excited! I think it will be great for visitors to have an amazing place to stay right in downtown. It will only add to the success of all businesses downtown.” Yahner expressed much the same sentiments.

“As the tide rises it lifts all the ships. We are grateful for more folks to discover the magic of Ojai. I think this can only help us all in the long run.”