On a blazing hot Saturday afternoon in July 2017, just a few hours after the Cub Scout Resident Camp at Rancho Alegre had let out for the week, the Whittier Fire ravaged the campgrounds , tearing through the 217-acre site and destroying nearly 50 buildings — about 90 percent of the entire camp — in less than 45 minutes.
Luckily, only a handful of young staffers and an administrative assistant were still on-site, and no one was injured as they escaped alongside families fleeing nearby Cachuma Lake while flames jumped along Highway 154.
But the devastating fire took its toll on the Rancho Alegre property, which has traditionally been home to the Outdoor School, run by the Los Padres Council for more than a half a century as a place for youth to learn essential life skills and appreciation of nature through the Scouting America core principles. In that time, hundreds of thousands of children attended summer camps at that same site, which also hosted various retreats and wilderness getaways.
