According to reports at the time, on the afternoon of Sunday, 13 Jun 1909, Caliente was almost wiped off the map.
 
A fire that started at the Southern Pacific depot was spread over the town by the explosion of over a ton of black power and dynamite that had been stored in the railroad freight room.
 
Luckily not one person was hurt.
 
The fire started about 15 minutes before 15:00 on what was a calm Sunday afternoon.
 
The alarm went out and residents fled town knowing about the large quantity of explosives that was stored in the station.
 
It was like a marathon race toward the mouth of Caliente canyon.
 
Just about on cue at 15:00 the explosion came.
 
Immediately the entire town was engulfed in fire.
 
Southern Pacific agent B.K. Cairas was in his office talking to his relief operator when he heard pounding on the windows from both sides of the building and people shouting fire.
 
Cairas opened the door between the ticket office and the freight office and huge amounts of black smoke poured out.
 
Cairas went to the telegraph office and sent the following message to the Kern dispatcher's office.
 
"Depot burning send help, arrange your schedule accordingly."
 
Then the line went dead.
 
It was more than three hours before any communication was restored.
 
In the few houses east of the depot that survived, all the windows were broken and the clocks stopped at almost 3 o'clock on the dot.
 
Large pieces of lumber were thrown from the depot nearly 300 yards charred and burning.
 
Smaller pieces of lumber landed nearly one quarter of a mile away.
 
The fire started to burn toward Mt. Breckenridge, but was quickly extinguished by railroad employees.
 
The Caliente Hotel was the first building to burst into flames after the explosion.
 
From there the fire spread to houses in all directions.
 
Next to the hotel, Ripley's livery stable consisting of four large barns, a house, blacksmith shop, and post office burned.
 
Ripley's loss was estimated at US$4,000.
 
A relief train was sent to the site immediately after Cairas's telegraph was received and arrived at 16:30.
 
The wires were spliced and by 18:00 the telegraph lines were restored.
 
The railroad also established a temporary depot in a boxcar on a siding and track repair began.
 
No cause for the initial fire was reported.
 
Ed Gordon.