The family has owned the 55 acres since the early 1960s, when patriarch Jack Curtis -- a Hollywood television writer, with "Gunsmoke" and "The Rifleman" among his credits -- traded up from a smaller place down the mountainside to this property that straddles a redwood-carpeted ridge 1,000 feet above Big Sur River.
Over the years, the Curtises have improved the various buildings. They planted a 200-tree avocado orchard, carved out the terraced gardens, laid out a funky spread of concrete ponds with lily pads, and carefully pruned rosebushes and ornamental shrubs.
The brothers took over stewardship of the property after their father died six years ago.
"Dad was the Duke of Apple Pie," Micah said. "I guess that makes me the Earl."
In the last 25 years, they have fought back flames twice before, he said. He learned how as a seasonal firefighter while in college.
But the Basin Complex fire, raging for the last two weeks, has been the worst test yet.
It started when a volley of crackling bolts from a lightning storm sent flames roaring.
The Curtis brothers watched with the rest of Monterey County -- and began to prepare for the worst at the first signs of nearby smoke.
With their tenants, friends and relatives stepping up to help, they used chain saws, hoes and shovels to clear fire breaks around the buildings, hauling away at least 150 pickup-truck loads of vegetation, Micah Curtis said.
On Thursday, the situation got particularly dicey as the fire picked up strength and bore down on their retreat, a five-minute drive up a twisting dirt road from Big Sur village.
Their small team of amateurs toiled into the night, trying to beat back flames by pumping water from the swimming pool with makeshift fire hoses.
As the fire closed in on three sides, Micah Curtis said, they used a flare to set controlled burns no more than a dozen feet from the blaze. That not only steered it away from their houses, he said, but also created a broader line of defense, which helped state and federal fire crews protect the village below.
Giving a tour of the property over the weekend, Micah Curtis bumped into a state fire captain doing mop-up work with an inmate crew.
The captain, who asked not to be identified because of the controversy, praised the work of the amateurs of Apple Pie Ridge.
"I'll tell you what," the captain told him, "you guys did a good job of holding it."
