Wildfires shift, extending evacuation
California fire event is largest is state’s history
SAN JOSE, Calif. – A large wildfire in a national forest spread farther away from the storied coastal town of Big Sur on Monday but forced residents of another community to stay away from their homes for a third day.
Evacuation orders first issued Saturday morning remained in place for more than 200 homes in the rural Cachagua community northeast of Big Sur. The blaze, which already has charred 187 square miles and destroyed 27 homes, was about 1 1/2 miles from the area, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
Firefighters had a strong fire line in the Los Padres National Forest there that they expected to hold, keeping the flames from reaching the more populated Carmel Valley, said Tacy Skinner, a Forest Service spokeswoman.
On the southwest border of the blaze, which was more than 60 percent contained, firefighters were in cleanup mode Monday. The scenic Pacific Coast Highway fully reopened ahead of schedule a day earlier, and residents and business owners in Big Sur – a tourist area historically popular with writers and artists – began settling back in after three weeks.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said 288 blazes were still burning around the state, most of them in the mountains ringing the northern edge of the Central Valley.
So far this fire season, flames have blackened nearly 1,300 square miles and destroyed about 100 homes across California. Most of the blazes were sparked by a June 21 lightning storm in the northern part of the state.
The current complex of fires is “the largest single fire event in history for California,” said Kelly Houston, spokesman for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
The previous record was set in October 2003, when wildfires scorched more than 1,155 square miles, Houston said. State record-keeping on wildfires began in 1936.
The state defines a “fire event” as a group of blazes within the same location or time period.
While the October 2003 fires killed 24 people and destroyed more than 3,600 homes, Houston said officials point to acreage when quantifying wildfires.
Cooler weather allowed officials to lift evacuation orders in the fire-ravaged towns of Paradise and Concow. The fires there, which burned 83 square miles and destroyed 50 homes, weren’t threatening any homes Monday, officials said.