Firefighters struggling to get a handle on Timber fire as blaze surges again in Big Sur

Almost 20 days after the Timber fire broke out in Big Sur, threatening hundreds of residents and structures, the fire is continuing to grow at a rapid pace, officials said. It has again forced the closure of Highway 1 as well as beloved local businesses that had only recently reopened.

On Thursday, the Timber fire grew about 4,000 acres over the course of the day, said Battalion Chief Josh Silveira of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. It surged from roughly 19,000 acres in the morning to more than 23,000 acres as of around 7:30 p.m.

The National Weather Service’s Monterey office warned that potential dry lightning strikes and strong winds of up to 50 mph were expected Friday, which “will result in rapid fire spread for both new and existing fires.”

Another fast-moving wildfire is burning near the Timber fire in Monterey County: the uncontained Plaskett fire, which ignited Tuesday in a remote area about 30 miles down the coast from the Timber fire and has grown to about 140 acres.

“It’s a blessing and a curse to have another incident that close,” Silveira said. “The blessing is that we were able to flex resources down into the area and try for a very aggressive initial attack.” But he said “the curse” is that it takes time to bring in additional resources to fight the Timber fire.

The Timber fire is 21% contained, Cal Fire said in an update Thursday. That’s a decrease from Sunday, when the fire was 25% contained.

The Timber fire grew in size at a quicker rate than crews could build new control lines, Silveira said. Firefighters are battling the fire in steep, rugged terrain, which he said had prevented crews from finding “advantageous points” to fight the fire.

Strong, erratic winds have made the going tough for fire crews, and red flag fire conditions are expected Friday.

The weather service in Monterey said local residents should prepare for power outages.

There have been no civilian or firefighter injuries so far, Silveira said, and no structures have been damaged or destroyed, though he said there had been some close calls at homes in the fire’s path.

“We’ve had the fire interact with the clearing around some of those houses in some instances,” Silveira said, but homeowners in the area have been proactive with clearing vegetation around their homes, which he said had helped.

Silveira said about 600 residents had received evacuation orders as a result of the Timber and Plaskett fires.

Big Sur’s micro-climate makes firefighting more complicated: The relative humidity drops at night, making fires grow rapidly.

Lee Beyer, a spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service, said fires lasting from three to eight weeks are “pretty typical” for the region due to the terrain and remoteness of the forest.

“Sometimes they’ll go all the way up until we get a season-ending rain or snow event,” he said. “When the fuels and the weather aren’t helping you, that certainly leaves it as a possibility that this could continue for at least a few more weeks.”

Caltrans said Thursday a 40-mile stretch of Highway 1 from Gorda in the south to Captain Cooper Elementary in the north had been closed to support the fire operations. In a Facebook post, the agency urged people to avoid unnecessary travel in the area.

A map showing current evacuations can be found here. In addition to orders and warnings, some shelter-in-place warnings were issued. Monterey County said Thursday that those who choose to shelter in place must be prepared to “sustain themselves for at least 7 days.”

It has been a traumatic period for businesses in Big Sur — a region known for sweeping coastal views that typically attract hordes of tourists around this time of the year.

Nepenthe, an iconic clifftop restaurant which had just celebrated its reopening last weekend, closed for a second time on Thursday, according to its website.

The Henry Miller Memorial, a popular counterculture bookshop, closed in early August to an evacuation order. It briefly reopened last week, but has since said it is closing “until further notice.”

“We implore you, Do not come to Big Sur,” the library said in an Instagram post. “Fewer cars on the road allow Cal Fire and emergency services to do their job as effectively and safely as possible.”