Jul 5, 2008 8:49 pm US/Pacific
Weather Aids Struggle Against California Fires
BIG SUR (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ―
Cooler temperatures and marine fog allowed firefighters in Big Sur to gain some ground Saturday on an obstinate wildfire that wiped out this world-famous coastal retreat's holiday tourist trade. Meanwhile, another blaze was expanding in Santa Barbara County where forecasts called for hotter weather in coming days.
Monterey County: Basin Complex FireNearly 2,000 firefighters still were trying to keep the two-week-old Basin Complex Fire in Big Sur — that has blackened over 111 square miles in the northern end of the Los Padres forest and destroyed 22 homes — from claiming local businesses and vacation retreats.
While cooler weather helped crews attacking the two-week-old blaze in Monterey County, the fire nonetheless continued to grow slowly on all flanks Saturday night.
"We're gaining ground, but we're nowhere near being done," said Gregg DeNitto, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service said. "There's still a lot of potential out there. The fire has been less active the last couple of days. We've had favorable weather, they are taking every opportunity to get some line on it."
But the weather was expected to worsen over the next couple of days — becoming hotter and drier, he said, with winds and temperatures rising and humidity dropping.
"The fire still has the potential for movement and the potential to get out of our containment lines," DeNitto said. The Big Sur fire remained only 5 percent contained Saturday; officials did not expect to fully contain the fire until the end of the month.
The fire had burned 65,393 acres since June 21 and fire officials estimated the cost of fighting the fire had reached $13.4 million; they said 1,777 structures were still threatened by the flames.
Crews had lit backfires late into Friday night in an effort to protect properties along the scenic Highway 1 corridor, which firefighters were using as a natural fire break.
Kurt Mayer watched as crews slowly set the forest and brush on fire across the street from his Big Sur Deli.
Dozens of firefighters stood guard along Highway 1 with their backs to the fire, watching the homes and business nestled into the green hillsides for any sign that the fire had jumped over the highway, while their colleagues behind them fanned the flames.
"You could call it uneventful even though it was spectacular," Mayer said. "It was very well controlled."
Mayer, who has hunkered down at his family's business for three days, defying mandatory evacuation orders as the fire lurked in the canyon below, said it feels like his property and several homes behind him that abut the Pacific Ocean, are safe for now.
"I feel pretty good. It was like 'Yahoo.' It was amazing," Mayer said.
Similar controlled burns appear to have protected several well-known businesses at the top of Big Sur Valley, including Ventana Inn and Nepenthe, Mayer said.
A homeowner about a quarter-mile east of Big Sur was arrested for refusing a fire officials' orders to stop setting his own backfires.
Ross Curtis, 48, set fires on his property for three days in order to protect it from the larger wildfire and repeatedly ignored orders by fire officials trained in setting such specialized fires, said Cliff Williams, a law enforcement officer at the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. No one answered a call Saturday to the home of a Ross Curtis in Big Sur.
''If you get a homeowner out there trying to do things when they don't understand fire behavior, they may increase the fire or trap fire crews,'' Williams said.
Mandatory evacuations remained in effect for the entire Big Sur area on either side of state Highway 1, from just south of Palo Colorado to Limekiln State Park.
Advisory evacuations had previously been issued to the Palo Colorado Canyon from the highway to the Pico Blanco Boy Scout Camp, where structure protection teams set up a sprinkler system.
Another advisory was in effect for Carmel Valley Road from Arroyo Seco Road north to Tassajara Road, Tassajara Road south of the forest boundary, and Cachuga Road to Nason Road's turnoff.
The American Red Cross was operating an evacuation center and shelter at Carmel Valley Middle School, 4380 Carmel Valley Road.
Monterey County: Indians Fire
Firefighters Saturday began leaving the scene of the Indians Fire, a little further south in the Los Padres forest in Monterey County, which was expected to be fully contained Monday.
The crews headed north to join the fight against the Basin Complex Fire, fire officials said.
About 526 fire personnel remained at the Indians Fire on Saturday, down from 787 firefighters the day before.
The fire had affected an estimated 81,378 acres, but the total number of acres affected has not grown in several days, fire officials said.
The blaze was 95 percent contained and had cost $43 million to suppress since the flames ignited June 8.
Voluntary evacuations on Arroyo Seco Road above the junction with Carmel Valley Road remained in place, fire officials said.
About 422 structures were still threatened and two had been destroyed. Seventeen injuries were also reported so far, according to fire officials.
Santa Barbara County: Gap Fire
Meantime, a wildfire threatening hundreds of homes in the southern end of the Los Padres National Forest in Santa Barbara County spread slowly through scenic canyonlands Saturday.
Officials said the state's top priority was the Gap Fire in the coastal region of Southern California, where nearly 2,700 homes were threatened by a four-day-old fire that had consumed about 13 square miles.
Cooler, moist air Saturday kept the fire sluggish and helped firefighters trying to surround it, said Pat Wheatley, a county spokeswoman. The fire was 24 percent contained, she said.
''It's just spreading in each direction, but they are holding the line beautifully,'' she said.
Over 2,600 homes were under mandatory evacuation Saturday and people in another 1,400 were warned to be ready to flee if the flames gathered speed.
Wheatley said the mandatory evacuation orders were partially lifted later Saturday, allowing some residents of Goleta near Winchester Canyon to return home, but she did not know how many homes were affected by the downgrade.
The fire, which was burning in 15-foot-high, half-century-old chaparral, had the potential to roll through a hilly area of ranches, housing tracts and orchards between the town of Goleta and Santa Barbara.
''The advice is that you get prepared, that you get your belongings together and you stay very watchful,'' Wheatley said.
Temperatures reached the high 80s by late afternoon, and the smoke from the fire made for bad air quality.
Nearly 1,200 firefighters struggled to surround the blaze while a DC-10 air tanker and other aircraft dumped water and fire retardant along ridges and in steep canyons.
Investigators think the fire, which began Tuesday, was human-caused. The Forest Service on Saturday asked for public help in determining who set it and whether it was sparked accidentally or on purpose.
In his weekly radio address, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who visited a command center near Goleta on Saturday, cited the fires in promoting his budget plan to charge the average homeowner $12 a year to pay for emergency services.
"We no longer have a fire season that starts in the summer and runs through the fall. Because of the extreme dry conditions, we are now seeing fires as early as February that last all year," Schwarzenegger said.
Other Fires
The trio of Los Padres blazes were among 334 active wildfires burning in California on Saturday, down from a peak of roughly 1,700 fires at the start of the week, but they were commanding the greatest share of equipment and personnel because of their locations near populated areas, according to CalFire.
The slew of wildfires, most ignited by lightning two weeks ago, had burned a total of more than 800 square miles of land throughout California. In all, the blazes had destroyed at least 69 homes and other buildings so far, plus contributed to the death of a firefighter who suffered a heart attack while digging fire lines in Mendocino County.
The governor noted that he recently ordered 400 National Guard troops to be trained in wildfire fighting so they could help relieve some of the exhausted firefighters who have been battling the raging blazes.
''The firefighters are stretched thin, they are exhausted,'' and some have gone days without sleep, said Schwarzenegger at the command post in Santa Barbara County.
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