Evacuations have been ordered for areas along California’s famous Big Sur coast as a wildfire burns in the nearby steep, rugged mountains.
The Timber fire in Monterey county started on Sunday and grew to nearly ۳,۰۰۰ acres by Tuesday evening, according to Cal Fire, the state’s fire agency. Nearly ۵۰۰ fire personnel had been assigned to the fire in the Los Padres national forest.
The evacuations have affected famed tourist destinations such as the Nepenthe restaurant, the Henry Miller Memorial Library and the Alila Ventana resort, as well as state parks during the region’s busiest season. Part of the Pacific Coast Highway in Monterey county was closed for non-residents, and officials urged visitors to avoid the area entirely.
Firefighters worked to build containment lines along the Highway ۱ corridor, Cal Fire said on Monday, and have boxed in ۵% of the blaze. Ground crews are working to access difficult terrain, the agency said, but the fire is moving slowly, burning primarily along the ground through grass, brush and oak woodland and has not moved into the tree tops.
Officials said they are focused on protecting area homes and keeping the fire from moving across the Pacific Coast Highway.
The cause of the fire, which started on Saturday evening and now threatens ۲۵۹ buildings, is still under investigation.
Firefighters are fighting blazes across the US west. Canada put its military on standby on Monday to help battle deadly wildfires in British Columbia, where at least one woman has died and about ۲۰,۰۰۰ people have fled their homes.
Nearly half of the fires in the region are burning out of control, according to authorities.
The mayor of Summerland – home to about ۱۲,۰۰۰ people, which was ordered evacuated on Saturday night along with about ۸,۰۰۰ people in and around nearby Peachland – warned that the affected areas remained too dangerous to enter and that it was impossible to determine the scope of the destruction.
Meanwhile, a quick-moving blaze just north of Reno, Nevada, forced about ۵,۵۰۰ people to evacuate.
Firefighters in Spokane, Washington, strengthened containment lines around three destructive blazes in that state, allowing some evacuated residents to return home.
And Oregon is experiencing its worst year on record for land burned by large wildfires, with ۳,۶۷۱ sq miles (۹,۵۰۸ sq km) scorched, said Jean Nelson-Dean, spokesperson for Northwest Interagency Coordination Center. That beats the state’s previous record set in ۲۰۲۴.
In the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada, firefighters have contained ۹۰% of the Gann fire, which killed one person and destroyed ۴۸ structures. Investigators have said the blaze was sparked by a man using a chainsaw, and arrested him last week.
