Plaskett Fire Near Big Sur Explodes to Nearly 6,000 Acres, Shuts Down 46 Miles of Highway 1

Cal Fire's 6:31 a.m. update Saturday, Aug. 29, put the Plaskett Fire near Big Sur at nearly 6,000 acres, according to the New York Post. The fire, burning on Forest Road 23S10 east of Los Burros Road in Monterey County, had scorched just 140 acres as of Thursday. It roughly quadrupled in two days.

Cal Fire said the fire is backing downslope toward Highway 1 south of Plaskett Road. Overnight conditions offered some relief, with improved humidity recovery and marine influence slowing the advance, but crews are still reinforcing control lines.

Evacuation orders are in place for zones MRY-F034, MRY-F035, MRY-F036 and MRY-G016. Warnings cover zones MRY-F033, MRY-F037 and MRY-G015, according to Cal Fire's numbers as reported by the Post.

The fire ignited Wednesday, Aug. 26, according to the Associated Press, the Independent and public radio station KAZU, though the Los Angeles Times reported it started a day earlier, on Tuesday. Whatever the exact hour, growth was explosive: from 140 acres Thursday to roughly 5,900 acres by 9 p.m. Friday, per Cal Fire data cited by the LA Times, and to nearly 6,000 by Saturday morning.

That's a sharp contrast from how the AP described the fire Thursday night, calling it "a small wildfire" affecting "a handful of isolated properties." Conditions changed fast. Cal Fire Battalion Chief Josh Silveira told the LA Times the fire grew Friday "in part due to the red flag weather conditions we experienced in the fire area," and that the winds made it hard to even fly a reconnaissance plane over the terrain.

Silveira has said Big Sur's microclimate complicates firefighting because relative humidity drops sharply at night, letting fires grow fast in the dark. As of Friday evening he said the fire was still headed toward Highway 1, though it wasn't immediately clear how close it had gotten.

About 180 personnel were assigned to the Plaskett Fire on Friday, per the LA Times. By Saturday morning that had jumped to nearly 500 personnel, with 36 engines, six helicopters and multiple air tankers, according to Cal Fire figures reported by the Post. The fire's cause remains under investigation, the AP reported.

The Timber Fire ignited Aug. 8 in the Los Padres National Forest and has now burned for roughly three weeks. In its early days it grew to about 3,000 acres with just 5% containment, according to the Guardian, and its evacuation orders hit some of Big Sur's best-known stops: the Nepenthe restaurant, the Henry Miller Memorial Library and the Alila Ventana resort.

By Aug. 27, the AP reported the Timber Fire had grown to nearly 31 square miles, about 19,800 acres, with containment just over 20%. The LA Times put updated Friday numbers at 23,300 acres and 21% containment, with growth slowing that day even as officials describe the fire's overall pace over three weeks as rapid. Roughly 1,600 personnel are assigned to it, far more than the Plaskett Fire.

California Highway Patrol has closed Highway 1 from Little Sur River, mile marker 56, south to Gorda, mile marker 10.1, a stretch of about 46 miles, according to the LA Times. Officials had briefly shut a separate portion of the road Thursday as crews worked to keep the Plaskett Fire from running through canyons, the AP reported.

Fire danger is elevated statewide because of increased lightning risk and gusty winds from the remnants of a tropical storm in the Pacific, per the AP's Aug. 27 wire report. Crews on the Timber Fire have been doing controlled back-burns, deliberately clearing brush to slow the bigger blaze's advance toward populated parts of Big Sur.

Lee Beyer, a spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service, told the LA Times that fires lasting three to eight weeks are "pretty typical" for the region given its terrain and remoteness. "Sometimes they'll go all the way up until we get a season-ending rain or snow event," he said, adding that with fuels and weather working against crews, the Timber Fire "could continue for at least a few more weeks."

For evacuees, a temporary shelter is operating at the Carmel Mission Inn Conference Room, updated as of Aug. 28, according to KAZU. A virtual evacuation point at the Carmel Valley Branch Library is staffed from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., reachable at 831-647-7760. The SPCA of Monterey County is assisting with large animals and pets during evacuations.

Big Sur depends heavily on tourism revenue during late summer, and the extended Highway 1 closure is cutting off access to the corridor during what would normally be peak season. Cal Fire has not given a timeline for reopening the road, and with the Plaskett Fire's cause still unknown and the Timber Fire potentially weeks from full containment, business owners along the coast face an open-ended wait.