CARMEL (CBS SF) — Hundreds of residents awoke Sunday morning with the hopes of returning to their homes soon as firefighters were gaining control of a rare January wildfire that has burned in the coastal mountains near Big Sur.
With the gusty conditions that fueled the so-called Colorado Fire dying down and an intensive assault of the flames from the air, containment grew to 25 percent early Sunday. The fire has burned over 1,000 acres and destroyed one structure.
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“The winds have died down and that has worked in our favor,” said Cal Fire spokeswoman Cecile Juliette.
#RT @CAL_FIRE: #ColoradoFire off Palo Colorado Canyon, Big Sur, south of Carmel-by-the-sea in Monterey County is in the 1050 acres and 25% contained. In Unified Command with @CALFIREBEU and Mid Coast Fire,https://t.co/A2z2ehcTtD pic.twitter.com/sPeKCHVkhH
— CAL FIRE PIO (@CALFIRE_PIO) January 23, 2022
But there were some challenges on the fire lines overnight.
“The fire behavior was moderate and made wind-driven runs late Saturday nigh and into Sunday morning, with some isolated tree torching,” Cal Fire officials said in a news release. “Crews will continue building and improving containment lines and mopping up hotspots Sunday.”
The January arrival of a wildfire after rainy conditions in October and December has surprised fire officials.
“The winds absolutely played a huge part in what happened last night. We had wind gusts of up to 50 miles an hour,” Juliette said. “Everything is just so dry that it just really allowed this fire to spread very rapidly in the middle of Winter.”
The blaze — which broke out near the Palo Colorado Canyon just after 5 p.m. Friday — forced the mandatory evacuation of about 500 people. It was unclear what caused the fire.
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The National Weather Service said while Monterey County had a good amount of rain from late October to December, there was no measurable rain in January. They added the area burning had little or no fire history.
“The timing is quite unique because in January, we generally don’t have a lot of fires,” said Dr. Craig Clements, director of the Wildfire Research Center at San Jose State. “Given the fact that we haven’t had rain at all in January and we had a big off-shore wind event, these are the conditions that lead to wildfires typically in the Fall, not in January. So it’s just something that is quite surprising.”
Even thought there was a lot of rain late last year, Clements said several years of extreme drought mean there’s still a lot of dry fuel out there.
“If we pick up our precipitation, our snowpack in the Sierra in February and March, then we might get back to normal,” he said.
Juliette said the blaze is a reminder that there is no longer a traditional wildfire season.
“It no longer makes sense to refer to fire season as something that just happens three months out of the year,” Juliette said “It’s a year-round thing in California now and we anticipate that it could get worse.”
Cal Fire said because of the constant threat, people who live in fire-prone areas should stay vigilant and be ready to evacuate at all times.
More than 180 firefighters from multiple agencies and volunteer groups, aided by water-dropping aircraft were fighting the blaze.
Authorities were forced to close a stretch of Highway 1 with no estimated time for reopening. The two-lane highway along Big Sur is prone to closures due to fire and mudslides from heavy rain made portions of the roadway collapse last year and in 2017.
Evacuees shared on social media dramatic images of flames burning behind iconic Bixby Bridge. The tall concrete span has been the backdrop of many car commercials, movies and TV shows, most recently the HBO drama “Big Little Lies.”
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© Copyright 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com.