Highway 1 Closes Again as Big Sur Wildfires Grow, Tourists Urged to Stay Away
Tourists are once more being urged to stay away from Big Sur as Highway 1 closed Thursday afternoon amid the Timber Fire — now the third-largest in the state this year.
After igniting earlier this month, the fire is still only 23% contained and has burned more than 19,000 acres of remote coastal terrain.
Warm, dry conditions and immediate danger to people and structures had started to wane last week. But new fire growth on Wednesday and “critical backburning operations” — a burning technique used to remove fuels and stop forward progress of a fire — scheduled for Thursday have prompted Monterey County officials to implement new evacuation orders on Thursday afternoon.
“Overnight, the Timber Fire pushed east and north deep into the Ventana Wilderness,” a CalFire update said. “Critical fire weather remains the primary driver of this fire.”
A second fire, named the Plaskett Fire, broke out south of the Timber Fire in Monterey County around 11 a.m. on Wednesday. As of Thursday, this new fire is 50 acres and is 0% contained, prompting additional evacuations.
Also on Thursday, the National Weather Service issued a Red Flag Warning in the region for Friday morning, anticipating lightning amid isolated thunderstorms and winds up to 50 miles per hour.
“Lightning strikes may result in new fire ignitions,” the agency said.
‘Do not come to Big Sur’
This coastal stretch is home to many of Big Sur’s most popular hotels, restaurants and campgrounds, as well as state parks. Last week, some of those businesses had begun reopening and welcoming visitors back, like the Henry Miller Memorial Library and Nepenthe Restaurant.
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But a social media post from the library on Wednesday alerted would-be visitors that they would be closing once again starting Thursday “until further notice.”
“Again, we implore you: Do not come to Big Sur,” the business wrote on Instagram.
Aengus Wagner, wine and service director for Nepenthe, said the restaurant had just reopened on Aug. 20 after being closed for 10 days during the initial outbreak of the Timber Fire. Now, they’re closing again at least through Sunday.
“It’s not fun to close a restaurant ever, let alone twice in a month,” Wagner said, “let alone that being your busiest month of the year when all your employees are collecting their acorns for the winter.”
After reopening briefly, all state parks in Big Sur — Andrew Molera, Julia Pfeiffer Burns, Pfeiffer Big Sur and Point Sur state parks — are once again closed due to the threat from the Timber Fire.
Stretches of the coast to the north and south of the mandatory evacuation zone are currently under evacuation warnings — the step that comes before an evacuation order, which acts as a warning to residents that they may need to evacuate soon.
Highway 1 is closed again
On Wednesday afternoon, Monterey California Highway Patrol announced on Facebook that Highway 1 through the area is closed starting at 1 p.m. on Thursday from just south of Andrew Molera State Park to the north and Deetjens Big Sur Inn to the south.
The status of Highway 1 has been changeable and unpredictable for drivers in the last month. After its initial closure in early August, the road reopened to drivers on Aug. 22.
If you’re looking at alternative routes around Big Sur right now, bear in mind that the one narrow road connecting Big Sur south of Lucia to Highway 101 over the Santa Lucia mountains — Nacimiento-Fergusson Road — is notoriously steep and winding.
Fire closures have ‘huge impact’ on businesses, locals
Wagner said employees at Nepenthe are “locking down the hatches and getting ready to head home,” after the abrupt announcement last night that the highway would close down again.
While the closure is going to have a “huge impact” on the business, Wagner said given the near-constant back-and-forth of openings and closures for years, “we’re kind of professional at it now.”
“We have less than three hours to complete that to get home, to not be visible on the highway if we choose to stay,” he said.
The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office is telling anyone considering staying behind to be “prepared to self-sustain for up to 7 days.” Wagner said many locals were processing the news at a vigil last night held for a local killed on Highway 1 earlier this month.
“People had to make a quick decision,” he said. “My feeling is most people stay.”
Wagner, who grew up in Big Sur and came back in 1991 to make it his full-time residence, said he’s watched fires burn on Mount Manuel near his home in both 2008 and 2016, and “now, I’m not afraid of it,” he said. “Unless the weather pattern changes dramatically, historically, the way this is moving, it’s just a big pain in the ass.”
He said locals are grateful to the firefighting efforts that — so far — have meant no loss of buildings or life in the blaze. And they’re resilient, he said, given the past 10 years of fire and rain affecting Highway 1’s status.
Tourists, on the other hand, he said, “have no idea.” Weddings are having to be relocated, and last week’s Monterey Car Week — an event which organizers say draws 100,000 people every year — was “another huge debacle,” he said.
“We are open any chance we can,” he said. “We just remind [tourists]: we’ll be here.”
Advice for visitors to Big Sur right now
If you have existing plans to visit the Big Sur region, keep a close eye out for any email or voicemail notification from your hotel advising you of any cancellations — and your options.
If you’re trying to get in contact with your accommodation yourself, bear in mind that the property may have been directly affected by the Timber Fire evacuations, and that cellphone service in the area is spotty.
See Monterey, the county’s tourism group, is advising visitors who are already in the affected areas of Big Sur to “follow evacuation instructions, take essential belongings and medications, and bring their pets.”
According to See Monterey, several hotels throughout Monterey County are now also “offering evacuation rates for residents and visitors in need,” through a spreadsheet of available lodgings.
Monterey County has established a temporary emergency shelter at Carmel Mission Inn Conference Room in Carmel.