Location: Hwy 1(MM32.20) N of Limekiln State Park, 10 miles S of Big Sur
Containment: 0
Injuries: 0
Resources:
Hand Crews: 6
Engines: 25
Dozers: 3
Helicopters: 4
Fixed wing: 1
Water Tenders: 3
Total Personnel: 400
Current Situation:The Dolan Fire was reported August 18, 2020, just after 8:00 p.m. Active Fire behavior was observed with long range spotting, uphill runs, flanking and backing fire. California Interagency Incident Management Team 2, under the command of Mike Minton entered into unified command with Big Sur Fire this morning at 6:00 a.m.
Today priorities focused on the preparation and protection of structures on the north and south ends of the fire. On the north end, in the Partington Ridge area, an Evacuation Warning was upgraded to an Evacuation Order. Firefighters are prepping for structure protection and building fire line around an area that burnt across the North Coast Ridge Road yesterday. This fire is burning in the Sobranes Fire scar. Confidence that this fire will be caught is high.
The fire was active today in the area of Hermitage. Bulldozers were used to build a protection line to the north of threatened structures and firefighters prepped around the structures in the area. The dozer line is expected to be challenged by the fire again tomorrow. The primary fire spread today was to the south.
Firefighters will also be working in the area of Anderson Peak. Communications infrastructure for multiple agencies is threatened. Crews will be removing vegetation and cutting lines around this site.
A layer of smoke remained over most of the fire area again today making it difficult to ascertain the exact location of the fire’s perimeter. One big concern is San Vicente Creek on the south end. This information is important in planning the strategy for control of the south end. The current control objectives are to keep the fire south of Partington Ridge, north of Nacimiento Fergusson Road, east of Highway 1, and west of Coast Ridge Road.
The fire is threatening the communities of Partington Ridge, Big Sur and Lucia. Multiple businesses, communications sites, parks and recreational sites are also threatened. Among natural resources threatened are the Ventana Wilderness and coastal watershed and habitat for threatened and endangered species, including the California condor.
Fire activity in the western United States has caused a high demand for fire personnel and equipment. The nation is in Preparedness Level 5 (PL5), the highest level. In PL5 over 80% of the nation’s incident management teams and wildland firefighting personnel are committed to incidents. Resource orders are being prioritized to fires across California and the west.
Updates and Meetings: Fire Information is producing two daily written updates. To request an update email 2020.dolan@firenet.gov and provide your email. A daily video update will be posted to the Los Padres National Forest Facebook page and Inciweb (See links in header). Additionally, a live online community meeting will be held on the Los Padres National Forest Facebook page tomorrow at 2:00 p.m.
Weather: Tomorrow clouds from former Hurricane Genevieve are expected to move over the fire area in the afternoon. Saturday night through Sunday morning there is a slight chance of dry thunderstorms. A Fire Weather Watch has been issued from Sunday at 11:00 a.m. through Tuesday at 11:00 a.m. due to a potential for Thunderstorms.
Evacuations / Closures:Click here for an interactive map of Monterey County evacuations.
The Partington Ridge community Evacuation Warning was upgraded to an Evacuation Order this morning. Though the order was in effect immediately, residents will have until 9:00 a.m. on Saturday to move belongings from their property.
The closure of Highway 1 has changed. The highway is now closed near mile marker 38/Troy Canyon on the north and Hermitage on the south.
Smoke: The Monterey Bay Air Resources District has issued a Wildfire Air Quality Advisory. When the concentration of smoke has reached UNHEALTHY levels of the AQI, residents should limit their activity by staying indoors with the doors and windows closed to avoid breathing smoke. Updates on the current air quality forecast and Air Monitoring data can be found at http://air.mbard.org/.
Alert Monterey County:To receive emergency notifications regarding evacuations and critical events in Monterey County please sign up for A!ert Monterey County at the following website.https://member.everbridge.net/453003085611217/login
Cooperating and Assisting Organizations: National Weather Service, California Highway Patrol, Monterey County Sheriff’s Department, Big Sur Volunteers, Cal Trans, California State Parks, OES, Ventana Wilderness Alliance
Safety Message:Area residents are encouraged to prepare for the approach of fire in advance. Go to https://www.ready.gov/wildfires to learn how to prepare.
Mandatory evacuation order in place for the following area:HWY 1 @ Nacimiento Ferguson Rd. (Post mile 19)North to:HWY 1 @ Torre Canyon (Post mile 39)West of hwy 1 to Pacific OceanEast Hwy 1 to North Coast Ridge Rd./Cone Peak Rd. To include Partington Ridge Road..
From MCOES:
8-21-2020/1130 hrs Mandatory evacuation order is in place for the following area:
HWY 1 @ Anderson Canyon (Post mile 35)
North to:
HWY 1 @ Torre Canyon (Post mile 39)
West of hwy 1 to Pacific Ocean
East Hwy 1 to North Coast Ridge Rd.
To include Partington Ridge Road.
While the satellite maps belong show that the fire has crossed coast road, those who are up there are saying they are seeing no fire. Heat detections can be inaccurate and give false readings. On the other hand, during the day, fires may be in low areas that are not seen. The good news for Partington is that the winds are predicted to start blowing to the south about 6 pm.
Dolan Fire, 8/21/20
12:30 pm — From the Ventana Wilderness Society’s FB page:
“The Dolan Fire in Big Sur, California burned through the Condor Sanctuary jeopardizing the Ventana Wildlife Society’s recovery effort. Two live cameras, operated by Explore.org, recorded the devastation. The nest cam, where baby condor “Iniko” is being raised by wild parents Redwood Queen and Kingpin, was lost on the evening of August 20, 2020 and the Sanctuary Cam, with an overview of the release area, was burned over at around 3:45AM on the 21st. Our release pen was engulfed in flames just before the feed cut out. As condors and their chicks have survived wildfire in the past, there is still hope for Iniko and the others. Once it is clear, we will rebuild as nothing will get in our way of restoring this magnificent species back to nature!“
11:45 am — Jon Knight informs he is at Anderson Canyon, and so far they have been able to hold it to the South side. Firefighters are at the (very wide) dozer line back behind the Hermitage preparing to make their stand. The next few hours will give us a better idea of what this fire wants to do.
10:15 — I can’t upload video here because I don’t think I paid the extra fees wordpress wanted, and they do take up so much storage space, but Jon Knight did send me a video of the fire on the east side of the highway burning in Anderson Canyon, almost real time. I can take a screen shot and post that.
This morning’s map from John Chesnut. He added MM to make it easier for all us neophytes.
9:30 am — Serge Withrow and Billy Volpe meeting with structure protection coordinator at Gamboa Point.
Structure Protection
And just for grins, here is an old postcard Rhea found when she was packing up. The Withrows caretake the property most of us will always remember as Don Harlan’s, the original road warrior, place, where he grew up and worked on the road as the Supervisor for Willow Springs for years, if not decades.
Location: 6 miles N. of Lime Kiln State Park. 10 miles S. of Big Sur
Containment: 0
Injuries: 0
Resources:
Hand Crews: 6
Engines: 20
Dozers: 2
Helicopters: 4
Fixed wing: 1
Water Tenders: 2
Total Personnel: 335
Current Situation:The Dolan Fire was reported August 18, 2020, just after 8:00 p.m. Active Fire behavior was observed with long range spotting, uphill runs, flanking and backing fire. The fire was initially managed by local resources but due to the extensive history of large fires in the area, statewide resource issues and a high degree of complexity, a decision was quickly made to request a Type 1 incident management team. California Interagency Incident Management Team 2, under the command of Mike Minton entered into unified command with Big Sur Fire this morning at 6:00 a.m.
The fire is burning on private, state and federal lands, including the Ventana Wilderness. Fire behavior is expected to be much the same as it was yesterday. An inversion shaded the fire and limited fire growth but fire behavior was still active on peaks above the inversion. Due to the inversion, the helicopters assigned to the incident were unable to fly on the Dolan Fire yesterday. They were able to provide some assistance to the Carmel Fire.
Firefighters will take advantage of these weather conditions today as they continue their physical assessment of the fire area. Firefighters on scene will be using infrared imagery and physically scouting the area to locate the fire’s edge and barriers that could potentially be used as fire control line. The current control objectives are to keep the fire south of Partington Ridge, north of Nacimiento Fergusson Road, east of Highway 1, and west of Coast Ridge Road.
The fire is threatening the communities of Partington Ridge, Big Sur and Lucia. Multiple businesses, communications sites, parks and recreational sites are also threatened. Among natural resources threatened are the Ventana Wilderness and coastal watershed and habitat for threatened and endangered species, including the California condor.
Fire activity in the western United States has caused a high demand for fire personnel and equipment. The nation is in Preparedness Level 5 (PL5), the highest level. In PL5 over 80% of the nation’s incident management teams and wildland firefighting personnel are committed to incidents.
Weather: A low pressure trough will hold the inversion over the area today. Fire behavior will be similar to Thursday. With the arrival of Hurricane Genevieve in the Eastern Pacific on Saturday humidity will increase and air will become unstable potentially leading to more active fire behavior.
Evacuations / Closures:Click here for an interactive map of Monterey County evacuations.
Highway 1 is closed between Pfeiffer State Park on the north and Lucia on the south.
Smoke: The Monterey Bay Air Resources District has issued a Wildfire Air Quality Advisory. When the concentration of smoke has reached UNHEALTHY levels of the AQI, residents should limit their activity by staying indoors with the doors and windows closed to avoid breathing smoke. Updates on the current air quality forecast and Air Monitoring data can be found at http://air.mbard.org/.
Alert Monterey County:To receive emergency notifications regarding evacuations and critical events in Monterey County please sign up for A!ert Monterey County at the following website.https://member.everbridge.net/453003085611217/login
Cooperating and Assisting Organizations: National Weather Service, California Highway Patrol, Monterey County Sheriff’s Department, Big Sur Volunteers, Cal Trans, California State Parks, OES, Ventana Wilderness Alliance
Safety Message: Area residents are encouraged to prepare for the approach of fire in advance. Go to https://www.ready.gov/wildfires to learn how to prepare.
Big Sur Fire Captain Marcus Foster says they had a big stop on this spot on the west side of the freeway and here is the photo that shows it:
Big Sur Fire doing what they do best
8:30 am — Dave Nelson confirms the fire crossed the highway at MM 30, between Dolan Point and Rat Creek. Here is one photo of it. He says they are trying to do a hand line. Damn steep.
7 am — I am still collecting information, even though I’ve been up since 5:30, but the first thing I gathered was from the CHP website which states that early this am, the fire “jumped” the highway. Where is a bit unclear, but somewhere between Dolan Rock at 29.5 mm (milemarker) and Santa Lucia Ranch at 32 mm. I do have a John Chesnut heat map for you, though. He says: “When dots are spread out usually indicates a smoke column heat signature, drew line out around them based on fire images you posted last night.Couple of hits just over the Coast Ridge Rd, these might be within the uncertainty footprint” Remember, these heat signature footprints have quite a margin for error. I view this as an approximation of where the fire is.
This is an 11:00 pm inciweb report. I will post the most recent am one on top when it is released.
The Dolan Fire started at 8:15pm on Tuesday, August 18, 2020. The location is approximately 6 miles north of Limekiln State Park, 10 miles south of Big Sur. Highway 1 is closed between Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park and Ragged Point. The fire is burning in the Ventana Wilderness. It is currently at 6,780 acres and is 0 % Contained. The cause is under investigation. There are 355 personnel on the fire. There are (6) handcrews that include 3 hotshot crews, (4) helicopters, (20) engines and (2) water tenders.
Los Padres is in Unified Command with the Big Sur Volunteer Fire Brigade, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, California State Parks, California Office of Emergency Services, CalTtrans, California Highway Patrol, National Weather Service and the Ventana Wilderness Alliance.
Evacuations in progress for the community of Partington and an evacuation warning in place for Lucia and communities South of the fire.
Communities threated are Partington Ridge, Lucia, Limekiln State Park, Big Creek Reserve, Essalen, Big Creek Reserve, residences, resorts, Federal and State Recreational sites. Coastal watershed is being impacted. Critical habit for California Red-Legged Frog, Steelhead, California Tiger Salamander and California Condor.
Monterey County residents can sign up for the emergency alerts system. These systems help public safety officials to provide critical updates, such as evacuation notifications, as quickly as possible.
AlertMontereyCounty – Monterey County residents can sign up to receive emergency notifications about where they live or work. AlertMontereyCounty provides time-sensitive messages to wherever you specify, your home, mobile or business phones, email address, or text messages. Sign up, click here.
Nixle – To receive emergency information, including evacuation alerts, text MocoOES to 888777 and include any and all zip codes you want to be alerted for in your text. For daily fire updates for the River and Carmel fires text MCFIRES2020 to 888777.
211 – You can call or text 211. Operators can provide updated fire and evacuation information. You can also text “fire” or “wildfire” to 211-211, add your zip code and receive links to current information.
Incident Information
Basic Information
Current as of
8/20/2020, 11:04:05 PM
Incident Type
Wildfire
Cause
Unknown
Date of Origin
Tuesday August 18th, 2020 approx. 08:15 PM
Location
6 miles North of Limekiln State Park, 10 miles south of Big Sur
Incident Commander
Pete Harris,US Forest Service, Incident Commander
Incident Description
Wildfire
Coordinates
36.123 latitude, -121.602 longitude
Current Situation
Total Personnel
355
Size
6,780 Acres
Estimated Containment Date
Wednesday September 02nd, 2020 approx. 12:00 AM
Fuels Involved
Chaparral (6 feet)Brush (2 feet)Timber (Grass and Understory)
Significant Events
Fire continues to make active runs to the North, East and South. Fire activity forced evacuations to the community of Partington. Fire spread is likely to continue to spread in all directions.
Outlook
Planned Actions
Crew will scout for opportunities of primary and contingency lines.
Projected Incident Activity
Fire will continue to burn in the Ventana Wilderness. Fire is taking advantage of slope driven runs and dry fuel, moving up and down canyons, spotting and making erratic runs, fire movement in all directions, ie. west, south, north, and east. Area tends to burn actively in the evening hours driven by mid slope thermal weather activity. Concern that the smoke inversion will lift and the fire activity will increase.
Current Weather
Weather Concerns
Continued hot and dry weather pattern for the next 24 hours. Movement of Hurricane Genevieve is expected to arrive in the coastal communities on Saturday and increase humidities and generate showers and thunderstorms.
Carmel (Day 4) and River (Day 6) are combined into one post at the moment. Please click the title of the post to open a separate window, and refresh the page as the post will be updated throughout the day.
Carmel Incident Update:
River Incident Update:
3:39 PM: EVACUATION WARNING FOR ALL OF CARMEL VALLEY VILLAGE TO LAURELES GRADE
The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office has issued an Evacuation Warning for all areas East of Carmel Valley Road, North to Laureless Grade, East of Laureless Grade to Highway 68 to include areas West of San Benancio Road and the Corral de Tierra community.
Zone 17: All areas south of Highway 68 from San Benancio Road to Laureles Grade. To include all roads east of Laureles Grade at La Rancheria Rd to the south, and all areas west of San Benancio Road. EVACUATION WARNING
Zone 18: We are extending the evacuation warning west on Carmel Valley road from Klondike Canyon Road to Laureles Grade, North on Laureles Grade from Carmel Valley Road to La Rancheria. This warning includes all communities North East of Carmel Valley Road, and all communities East of Laureles Grade to include Carmel Valley Road, Laureles Grade, La Rancheria and all tributary roads. EVACUATION WARNING
The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office has issued an Evacuation Warning for areas west of Carmel Valley Road from Klondike Canyon Road to Pine Tree Lane extending south to Dormody Road and east to Hitchcock Canyon Road and San Clemente Drive. This Warning includes all communities on Carmel Valley Road and all communities south west of Carmel Valley Road between Klondike Canyon and Pine Tree Lane, including Carmel Valley Village, Robles Del Rio.
Weather Watch in effect from Sunday morning through Tuesday morning.
* AFFECTED AREA…Entire San Francisco Bay Area and Central Coast. Areas of highest concern will be included in future updates. * WIND…Generally light onshore winds. However, erratic gusty winds 40 to 65 mph may accompany stronger thunderstorms. * THUNDERSTORMS…Isolated to scattered dry thunderstorms will develop Sunday afternoon and into Monday morning. An additional round of thunderstorms are expected to arrive later Monday into Tuesday. Dry thunderstorms may become wet as the event progresses. * IMPACTS…Lightning will likely spark new fires across the region, including remote areas. Wildfires in remote regions may not become apparent until warmer and drier conditions allow them to grow. Please report potential fires to local CALFIRE or SHERIFF offices. Listen for later forecasts and possible Red Flag Warnings.
7:00 AM: Carmel and River Fires Google Earth Image with VIIRS and MODIS Satellite and CDF Infrared Outline (from 08/19/20). Some of the latest satellite detections are 3:30 AM PT. Click this link to view larger image: Carmel_River_Fire_082120
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