Photo by Josh Bleibtreu from top of Partington Ridge this am
Yesterday’s clear skies allowed firefighters to do a good assessment on the fire. Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) showed some remaining heat in the heavy vegetation above houses, and crews are targeting those areas today. The area around Castro Canyon showed the most remaining heat. Aircraft hit the fire hard yesterday, reinforcing and connecting lines that were not yet completed by firefighters.
Firefighters took advantage of the conditions to clean up remaining vegetation between the active fire edge and containment line using burning operations along Partington Road. Those operations were successful and were halted when the window of opportunity closed at around 3 p.m.
Dozer and handline are complete on the north side of the fire in the steep drainage to the Big Sur River. Rollout continues to occur there, but the fire did not progress much over the Pine Ridge Trail system yesterday.
The east side of the fire was more active yesterday with drier conditions. A considerable push of heavy equipment has been moved into place and fire lines from previous fires are being opened and reinforced.
Weather:
Similar weather to yesterday is predicted for today, with a cloudy start with some afternoon sunshine. Any morning clouds along ridges and east of the fire should erode quickly with winds increasing in the afternoon. A warming and drying trend is predicted through the weekend and into next week.
Evacuation orders:
MRY-F023
MRY-F025
MRY-F026
MRY-F027
MRY-F028-A
Evacuation warnings:
FO21-B
FO22
FO24
FO28
FO28-B
FO29
Update from Los Padres National Forest on Facebook