9 pm – Tower fire (update) fire holding at approx 60 acres. 45 to 50% contained. Crews working through the night on containment.
6 pm – will continue to follow this fire, but a fire closer to home in Carmel Valley needs my attention. I’ll check back later on this one.
5:00 pm -100 acres. AA reports he has Tankers 12, 16, 82, 75, 80 and Helo 530….all were diverted from the Alamo fire to the Tower Fire
4:45 pm – 30 acres, dangerous rate of spread.
6 pm – I have a fire in CV on Chamisal Pass I need to follow, so won’t be doing but maybe one more update tonight on this one. Also following the Tower Fire on Cuesta Grade.
5:30 pm –
Smoke from the Alamo Fire seen from above Friday afternoon. (San Luis Obispo City Fire Department photo)
4:30 pm – Alamo is up to 3,000, a gain of 2500 acres in 1/2 an hour. mandatory evac for Blazing Saddles Road underway
4 pm – Santa Cruz fire stopped at 2 acres, but the Alamo Fire went nuclear and doubled in less than an hour.
Flames from the Alamo Fire are visible from the Santa Maria Mesa area. (Janene Scully / Noozhawk photo)
3:00 pm – The fire in SLO Co started yesterday and is called Alamo Fire. It is 250 acres, but with 1/4 mile spotting and a dangerous rate of spread and looks to be blowing up at this hour. 7 hours ago, it was basically a done deal, they thought. Now it is anything but. It is off of EB SR 166 near Alamo Creek. It is currently burning in both SLO Co. and SB Co.
#AlamoIC (update) incident commander ordering evacuations for the Tepusquet Blazzing Saddles area. Orders being given by Santa Barbara Cnty
Winds caused it to jump the lines, it has crossed hwy 166.
This is from the roof of the Santa Maria PD this afternoon:
And in Santa Cruz, a fire started out by the Golf Course about an hour ago. Here is what CHP posted.
2:49 PM 16 [32] ***UPPER PARK AT BRANICORTE AND UPPER PARK AT ARMORY ARE CLOSED DOWN BY SCRZ PD
2:15 PM 15 [9] B26-015 FIRE APPEARS JNO GOLF OCURSE / FIRE STAGING IN GOLF COURSE
2:11 PM 14 [26] [Appended, 14:23:15] [16] [Appended, 14:11:44] [4] PER RP MAY BE ASSOC W/ DE LAVEAGA FIRE – NETCOM ADVSD RP FIRE IS SPREADING RAPIDLY
2:11 PM 13 [25] [Appended, 14:23:15] [15] [Appended, 14:11:44] [3] RP ADV THIS MAY BE ASSOC W/ DE LAVEAGA PARK FIRE RP UNSURE
2:10 PM 12 [23] [Appended, 14:23:15] [13] [Appended, 14:11:44] [1] RP SEES COLUMN OF SMOKE FM NEW BRIGHTON BEACH NORHT TWRDS APTS OF NEW BRIGHTON BEACDH
2:08 PM 11 [8] PER RP THIS IS SEPERATE FM DE LAVEAGA FIRE
2:07 PM 10 [7] B26-015 24 / NUMEROUS FIRE ENGINES
2:07 PM 9 [20] [Appended, 14:23:15] [8] [Appended, 14:08:34] [4] RP ADV FIRE IS VISIBLE FM WATER ST
2:07 PM 8 [19] [Appended, 14:23:15] [7] [Appended, 14:08:34] [3] NETCOM ADV WILDLAND FIRE IS ONGOING
2:07 PM 7 [18] [Appended, 14:23:15] [6] [Appended, 14:08:34] [2] SMOKE SEEN FM HILLS NEAR DE LAVEAGA PARK
2:06 PM 6 [17] [Appended, 14:23:15] [5] [Appended, 14:08:34] [1] FIRE NEAR DE LA VEAGA PARK
2:04 PM 5 [5] FIRE IS 400 YARDS FM RP’S HOUSE
2:03 PM 4 [16] [Appended, 14:23:15] [10] [Appended, 14:09:47] [1] TRANS TO NET COM
2:03 PM 3 [3] RP SEES LRG AMT OF GRY/WHI SMOKE
2:02 PM 2 [1] FIRE IN SCZ MOUNTAINS
2:00 PM 1 [13] [Appended, 14:23:15] [1] BLK SMOKE SEEN
Sounds like the movie The Blob doesn’t it? Today marks the start of my 10th year doing this blog. So much history has been recorded as it was occurring…some painful, some joyful and sometimes, just pretty photographs for an escape and calm.
I recreated and published the story of how the blog came to be a year later in 2009. I re-posted it last year, as well, BEFORE the Soberanes Fire took over my life. I’ll reprint that below, edited for clarity. I am working on a complex article that I hope to have ready by tomorrow. So, absent an emergency, I am working on tomorrow’s post today.
“I cannot find my notes, and I did not write in my journal for much of July, as I was far too busy, … I am recreating the day [July 4, 2008] based primarily on a memory with holes in it – swiss cheese holes – a moth-eaten sweater. I also have no photographs taken that day, at least that I can find. The road was closed, as previously posted.
When I first got a copy of the 409.5 memo on 7/4, I called OES (Office of Emergency Services), and they had a Commander Teter of the MCSO call me back. When I got no satisfactory explanation about the issuance of the memo, other than it was to “educate” the Big Sur community about the power the MCSO had, I was furious. The MCSO was flexing its muscles and declaring a police-state in Big Sur, and fully intended on arresting who ever got in their way.
It was a holiday. Everything was closed. What could I do? The only places open were newsrooms. Having lived and worked in Monterey County, much of that in the justice system, I knew I needed to go outside of the county. I called the LA Times newsroom and the SF Chronicle newsroom. I posted something on surfire2008.org. Before my post was removed from surfire2008, Deborah Schoch, a staff reporter from the LA Times called. After speaking with her for some time, I got her phone numbers, and said I’d pass it on to a member of the Curtis family who was not in Big Sur, and if they wanted, they could pass it on to Micah and Ross. This resulted in more phone calls, and more long conversations with Curtis family members and LA Times reporter, Eric Bailey. Only a few days later, he and Deborah Schoch published a 3-page article about the police state in Big Sur. It [was] accessible at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-backfire7-2008jul07,0,3314737.story
This was the start of the battle between Big Sur Locals and Mike Kanalakis, Sheriff of Monterey County. Kanalakis also made the mistake of taking on Cachagua in Carmel Valley. Both were big mistakes.
Thanks to Jim Kimball for archiving posts from surfire2008 and other sources, we have an excellent record of all that happened on this day last year. It was a busy day, with reports from locals coming in up and down the coast all day long. Let’s not forget what it was like to live in this police state from July 3, 2008 to July 8, 2008, when the road opened to locals and their employees, and July 11, 2008 when the road opened completely….”
And here we are in 2017, and the road is closed yet again, but for completely different reasons. July has always been an interesting month. Let’s hope for a little bit of boring this year, shall we?
2:45 pm – Contained at 17 acres. Nice stop firefighters!
2:15 pm – SAN BENITO COUNTY, Calif. – According to CalFire, a 30 acre grass fire is burning just outside Hollister in the 1500 block of Santa Ana Valley Road.
Crews are headed there now. Winds are a factor and and are raising concerns.
UPDATE: fire kept to 1/4 acre.
Per chp: “Incident: 00323 Type: Provide Traffic Control Location: Tierra Grande Dr / Doud Rd Loc Desc: FD REQ 1184 Lat/Lon: 36.524497 -121.810836
Detail Information
5:23 PM 4 [9] [Notification] [CHP]-Problem changed from AOD-Assist Other Departments to 1184-Provide Traffic Control by CHP
5:19 PM 3 [7] [Notification] [CHP]-Problem changed from FIRE-Report of Fire to AOD-Assist Other Departments by CHP
4:54 PM 2 [2] TOT SLNS FIRE
4:54 PM 1 [1] RP SEES SMOKE AND FLAMES
5:20 pm – Far enough away that it should have no impact on Jolon, Mission or Nacimiento commutes.
4:20 pm – here is a general map, I believe it is in the red restricted area, between Gabilan Rd. And Mesa Coyote.
3;45 pm – FIRE IN THE GAVALAN AREA
FHL, CALFIRE and Los Padres National Forest firefighters on scene. Expect fire to be about 1,000 acres and contained early evening. No immediate danger to surrounding civilian community.
Here is a weather report and map to give some idea where it is – which is south end of base:
12:30 pm –
Per cal fire, 1200-1500 acres, 40% contained
I am so saddened by the loss of the animals at this home.
9:30 pm – 1200 acres with both flanks having active fire
7:00 pm – oh, I do not like this photo by Adrienne Seidlitz because black smoke usually means a structure.
6:40 pm – Current map for evac’s, a few more area’s added not on map. All south of Hwy 58. Evacuation area expanded it now includes huer huero rd to hwy 58 including black mountain resort rd, blue rd, blue ridge rd east to shooting star rd, south to golden pond way, back to random canyon way
6;00 pm – AA reporting 500 acres, potential for 10,000, still RROS (Rapid Rate of Spread)
5:45 pm – Mandatory evacuations:
[28] ** EVACUATION WARNING *** PARK HILL RD: EVERYTHING FRM ICP TO HUER HUERO ON S SIDE OF RDWY, AND EVERYTHING WEST OF ICP TO SR58 HUER HUERO RD: EVERYTHING NW FRM RANDOM CYN TO SR58 INCLUDING BLACK MTN RESORT RD AND BLUE RD
5:25 PM 12 [27] ** MANDATORY EVACUATIONS*** PARKHILL RD: FRM ICP EVERYTHUING ON N SIDE OF ROAD TO HUER HUERO, INCLUDING ALL OF STAGECOACH CYN, OAK CYN, AND LA ENTRADA HUER HUERO RD: FRM PARKHILL RD TO RANDOM CYN RD INCLUDING ALL OF OAK CREEK PL, RANDOM CYN, WILSON CREEK RD, AND ANY ROADS THAT COMM UNICATE W/HUER HUERO
5:15 PM 11 [24] PER SLOSO, MANDATORY EVACUATIONS HUER HUERO FRM RANDOM CYN TO PARK HILL RD / WARNING ISSUED FOR RANDOM CYN TO CALF CYN
5:01 PM 10 [22] 1B PTY IS OUT // TRAVELING NORTH ON DIRT RD PTY KNOWS WHERE SHE IS GOING
4:58 PM 9 [20] 1039 CALFIRE
4:57 PM 8 [18] B9-001B CONTACT CALFIRE REQ ENGINE RESPOND TO 4656 PARKHILL RD PTY CANT GET OUT FLAMES APPROACHING
4:22 PM 7 [16] B9-001B WENT IN AND GOT 3 PTYS OO RES ON OAK CYN RD // THAT RD IS CLR AND IS GOING TO BE CONSUMED SHORTLY
4:02 PM 6 [13] CLARIFICATION// 1B CLOSED EAST SIDE OF PARKHILL RD
4:00 PM 5 [10] B9-001B CORDS 97 CLOSED PARKHILL JWO FIRE // WILL CHECK EAST SIDE
5:30 pm – SSE of Paso, Photo by Joie Milton:
5:25 pm – Fire now 300 acres DROS still lots of homes infront. Heading toward hura hura rd 1 structure lost. (DROS means Dangerous Rate of Spread)
5:20 pm
5:12 pm from SE of Paso Robles, photo by Gale Reamer:
5:00 pm – besides bringing in LPF, units are coming in from BEU (Monterey/San Benito) as well as Santa Barbara and “Immediate need type 3 strike team from TUU forming up for code 3 response.” Note TUU is Tulare.
View from Highway One between Cuesta and SLO. Photo by Stormy Tee:
4:45 pm – been watching a fire develop in the Parkhill area near Santa Margarita. This one was caused by a vehicle fire into grass, and power lines were affected.
“100 acres, dangerous ROS, potential to go major incident. continuous brush. ordered a lead plane and 2 type 1 tankers or the VLAT. immediate structure threat”
Here is what LPF Wild Cad says:
06/26/2017 15:31 LPF-1580
HILL Wildfire PARK HILL & RUE DE LEON SL . BC31LPF CRW4LPF E15LPF 4X4 E31LPF 4X4 E338LPF4X4 E342LPF 4X E343LPF E372LPF E46LPF HEL528LPF PAT34LPF . . . 35.397 x 120.498
06/26/2017 15:23
Here is a photo:
