If you are going to  the clinic tomorrow, Saturday, with all the various agencies, and you have suffered during this fire, you might want to take advantage of this offer posted in my comments tonight: “Free Stress Reduction Clinic- Ear Acupuncture – Community welcomed – Sat August 6 noon – 4 pm at Community Church of the Monterey Peninsula – ? call Laurie Kleinman M.D .831 320-9560

7:15 pm – the smoke is horrific down here. I cannot see anything at all. I hope this is a burn out. This is bad. No sunset for me tonight.

5:30 pm – photo by Sandra O’Keefe Bellamy from Laureles Grade

2:45 pm – planes flying overhead from Paso going north to fire – maybe? Haven’t heard any more or any returns in quite a while (5:30 pm)

2:10 pm – Mt. Manuel by Barbara Sexton from Rancho Rico, who also notes a helicopter just flew over with a bucket. Hmmm…

12:30 pm – from Frank Pinney:

“I just got back from the 10:00 Cooperators Meeting at Toro Park, where Martha or I or Cal Fire Bn Chief Mike Martin serve as Agency Representatives for the Brigade daily.

Firing out on the east side of Mt Manuel at tactical points will begin Saturday or Sunday at the latest. Ops is allowing time to get the hand lines needed to help contain and direct the new fire that will be introduced by the hand crews that will reduce the probability that there can be a run uphill to reach the primary fire break uncontrolled.

Firing out is always tricky because they are placing new fire ahead of the main front, so the conditions have to right on target.

Hand line at Gorge highest priority and tie in to the North Coast Ridge Road Firebreak continues to be improved. Frank Zabrowski has tied in with Branch VIII Sur Ops to share historic local knowledge. Still planning to have a community meeting Monday at 6PM at the MAF depending on fire behavior over the weekend (fire ops looking very positive at this time)”

Frank Pinney
Chief Emeritus
BSVFB

12:05 pm – Oh, great. They have expanded the LPNF closure to Nacimiento-Fergusson RD on the south end, thus pushing all the hikers and campers down into our end. Why not close the entire Monterey District??? Now we have to deal with all the illegal campfires with only 1 ranger?? This is idiotic, and if I see Bob Baird on Sunday, I will tell him so,

11:30 am – Well, the OES alert system works, and I am signed up, I guess. Two phone calls and 1 email notifying me that the air quality in the Big Sur area, all the way down to the county line is unhealthy, and we are advised to stay indoors with window and doors closed. Okay, I knew that. I also know I can’t close my windows and doors due to temperatures. So there I am. I will get a respite for a couple days soon, though.

10:00 am – Working on widening Hopkins Ridge hand line today, I am told, which is the one down from Mt. Manuel to the Big Sur River gorge Micah mentions below.

9:00 am – from Micah Curtis: “The fire is on Santa Lucia Ridge which runs up from the Little Sur river to Posts summit they were dropping retardant on it yesterday to keep it from blowing up and over Posts Summit and into the valley. They are hoping to to get good conditions to backburn off the dozer, retardant line from the old coast road over Posts summit and mount Manuel they have a hand line from Mount Manuel down into the Big Sur river gorge. The line is unlikely to hold without the backburn, ….”

8:30 am – here is Xasauan Today‘s map: (not looking good for Cachagua or Big Sur Valley, although Cachagua was prepped for a big firing operation last night. The one for Big Sur Valley may have been canceled due to winds.)

Today’s update from resident of Post’s Ranch “…the fire is near Apple Pie now. Unfortunately a backfire was never started due to high winds so only retardant and heroic clearance efforts stand between fire and many homes including Melissa’s house right now (about 1 mile). She is packing and moving things up here (Post’s) tomorrow…. We have about a 3 day wait until the fire could be here. I am packing photo albums and made an evacuation list to pack if we get a warning. The air is thick with smoke but it’s ok inside. Planes and helicopters flew over us all day. They sounded wonderful!”

6:00 am – I remember when this used to be an ungodly hour for waking and moving about, never mind writing a cogent sentence. I am confident it will be again, just not confident about when that will happen.

Total acres 53,726

From last night taken by Cache Swanson from Jack Swanson’s Ranch:

8:45 pm – sunset from my observation post and a good night from Bigsurkate and Missy McNab, the mystery dog.

8:30 pm – As the fire grows (51.200 acres) so does the containment. (30%). I can’t tell you how impressed I am with this management team. I have been watching them closely for two weeks now, and their planning is the most advanced I have ever witnessed, and I have watched a few. If you witness increased activity in your area, chances are they are preparing a week in advance for the worst case scenario. I watched preparations on Chew’s Ridge via Tom Little Bear Nason for a week, and then watched the hard closures of the roads in the area earlier today, and knew a backfire operation would happen tonight to protect Cachagua. If all goes well (can’t always predict Mother Nature) Cachagua will be breathing easier in just a few days. They have saved White Rock this way, Rancho San Clemente this way, and they will save Cachagua and Big Sur Valley this way. This is a debt that can never be repaid. But here is an organization that provides for the fallen firefighters and their families, and maybe you can help pay your respects and thanks by donating to them:

Wildland Fire Fighters Foundation

6:00 pm – a message from from a friend in Big Sur Valley:

“The fire that was 14 miles is now right next door! Granted it is high on the ridge with a fuel break retardant dropped and dropping still in between. Just thought you would like to know how much fun it is getting to be.”

4:30 pm – for those who can’t go to  the community meeting tonight, and who are familiar with periscope (I am not, so can’t help you there)
“Please join us for the community meeting, live on Periscope at CAL FIRE BEU, or @lospadresnf and @CAL FIRE BEU on Twitter.”

Okay, I did get this link specific to the meeting off of Twitter, hopefully, it will work (caveat, I had to transcribe by hand to paper and then here, lots of room for error with those weird letter/number strings):

Periscope

3:20 – This was taken from the Big Sur Deli at 2:11 by Kurt?

1:40 pm – I find myself napping whenever I can. I’ll be back, but in the meantime, a reader sent me this:

1:00 pm – Firefighter Brett Gainey captured this insane photo on the Soberanes Fire

11:00 am

10:30 am – from the Big Sur Health Center:

1) Big Sur Health Center is a non-profit supporting the community during this disaster. BSHC is offering complimentary services to all those who are victims of the Sobranes Fire, whether due to loss of residence, loss of job, or just volunteering to help neighbors fight the fire and protect property. We know from experience that during times of stress, people tend to get sick and/or injured. We don’t want finances to discourage anyone from seeking services.

2) Big Sur Health Center staff is supporting the local firefighting effort by providing on-site evaluation and treatment of the firefighters at the Base Camp at Pfeiffer State Park. We are proud to be able to support these brave men and women.

7:00 am – Another Dawn with no sun, as the smoke is too thick. Breathing has become both a challenge and a goal.

I got many, many shots of the huge plumes yesterday late, that, from what I was told last night, was a successful back firing operation. I couldn’t get them all posted. Will try to do better this am, if you have shots from this morning.

For the first time since the fire started, a predicted change in the weather for the good, allowing for recovery of RH (relative humidity) at night is in the forecast. (See the weather report on the maps post).

From Rancho San Clemente:

To see the rest of the photos, go to their FB page.

This evening’s report

This morning’s report

7:30 pm – this is happening right behind Cindra Brimsmead’s house in CV. It is a planned dozer movement.

6:15 pm – This does not look good – from my look-out bigsurkate

5:30 – from Laurels Grade photo by Sandra O’Keefe Bellamy:

5:25 pm – Photo take from Osborne Ridge by Lucas Ryan just now:

4:46 pm – the winds have really picked up down here in the last hour … Winds gusting to 13 mph. That has cleared out some of the smoke, but I hope it is not impacting the fire. I am seeing a much larger plume on the west side of the fire, and it is a little bit darker on the east side.

3:04 pm – current plume shot from Laureles Grade by i Sandra O’Keefe Bellamy

11:45 am – for those who are having trouble identifying landmarks, mountains, etc. Here is a great link a reader sent me that I will also add to the links on the right:

Uncle Sam’s Mountain maps

One of the things that is so great about this link is it is specific to Monterey. Before this fire, I had never heard of the mountain, Uncle Sam’s Mountain out there on the east side.

7:00 am – Print this out and take with you to Billy Quon’s “Sur” restaurant in the Barnyard:

6:30 am – Extremely smoky down here, can’t really tell what is going on. Lots of burn out operations yesterday in the Cachagua, White Rock, Racho San Clemente area and was posting photos all evening. I’m getting updates, which I will post shortly – I get them in FB PM, email, and easiest (for me) comments in our locals reports post each day. First, let me get this up so you have something to comment on!

A series of photos of the operations and back fire ing at Rancho San Clemente by Bruce Dormody are over on their FB page, with great explanations about the geography.