Area burned is in red on map: This is the Soberanes Fire with Carmel at the top of the map and Big Sur out of sight at the bottom

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Cal Fire

Areas burned by the Soberanes Fire are marked on this map in red.

You can see Carmel at the top of the map and if you follow the highway to the right Carmel Valley too. Then if you drop down below Carmel Highlands  you can see the red burned fire area. The problem with this area is it is all cattle or wilderness areas with no real roads at all most places except the few places where houses are. So, to put crews on the ground where they cannot drive out with poison oak solid many places, using Helicopters or planes to drop water or fire retardant likely is the best they can do without Firemen dying or being seriously injured a lot,  for now at least.  This is a very wild area with huge wild boars (which can be very dangerous) as well as mountain lions and many other animals. Many animals and creatures not fast enough or overcome with smoke or trapped likely died in this fire because of the extremely wild area this is naturally.

Another problem is there likely will be many mudslides the next big rain which could inundate this area and possibly Highway 1 as well some places which might close it when the first big rains come in the fall or winter.