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https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/06/28/big-sur-fire-73-contained-state-parks-and-buddhist-monastery-spared/
Big Sur fire 73% contained, state parks and Buddhist monastery spared
Evacuation orders for the Willow Fire are scheduled to be lifted Monday night
Firefighters have made so much progress on a wildfire that has burned 2,877 acres of remote wilderness in the Big Sur back country that all evacuation orders and warnings were scheduled to be lifted Monday night.
The Willow Fire, which began in the Los Padres National Forest in Monterey County on June 17, is now 73% contained, fire officials said Monday, with full containment expected July 11.
Favorable weather conditions over the past week allowed roughly 500 firefighters to gain the upper hand on the blaze, which threatened the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, a well-known Buddhist monastery run by the San Francisco Zen Center. No homes or other buildings have been destroyed.
“We’re happy with the progress. It has been really hard to get this contained,” said Amanda Munsey, a spokeswoman for the team fighting the fire, which included the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies.
Shortly after the fire began, in steep, brush-covered hillsides and canyons six miles east of Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park and Highway 1, there were fears it would explode out of control.
“When it broke out, a lot of people were going through PTSD from the fires last year,” said Kate Woods Novoa, a longtime Big Sur resident. “But within a week, the firefighters were able to get it under control. It was an extremely big relief.”
Last year, the Dolan Fire burned 128,000 acres — an area four times the city of San Francisco — in August, September and October just to the south, injuring three firefighters, destroying 14 homes, killing 11 endangered California condors and destroying a condor release facility owned by the Ventana Wildlife Society.
Fire crews attacked the Willow Fire aggressively with helicopters, DC-10s and other aircraft that dumped water and fire retardant, significantly slowing its progress. With no roads into the remote area that was burning near Willow Creek and Arroyo Seco, firefighters cutting fire lines had to hike several miles each way into the back country. Some were brought in with helicopters.
“They are tired, they are fatigued, they are exhausted,” Munsey said. “A lot of them are still recovering from the 2020 fire season.”
The fire burned within half a mile of the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. Eight monks there who are professionally trained firefighters remained behind to defend the monastery and other buildings. The “fire monks,” as they are known, cut brush and maintained pumps and a sprinkler system called “Dharma Rain” that the facility installed to protect its buildings from wildfire.
“One of the basic tenants of Zen is meeting reality as it is right now,” Sozan Diego Miglioli, president of the San Francisco Zen Center, told KQED News last Monday. “It doesn’t get more real than this.”
Fire commanders said Monday they do not expect the fire to grow any more in size. Firefighters, many of whom came from hundreds of miles away in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Bernardino counties, have been gradually released in recent days to fight other fires across the state. On Monday afternoon, 251 remained.
The Willow fire has served as an ominous warning of the risk in Big Sur and other fire-prone areas across California this summer amid a second year of drought, and critically dry conditions. Record heat, caused in part by the warming climate, is increasing fire risk and lengthening fire season across the West.
“All it takes is one person to flick a cigarette out a window, or one person losing control of a campfire,” said Novoa, who publishes a blog called Big Sur Kate. “It’s going to be a long fire season. We’re on edge every year until we get 3 inches of rain.”
Last year, a record 4.3 million acres burned statewide — 4% of all the land in California. Those fires, some of the largest of which began during freak dry lightning storms in August, killed 33 people, destroyed more than 10,000 homes and burned the visitor center, campgrounds and other facilities at Big Basin Redwoods State Park, California’s oldest state park, in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Fire agencies across the state this week have urged people not to shoot off fireworks on July Fourth weekend, which could spark new blazes.
On Monday, several significant new fires were blackening other parts of the state. Chief among them is the Lava Fire, which was ignited by lightning on June 24 and has burned 1,446 acres in the Shasta National Forest in Shasta County. It was 20% contained Monday. Triple-digit temperatures in the area, near Lake Shasta and the town of Weed, along with strong, erratic winds Sunday caused the fire to grow considerably, the U.S. Forest Service reported.
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