Indians Fire Still Growing

An area of Los Padres National Forest in south Monterey County with more than 40 years of accumulated dead brush was engulfed Friday as the Indians Fire grew to 23,000 acres.

As fire swept through an area of the Ventana Wilderness known as Bear Canyon, an ominous cloud of smoke billowed north, reaching areas south of Salinas and east of Monterey. The sight caused dozens of reports from residents to local fire departments, the U.S. Forest Service said.

"It caught us off-guard with the plume of smoke it put up, but we can't control that," said Curtis Vincent, spokesman for the Forest Service.

The dense tract of wilderness north of Fort Hunter Liggett was a tinder box with no record of previous fire.

"The vegetation has not burned in 40-plus years," Vincent said.

A sea breeze kept the smoke above 2,000 feet for the most part, and the smoke didn't affect air quality, said Ed Kendig, enforcement division manager for the Monterey Bay Unified Air Pollution Control District. The district has issued an advisory for residents, particularly those with respiratory problems, to limit their time outdoors and take other precautions to minimize exposure to smoke while the Martin Fire in Santa Cruz County and the Indians Fire are burning.

Officials at Los Padres blaze said they are unsure how long it will be until it is out. Containment was at 36 percent late Friday and the fire is expected to continue growing.

"This fire is well established in the wilderness, burning on steep terrain and there are a lot of things working against us," said Vincent. "It's going to continuing burning until we get all of our lines around it."

Since the fire began about 12:30 p.m. Sunday in the area of the Escondido Campground, 1,700 firefighters assigned to the blaze have been forced to build firelines around the flames with hand tools. Seven firefighters suffered minor injuries and one home was destroyed.

The steep and rocky terrain makes it impossible to use bulldozers, Vincent said. Officials have authorized the use of bulldozers in specific areas of the federally protected Ventana Wilderness to keep the fire from spreading south into communities on the Big Sur coast.

Bulldozers will use old firebreak lines built during fires in 1977 and 1999 along a seven-mile stretch between Upper Bee Camp and Cone Peak Road and on a 1.5-mile tract between the North Coast Trail and Lost Valley Trail, Vincent said.

On the north end of the fire, 660 homes are threatened. The homes are on several ranches in the area and on Arroyo Seco Road and Pine Canyon Road, Vincent said.

"There is no evacuation notice. It's just the direction the fire is going," he said.

Vincent said firefighters hope their hand-built lines will keep the fire away from those areas on the coast.

Some private homes and cabins near Fort Hunter Liggett have been evacuated and the area of Los Padres around the fire is closed.

Firefighters still have 25 miles of firebreak lines to build around the fire.

"There are a lot of days and time before we can get that in," said Vincent.

Fire officials have scheduled a public meeting for 5 p.m. today at the Pine Canyon Fire Station, 51251 Pine Canyon Road outside King City, to brief residents living in the fire zone on the status of the blaze.

Source: Monterey Herald News