A scenic stretch of Highway 1 through Big Sur has reopened to travelers for the first time in nearly two weeks, even as firefighters continue to battle the Timber Fire, which has burned more than 7,500 acres in Monterey County.
Caltrans opened the 10-mile stretch of state Highway 1 at 1 m. Saturday, according to The Mercury News. The road had been closed since Wednesday from just south of Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. Before that, an even longer stretch of the highway had been closed as crews fought the blaze, making Saturday the first time the route has been fully open from the Bay Area through Big Sur since Aug. 11, three days after the fire began.
Cal Fire said in a statement that the highway had been fully reopened while public safety workers continued to make road improvements. The fire started Aug. 9 in the Los Padres National Forest southeast of the Loma Vista neighborhood, quickly scorching 400 acres and prompting evacuation orders, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. It now covers more than 7,500 acres.
The blaze was 29% contained on Saturday afternoon, according to a Cal Fire statement issued just after 3 , as reported by The Mercury News. The New York Post also cited a state tracker showing 29% containment. The fire has burned 7,591 acres, per The Mercury News, and continues to burn northeast toward the Los Padres National Forest and away from populated areas, according to Cal Fire Operations Section Chief Mike Wink.
“The road will be open later this afternoon. There will be the public in there later this afternoon; that’s something new that hasn’t happened since the fire started just over two weeks ago,” Wink said at a briefing, as quoted by the New York Post.
Hotels, restaurants and other businesses have already begun reopening as the region slowly returns to life. The Mercury News reported that hotels and restaurants began reopening Thursday and Friday, with more doing so Saturday. Nepenthe, the clifftop restaurant that has operated since 1949, reopened its terrace. Hostess Faith Sassepp told the Los Angeles Times: “We are absolutely stoked to be reopened and welcoming everyone onto the terrace” overlooking the Pacific Ocean, adding that locals and travelers are back after the closure that lasted nearly 12 days.
The Alila Ventana resort was evacuated and remains closed, a representative told the Los Angeles Times. The Post Ranch Inn is set to reopen on Wednesday and was “under no imminent threat,” the hotel said on Instagram.
At least one restaurant estimated it was losing $70,000 per day before it reopened Thursday, according to The Mercury News.
Firefighters continue to battle the blaze, including the use of helicopter water drops and retardant, Cal Fire said. The New York Post reported that crews are using aircraft to attack the fire. The fire is pushing northeast into the Los Padres National Forest and away from the coast, according to the New York Post. PG&E crews replaced burned electrical poles and wires on Friday after some locations went without electricity for 13 days, the New York Post reported.
Evacuation orders were lifted in three of the five areas that had been under them, according to the New York Post. No structures have burned, and no injuries or fatalities have been reported, according to The Mercury News and the New York Post. The Timber Fire is the third-largest wildfire in California this year, the New York Post reported.
“We are trending in the right direction,” Cal Fire Battalion Chief Josh Silveira told The Mercury News. “Everybody here is working really hard. It’s a slow and steady mentality. We’ll take that any day of the week.”
California State Parks said that Point Sur State Historic Park, Andrew Molera State Park, Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park and Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park remained closed, according to the Los Angeles Times.