Red flag warning for Dolan Fire area
Report on Carmel, River fires released
BIG SUR >> With a red flag warning now in effect for the Santa Lucia Range and the Dolan Fire area, state officials released the Watershed Emergency Response Team report for the Carmel and River fires.
The red flag warning in the Monterey District of the Los Padres National Forest will last until Saturday at 6 a.m. Dry, hot conditions are expected in the area with north winds at 10-20 mph and gusts up to 25-30 mph at the highest locations.
The heat should subside in Monterey County by Sunday, with high temperatures on the Monterey Peninsula Friday and Saturday in the 70s and interior parts of the county in the 90s.
“Unfortunately we do still have this smoke canopy over the area and that’s expected to stick around for the next couple of days,” said Gerry Diaz, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “That’s going to affect temperatures all across the region, so temperatures might be a couple of degrees, or in some places even a few degrees, cooler than anticipated.”
The Monterey Bay Air Resources District said in a release Thursday that air quality reached the Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups category at many monitoring stations in the Monterey Bay area and recommended those with heart or lung disease (including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease- COPD), older adults, and children avoid exposure for a prolonged period.
While plumes of smoke have been visible in recent days from the Dolan Fire, officials said they were from a 500-acre unburned area 3 miles into the interior of the fire perimeter near Nacimiento-Fergusson Road. Firefighters increased the containment
of the blaze to 90% as of Thursday morning. It has burned 124,924 acres.
Firefighters will use a helicopter and drones to try and limit any possible growth of the fire during the red flag warning. Relative humidity is expected to stay in the teens, keeping the fire area dry overnight.
The U. S. Forest Service extended the Los Padres National Forest closure order as the Dolan Fire continues to burn.
The Dolan Fire started Aug. 18 about 10 miles south of Big Sur Village along Highway 1 north of Limekiln State Park. The Sheriff’s Office arrested a Fresno man on arson charges in connection to the fire. The fire destroyed 14 habitable structures and five outbuildings.
As containment increases on the Dolan Fire, state officials released the
Watershed Emergency Response Team report for the River and Carmel fires earlier this week.
Kelsey Scanlon, an emergency services planner with the Monterey County Office of Emergency Services, said the report is done after every significant wildfire by Cal Fire and state geologists.
“The team goes out and they take satellite imagery as well as ground truth observations about the slope, they take soil samples, and they look at the overall topography and the amount of heat that was applied to the surface,” she said.
More fuel can lead to hotter conditions in a fire, which means it burns deeper into the ground, Scanlon said.
“In the North Bay fires in 2017, the fire was so hot and it stayed there for so long that it burned 10 feet into the ground and destroyed PVC pipes and caused erosion that led to a semi-sinkhole situation,” she said.
According to the report for the River and Carmel fires, “most of the burned areas consist of soils burned at low and moderate severity, with a few small patches of soils burned at high severity.”
The report stated the River Fire area has an approximately 26- fold increase and the Carmel Fire area has an approximately 30-fold increase in post-fire surface erosion rates compared to pre-fire conditions when storms begin to arrive this rain season.
The report identifies actual structures at risk of flash floods, erosion and debris f lows. Residential structures located immediately adjacent to or near existing watercourses and flow paths may be dam
aged by floodwater and debris. County and private roads will be at risk of being flooded or blocked by debris. And there will be an increased rockfall hazard along Cachagua and San Clemente roads.
The county put the report and a map online at bit.ly/33iJliY.
“A general rule of thumb is that if you can see a burned slope, to some degree you are at risk,” Scanlon said. “If you live below a slope or on top of a slope that was burned, you are likely at risk.”
If you live in an area surrounded by the burn scar and have limited ingress and egress, the Office of Emergency Services recommends preparing to be ready to be stuck for more than three days.
“For instance, if you live in Cachagua and we get a debris flow at Carmel Valley Road and Cachagua and then a second one down by Cachagua and Tassajara, then you could be trapped there for several days without any way to get groceries or get water if the power’s out,” Scanlon said. “So if they are planning on staying, they need to prepare to survive on their own for more than three days.”
To be prepared, Scanlon said residents should sign up for emergency alerts at alertmontereycounty.org to stay informed.
The River Fire started Aug. 16 and the Carmel Fire started two days later. They burned a total of approximately 55,000 acres in Monterey County. A total of 103 structures were destroyed and 20 structures were damaged between the two fires.