Willow fire continues to burn in remote Big Sur mountains

Officials say blaze has burned 2,066 acres, forcing evacuations

MONTEREY >> Firefighters continued Sunday to battle a blaze in Monterey County that threatened a historic

Zen Buddhist mountain retreat and burned some 2,000 acres.

The blaze, named the Willow fire, has been burning on “steep, rugged and brushy terrain” since it ignited in the Ventana Wilderness northwest of the Arroyo Seco recreation area around 8 p.m. Thursday, sending billowing plumes of smoke across the area.

The wildfire was mapped at about 1,600 acres Saturday, after an initial report that it had reached 2,000 acres on Friday. But by Saturday evening, officials with the Los Padres National Forest said it had burned about 2,066 acres.

Firefighters were reinforcing existing line construction and bulldozer lines from the 2020 Dolan fire, which burned more than 128,000 acres, destroyed 14 buildings and left 15 people injured.

The U.S. Forest Service said about 452 firefighters were on the ground fighting the blaze with air support including fixed-wing air tankers and water-dropping helicopters.

Retardant lines held well during the day Saturday, officials said, minimizing the blaze’s growth.

The Arroyo Seco recreation area was closed and Tassajara Road was closed from the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center to the China Camp Campground, according to the Monterey County Office of Emergency Services. Residents of the monastery have been evacuated to the campground.

Saving the monastery — which is among the oldest Japanese Buddhist Soto Zen monasteries in the United States — had been firefighters’ biggest priority on Saturday.

On Sunday morning, billowing plumes of smoke could be seen drifting toward the Salinas Valley.