Colorado Fire now at 75% containment
They’re hoping for full containment of blaze by Wednesday, over a week since it started
Containment of the Colorado Fire has grown to 75% as firefighters hope to fully contain it by Wednesday, more than a week since the blaze ignited from a pile-burning operation along the Big Sur coast.
“It’s warming up and we’re expecting winds, so they’re trying to get those hot spots out very aggressively so the wind doesn’t create flare-ups,” said Cal Fire spokesperson Cecile Juliette on Friday, adding that fire activity was minimal overnight.
The blaze has scorched 700 acres, damaged one yurt and threatened 225 structures after sparking Jan. 21 shortly after 5 p.m. near Palo Colorado Canyon during strong, offshore winds. Evacuation orders for 500 people were lifted Wednesday and Highway 1, which previously was closed from Garrapata Creek to Point Sur, reopened. On Friday, 27 engines and 380 personnel were at the scene of the fire.
Humidity levels hovered in the 20-30% range Friday morning and winds were relatively light, blowing 5 mph in lower elevations and gusts reaching up to 15 mph in higher elevations, according to the National Weather Service. Humidity wasn’t expected to recover much overnight because of ongoing offshore flow. Temperatures, which remained in the low to mid-60s on Friday, are expected to cool down by a couple degrees early next week, which can help drive up humidity.
“We’re not expecting any new significant challenges or really strong winds to develop over the region in the next several days,” said National Weather Service forecaster Roger Gass.
Dry conditions also are expected to continue heading into February as there aren’t any chances of rain in the forecast for the foreseeable future, capping off nearly a month of dry weather.
Rainfall totals for the water
year, which began Oct. 1, got off to a promising start with the strongest atmospheric river storm to hit the Bay Area in two years. December was also a plentiful month when it came to rainfall, resulting in the 21stwettest on record for San Francisco dating to the gold rush.
Big Sur received more than 14 inches of rain in December, compared with 9.18 inches it usually receives in that time period based on historical averages, according to the National Weather Service.
However, the area has re
ceived less than an inch of rain so far in January.
“Having little to no rainfall on the Big Sur coast in January is concerning, especially because January is one of our wetter months,” Gass said. “That’s gonna start to lower the amount of precipitation that we’re going to have in our totals for our year.”
Climate change and the effects of long-term drought after two dry winters in a row have made wintertime wildfires more common in recent years.
“Obviously, in dry conditions, a fire can start,” he said. “The good thing is still we’re not anticipating there to be widespread threat of wildfires. It’s still pretty rare for us to get a large fire in January and February, but people still need to be vigilant anytime of year when it comes to anything that can ignite a fire.”