California’s Big Sur sees evacuation orders as Timber fire grows

Nearly 500 personnel battle Timber fire in Los Padres national forest as blaze grows to 3,000 acres

Evacuations have been ordered for areas along California’s famous Big Sur coast as a wildfire burns in the nearby steep, rugged mountains.

The Timber fire in Monterey county started on Sunday and grew to nearly 3,000 acres by Tuesday evening, according to Cal Fire, the state’s fire agency. Nearly 500 fire personnel had been assigned to the fire in the Los Padres national forest.

The evacuations have affected famed tourist destinations such as the Nepenthe restaurant, the Henry Miller Memorial Library and the Alila Ventana resort, as well as state parks during the region’s busiest season. Part of the Pacific Coast Highway in Monterey county was closed for non-residents, and officials urged visitors to avoid the area entirely.

Firefighters worked to build containment lines along the Highway 1 corridor, Cal Fire said on Monday, and have boxed in 5% of the blaze. Ground crews are working to access difficult terrain, the agency said, but the fire is moving slowly, burning primarily along the ground through grass, brush and oak woodland and has not moved into the tree tops.

Officials said they are focused on protecting area homes and keeping the fire from moving across the Pacific Coast Highway.

The cause of the fire, which started on Saturday evening and now threatens 259 buildings, is still under investigation.

Firefighters are fighting blazes across the US west. Canada put its military on standby on Monday to help battle deadly wildfires in British Columbia, where at least one woman has died and about 20,000 people have fled their homes.

Nearly half of the fires in the region are burning out of control, according to authorities.

The mayor of Summerland – home to about 12,000 people, which was ordered evacuated on Saturday night along with about 8,000 people in and around nearby Peachland – warned that the affected areas remained too dangerous to enter and that it was impossible to determine the scope of the destruction.

Meanwhile, a quick-moving blaze just north of Reno, Nevada, forced about 5,500 people to evacuate.

Firefighters in Spokane, Washington, strengthened containment lines around three destructive blazes in that state, allowing some evacuated residents to return home.

And Oregon is experiencing its worst year on record for land burned by large wildfires, with 3,671 sq miles (9,508 sq km) scorched, said Jean Nelson-Dean, spokesperson for Northwest Interagency Coordination Center. That beats the state’s previous record set in 2024.

In the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada, firefighters have contained 90% of the Gann fire, which killed one person and destroyed 48 structures. Investigators have said the blaze was sparked by a man using a chainsaw, and arrested him last week.