Fire Fight in Big Sur - 8/28/2026

Zeke provides an update on the Timber and Plaskett wildfires in Big Sur and the Sinlahekin fire in Washington.

MAP UPDATES: 8/29/2026

Timber Fire – 4pm, 8/29/2026. Previous red contour is from evening of 8/28.

The east side of the Timber Fire was pretty cold, today. Yellow line shows 18 hours of spread.

As of 12:40pm, on 8/29/2026, the Plaskett Fire was over the South Coast Ridge Road. Red line shows previous afternoon’s perimeter. As of dusk,it sounds like the fire is very well-established over the South Coast Ridge Road, and a firing operation is under way to try to hold the fire at Los Burros Road.

Big Sur/Timber Fire Updates

As of morning of 8/29, the eastern side of the fire has very little spread with the cooler weather. The fire is largely at the tops of the ridges, and not backing down very aggressively.
The most active portions of the fire are on the NW flank, above Big Sur.
Firing operations are underway on the Coast Ridge Road and near Manuel Peak, using drones and hand crews to create black lines.
Firing operations have begun on Hopkins Ridge, above Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park and Big Sur Lodge.
Heavy airtankers painted the area to the north of Hopkins Ridge late this afternoon to help secure that edge outside of the ongoing firing ops.
The fire’s threat to Big Sur proper will be greatly reduced once the firing operations have been completed adjacent to built-up areas.
The current containment strategy involves opening old bulldozer and hand lines along a 70-mile perimeter to secure the area before the fire reaches them.
There is concern regarding potential slop overs in the Juan Higuera drainage, above Big Sur, where the fire has jumped control lines atop Manuel Peak.
The 100 acre+ slopover in the head of Juan Higuerra Creek may grow downhill and render the firing operations on Hopkins Ridge ineffective.
If this happens, firefighters have to fire hand lines above Captain Cooper Elementary School.
The high-pressure weather conditions of last week were ‘compressing the marine layer’. Now that these have eased, and we are under lower atmospheric pressure, the marine layer will be thicker, and this will help suppress fire behavior on the lower slopes, above Big Sur, for a portion of the night and mornings.

Firing operations have brought fire down Hopkins Ridge above Fernwood Resort – evening of 8/28/2026

Planned control box for the Timber Fire shown in blue.

Plaskett Fire Status

The Plaskett fire, 25 miles south of Big Sur, is rapidly expanding, growing to between 4,000 and 5,000 acres.
The fire has caused damage, including at least one house burn near Plaskett, and is pushing into Department of Defense land at Fort Hunter Liggett.
Local topography, a lack of recent fire history, and the resulting heavy coastal vegetation make this fire extremely difficult to combat with hand crews alone.
Larger-scale control efforts are just getting started as crews transition from initial attack to extended attack mode and more resources arrive.

Sinlahekin Fire

Located in eastern Washington, this fire has added approximately 10,000 acres in past couple days.
Due to dry conditions in the Pacific Northwest compared to California, there is little natural resistance to its spread.

Operational Challenges

After two nights without infrared flights, due to cloud cover, Lunder expresses concern over firefighting agencies becoming overly reliant on infrared flights at the expense of field observers and on-the-ground intelligence updates.
He argues that relying on mapping data that is nearly 48 hours old can be dangerous for personnel operating on the fire line.
A lack of qualified Division Supervisors may be a reason that the far east side of the Timber Fire remained unstaffed for most of this week.
However, the fire is barely moving on this side, and these Divisions have been a lower priority that the ones right next to Big Sur.

Divisions P, R, and T were unstaffed until Saturday, 8/28.

Weather and Environmental Analysis

The arrival of a ‘trough’ or low-pressure weather system has led to lower temperatures and higher humidity in some areas.
While current conditions are milder, there is longer-term concern regarding potential east wind events that could drive fires toward populated areas.
East winds become more common in late September in the Central Coast area.
Lunder notes that El Niño patterns have contributed to drier conditions in the Pacific Northwest compared to California.
Warmer ocean temperatures are leading to moister conditions in the State, which has helped to moderate fire danger, and led to a below-average fire season.
Recent cloud cover has impacted infrared mapping and redirected air tanker resources from Plaskett to the Timber Fire, which had clearer air on 8/28.

The large area of high atmospheric pressure which was driving hig temps and low humidities is breaking down, allowing cooler moister weather to move in.

Operational Strategies and Firing Techniques

Firing operations require precise choreography, often using a “one-two-three” pattern to create wide blacklines safely.
Modern technology like drones (UAS) is being used to drop fireballs in controlled transects to assist with burnout operations.
Preparing indirect lines can be time-consuming. It is easier here than in areas with heavier timber, because there is less timber, and crews don’t have to remove as many dead standing trees (snags) as they would need to if they were in more timbered parts of the State.
Effective firing depends heavily on managing weather windows. For example, in the NW corner of the fire, waiting specifically for northwesterly flows to push fire back into burned areas.

Regional Fire Overview and Observations

In Washington, the Sinlahekin fire has seen massive growth, adding approximately 10,000 acres in just three days due to continuous fuel loads.
Most of the other large fires which were burning in Oregon and Washington at the beginning of the month are done spreading.
Lunder discusses how cartographic scaling can be deceptive on digital maps when wildfire icons cover over a million acres, for a fire that is only 5,000.

Tassajara Zen Center Preparedness

The Tassajarra Zen Center has implemented extensive internal fire protection, including redundant pump systems and large water tanks.

Here is a message from the Zen Center about their firefighting capabilities:

1. We have unlimited water from 4 different sources: a flowing creek, 60,000 gal in two storage tanks above Tassajara that feed 60psi into our permanent, underground
standpipe system, 60,000 gal pool, hot-springs well pump.

2. Extremely favorable topography. We are in the bottom of a green drainage with very little terrain from any direction rising towards us.

3. Exterior Sprinklers on every structure. These are hardlined in and part of the buildings’ infrastructure. We run these off of a pump permanently housed at the creek. We have
3 backup pumps in place devoted to this system. I cannot stress enough- when we fire this system, you’ll want to put a raincoat on anywhere in the valley. It creates such a
humidity bubble that you would have to climb up the hill if you wanted to backburn.

4. A contingency hose lay stretching over the whole valley. This is a standard 1 ½ hoselay with a 1” laterals every hundred feed. This is separate from our sprinkler system and is
intended for agency use. This all runs off of a single mark 3. We have 7 spare mark 3s.

5. 2 helipads. 1 on the road for medical (light or medium ship) and one on the hill that has been approved by CalFire Blackhawks (heavy).

6. Sprinklered parking for agency vehicles.

7. Several buildings that you couldn’t burn down if you tried.

8. Flowing creek stretching the entire southern perimeter with no structures on the other side of the creek

9. A huge amount of food and housing available to Agency resources. Hot springs pools for bathing.

10. An enclosed cab UTV and an ATV.