Timber and Plaskett Fire Updates – 9/3/2026

After big movements last week, the Timber and Plaskett Fires, burning in Big Sur and the South Coast, have been pretty subdued over the past 4 days. Our Lookout Livestream, last night, provides a map update showing the concentrated areas of fire heat and new spread, which has been very minimal. This doesn’t mean the fires are done spreading, altogether – temperatures are forecast to increase to above seasonal norms over the next 2 weeks – but for now, the lack of major intensity on the fires is buying firefighters opportunities to ‘go direct’ on portions of the fire that weren’t fightable a week ago. The link, below, skips our coverage of a Nevada County prescribed burn to get to our Big Sur fire coverage. Watch from the beginning if you want to see how a prescribed burn gets done!

Here are the key new developments on the Big Sur fires (Plaskett and Timber) described in the livestream:

1. Overall fire activity has dropped sharply
   • Both the Plaskett Fire and the Timber Fire have “really slowed down” and are described as pretty cold and not doing much under the current cool, moist weather pattern.
   • Recent infrared mapping and heat-satellite data show only scattered heat pockets and very limited active perimeter growth on both incidents.
2. Plaskett Fire status and concerns
   • On Plaskett, only small areas around the perimeter are still active, including some spread into the Alder Creek area near Alder Creek Camp, but it is described as “just barely” spreading.
   • Firing operations near Los Burros Road are backing into previously burned ground and helping hold the line.
   • The long-standing worry that Plaskett would fully establish in the Silver Peak Wilderness and burn all season has not materialized so far, although that corner is still being watched as the main area of concern if weather dries out.
   • Fire-effects imagery suggests that while chaparral areas burned hot, much of the cooler riparian/redwood canyon-bottom terrain likely did not suffer severe, stand-replacing damage.
3. Timber Fire status and eating some crow
   • The Timber Fire has shown almost no mapped spread in the last several days; most growth occurred before about August 29–31, and since then only a few small “fingers” have advanced.
   • A major factor in the slowdown has been a deep, inland-penetrating marine layer and fog that repeatedly bathed the fire area, removing the high-pressure “lid” that previously compressed the marine layer and allowed extreme fire runs.
   • We noted that I (Zeke) overestimated the fires’ near-term spread potential in our previous reports (and on the front page of the SF Chroncile, LOL) because I underestimated how decisively the cool, moist pattern and lack of strong downsloping winds would stall a fire that had already run to the tops of the ridges.
   • Even so, incident messaging is warning firefighters not to get complacent: past Big Sur fires like Soberanes and Chalk made major late-season runs after quiet periods, and Timber is still in rugged, fuel-rich country where a return to hot, dry weather could re-energize the fire.
4. Fire Spread Maps
   

   Map showing fire spread on Timber Fire since 8/29 (yellow line). No new spread here mapped since 8/31.

   Map showing fire spread on Timber Fire since 8/29 (yellow line). White line is spread since 8/26/2026.

   

   

   Map showing fire spread on Timber Fire since 8/29 (yellow line). White line is spread since 8/26/2026. There has been very little spread here in past 4 days.

   Map showing fire spread on NE corner of Plasket Fire since 9/1 (white line). No new mapping of this part of the fire last night due to cloud cover.