UPDATE: Mandatory evacuation announced for Cachagua and Tassajara.

UPDATE: The Monterey County Sheriff's Office has begun making calls  using the Alert Monterey system to residents of Chachagua and Tassajara Roads. While residents are typically given 24-hour notice, the order is immediate as the fire is spreading fast.

At 9am Sunday, officials issued an evacuation warning for the communities of Jamesburg and Cachagua, advising residents to be ready to leave in case of an evacuation due to the 38,007-acre Soberanes Fire. 

Firefighters expect to ignite a controlled burn south of Carmel Valley near Cachagua and the recently removed San Clemente Dam sometime before Monday morning, if the conditions are right.  

Officials say it's a critical strategic move to keep the fire from growing north (and east) toward Carmel Valley.

The objective is to start a smaller fire that burns more slowly to the south and west, toward the Soberanes Fire currently making strides toward the Cachagua, Jamesburg and Tassajara communities. 

Controlled burns or back burns create large burnt areas in advance of the expected forest fire, taking out the dry brush that becomes fuel for the larger fire. When successful, back burns give fire fighters an advantage in controlling the direction and intensity of the fire. The risk the firefighters face is to keep the back burn in control.

More than 5,300 fire personnel are currently fighting the Soberanes Fire, now the number-one fire priority for the state of California.

At a community meeting Saturday night at Carmel High School, Cal Fire officials said the fire has potential to grow more than five times from its current size (then 35,540 acres)—to more than 160,000 acres.

After five years of drought in California and an even more extreme drought on the Central Coast, the Soberanes Fire is “exhibiting extreme behavior absent wind,” according to Cal Fire Incident Commander George Gonzales. “It is a unique place to fight fire.”

Vegetation is very dry and fast to ignite after years of drought, in an area that has not experienced a major forest fires for many, many years.

The Soberanes Fire is behaving unlike more typical forest fires, aided by nighttime growth, a time when many wildfires settle down, according to Cal Fire forester and spokesman Jonathan Pangburn. Firefighters are working through the night to combat this three-directional fire.

“This fire is having explosive growth,” Pangburn said. 

The fire is burning  steep, rugged terrain, in many areas that are difficult for fire crews to access. The air tankers and helicopters assigned to the fire face challenging flying conditions, with both smoke and fog limiting the air campaign.

A temporary flight restriction for private and commercial pilots up to 9,000 feet is in place south of Carmel into Big Sur, where fire cloud plumes could be seen over 10,500 feet on Saturday.

Carmel Valley remained shrouded in a mixture of fog and smoke Sunday morning, continuing its multi-day trend of having “unhealthy” air quality, as measured by the Monterey Bay Air Resources District.

All California State Parks from Point Lobos to Julia Pfeiffer State Park (including Garrapata, Pfeiffer Big Sur, Andrew Molera and the Point Sur Lighthouse) and closed until further notice, as are all trails and roads within the Los Padres National Forest. In addition, the Monterey Regional Park District has closed Garland Ranch, Kahn Ranch, Palo Corona, Mill Creek and Cachagua Community Park.