Extreme heat, lightning strikes and bone-dry conditions combined to create an ideal feeding ground for the River Fire.

ABOUT 2:30AM ON SUNDAY, AUG. 16, THE SKIES OVER MONTEREY COUNTY CRACKLED TO LIFE in an ear-splitting, eye-opening show of the true power of Mother Nature. For hours, windows rattled, floors shook and the skies lit up as lightning strike after lightning strike flared and feathered during wild storms that rolled over the Central Coast, driven by unprecedented heat and high pressure.

In all, the National Weather Service recorded about 2,500 lightning strikes in Northern California during the Sunday storms. And photographer Juanita Turner, unable to sleep through the show while in her home at the top of Laureles Grade, took her camera, walked onto the deck and trained her lens on Mt. Toro.

And there she captured the lightning bolt that sparked the River Fire, which has grown in size and scope to – as of this writing, on Wednesday, Aug. 19 – devour 10,672 acres and destroy six structures, several homes among them, in the rolling dry hills of Pine Canyon.

Now 1,500 homes, in the hills and in the Indian Springs and Las Palmas developments along River Road, are being threatened. Standing between them and the fire are 550 firefighters from agencies all over the state who have converged, seeking the all-elusive containment status on a fire that has steadily grown since it sparked during those Sunday morning storms.

“It’s hot, right? Everybody is complaining about the heat, and you end up with the extensive high temperatures which could drop the relative humidity. The grasses and all the downed timber and all that fuel on the ground dries out very quickly,” says Cal Fire spokesperson Toni Davis, who came in from Tulare County and on Day 2 of the fire was staffing the command center set up at Toro Park. “This fire is in some pretty steep country and getting up there can take time.”

At only 7-percent contained, and with firefighters facing steep terrain and wicked hot conditions expected to go on for days, it’s likely going to be a very long couple of weeks, in an already long month, in an even longer pandemic year. And on Aug. 18, the aggressive Carmel Fire in Cachagua had consumed roughly 1.200 acres within six hours of igniting, destroying several homes. And then later that night, the Dolan Fire in Big Sur began, and burned 2,500 acres overnight.

Seriously, God? What gives?

AT THE END OF HARPER CANYON, where it runs into Toro Park, artist Jack Wray and his wife, Maxine Chaney, who manages a quality assurance team for a global wine brand, have been trying to keep their 4 – and 8-year-old children occupied and engaged with the start of the remote learning school year, and keeping themselves preoccupied with wondering whether to stay in their home of 20 years or get out and go stay with family.

When they saw on Sunday morning that it was a big fire and growing bigger, Wray says their first impulse was to grab the family photos and old journals they kept.

“We loaded those and got ready to go, but as it dragged on, we started taking more defensive measures. It was ‘let’s soak the property, let’s get ready,’ and we kept packing more things, but we had to cut each other off,” Wray says.

Then Monterey County Sheriff’s deputies came by on Monday afternoon and said, “We advise you to get out of the area,” Wray says.

“They said it’s not mandatory yet and I said, ‘When it is, how will I know?’ They said they would make contact again,” Wray says. “That put me a little bit at ease because they’re not telling us to get out yet. I’m glad I’m here to give the property that last little bit of defense.”

He has sprinklers lined up on their roof and he’s keeping an eye on the ridgeline near their home. “If the fire comes over it, we’ll go,” he says.

Evacuation orders are in effect for Pine Canyon and Parker roads, and River Road from Parker to Limekiln, along with Laurel Hill Lane and Trimble Hill Lane. But the evacuation advisory covers a far larger swath of land, most significantly the Harper Canyon area, all areas north of San Benancio Road from west of Troy Lane and southeast of Harper Canyon Road; and south of River Road from Tara Drive to Pine Canyon Road – including all roads off of Las Palmas Parkway and Indian Springs Road.

If the suggestion to leave the developments along River Road becomes mandatory, it will be a level of evacuation never before seen in Monterey County.

BACK AT TORO PARK, at the Cal Fire command center, Davis explains how crews are attacking the blaze. As she speaks, vehicle after vehicle rolls in. An SUV emblazoned with the San Diego County Fire Authority emblem pulls over, and the driver jumps out to give Davis a sideways, pandemic-era hug, telling her he’s happy to see her there. Vans carrying California Conservation Corps members pull in.

For the duration of the fire, Toro Park will serve as the operations base, where the more than 550 firefighters will sleep, eat and gear up to go back out.

Because of the steep terrain, Davis says, the first line of defense is in the air. On Sunday and Monday, air tankers dropped blood-red fire retardant on the hillsides, splashing homes and streets. The retardant is followed by either dozers or hand crews, to cut lines and prevent the spread of the fire.

“You’re going to see a lot more aircraft because of how steep the terrain is,” Davis says. “If folks haven’t done it already, they need to work on getting 100-foot clearance of defensible space around their homes. With all the lightning, they needed to have that already, but if not, get out there early and use the proper tools to get that space.”

No firefighter or cop wants to hear from someone that they’re going to refuse to leave a mandatory evacuation zone. And Davis says that while she understands people are afraid to leave their homes and belongings to the possible path of the fire, lives are more important than stuff.

“I know it’s scary, but we want people to evacuate so we don’t worry about that one individual who stayed home,” she says. “These guys are trying to save lives and property.”