As Del Rey Oaks City Manager Dino Pick was enjoying his Sunday afternoon on Oct. 15, out on a boat in Monterey Bay, he saw a plume of smoke rising.
“I thought, ‘Oh man, that might be Del Rey Oaks,’” he says.
A few minutes later, Del Rey Oaks Police Chief Jeffrey Hoyne called Pick to inform him the fire was north of South Boundary Road – part of which is in Del Rey Oaks – and Pick got to shore as fast as he could.
The York Fire, as it came to be known, was ultimately brought under control within hours by firefighters responding from multiple agencies, after flames consumed 31 acres of chaparral-covered land on the southwestern-most part of the former Fort Ord. But when Pick arrived, the fire was still cooking hot.
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“It was just crazy,” Picks says. “We were very lucky the fire didn’t jump South Boundary Road into more established forest,” he adds, referring to the thick forest of Monterey pines on the southern part of the road, which is adjacent to the Ryan Ranch business park in Monterey.
Cal Fire Capt. Catey Trenner says weather conditions were unusually warm and dry for the Peninsula – air temperatures were above 80 degrees – but that the winds were only about 5 miles-per-hour.
The fire originated just inside of Del Rey Oaks city limits, and Trenner, who investigated the cause of the fire, says it was started by a cigarette butt. One of many, Trenner notes.
“As I walked that stretch of road, there were a lot of fresh ones,” she says. “I didn’t think people would be that careless.”
There are no houses along South Boundary Road, and traffic on weekends is almost entirely from drivers heading to events at Laguna Seca; on Oct. 15, it was the last day of the Pirelli World Challenge.
Pick says the city had brush cleared back a few feet alongside the road in late spring, but that the city will prioritize clearing it back even further, behind the barbed-wire fence lining the road. Del Rey Oaks Mayor Jerry Edelen also called Pick Oct. 15 to ask that the city clear brush along Gen. Jim Boulevard where it narrows by the heavily wooded Frog Pond Wetland Reserve, which borders several homes. (Pick says the city will do the clearing.)
Had the fire happened three or four years down the road, it could have been a lot worse: It originated on the southernmost portion of land on the yet-to-be-built, already-approved luxury RV resort that will break ground in about two years, pending water and sewer infrastructure development.
While the project plans aren’t yet finalized, the plans the city has shows 210 RV sites and just one road leading in and out of the property.
Another potential fire disaster was averted the next day, Oct. 16, in Big Sur. Big Sur Volunteer Fire Brigade Chief Martha Karstens writes by email that Fire Brigade members responded just after 9am to a fire that started east of Partington Cove, about a quarter-mile up the canyon. It was quickly brought under control, Karstens writes via email, adding it was started by an illegal campfire.
“It is unbelievable to me why with half the state on fire anyone would think it was a good idea to have any fire,” she says.