Big Sur responds to the Timber Fire, which continues to spread amid Car Week events.

On Saturday, Aug. 8, sometime in the evening, a fire near Timber Top, a popular camping destination in Big Sur’s Los Padres National Forest, began to spread. It was reportedly slow-moving, at first. To the best of Josh Silveira’s knowledge, battalion chief with Cal Fire in Monterey County, all campers in the area self-evacuated that night.

As of press time, Aug. 12, the fire had grown to more than 3,150 acres and was 5 percent contained. The cause of the fire is under investigation by the U.S. Forest Service, and evacuation orders are in place for five zones encompassing popular areas including the Henry Miller Memorial Library, Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn and Alila Ventana Big Sur.

More than 500 structures were threatened, according to Cal Fire, with no reports of structure damage. The fire has been burning to the northeast into the Ventana Wilderness, Silveira says.

Weather conditions are expected to remain similar, warmer at higher elevations and cooler at lower elevations. Cal Fire is watching a 15 to 20 percent chance of thunderstorms and precipitation through the week.

To keep the roadway clear of traffic, a concern as Car Week is underway, Caltrans announced the closure of a 10-mile stretch of Highway 1 on Tuesday for an undetermined period of time. Pebble Beach representatives worked with local officials to develop a contingency plan for their Tour d’Elegance, which typically traces the coast from Pebble Beach into Big Sur.

Casey Cushing, a Big Sur resident under evacuation orders, says she could see the fire come within 1,000 feet from her house after hiking up the hill to catch a glimpse. The smoke was deceiving, she adds, as it’s been foggy at lower elevation areas and near the coast.

“My cats were basically giving me the signal like it’s time to go… they were kind of limp,” she says, “and I was not feeling great either from the smoke.”

Cushing, who also experienced the Dolan Fire in 2020, says one major concern among locals has been monitoring illegal campfires during the summer. Like many other residents who evacuated, Cushing relocated to an area north of Big Sur.

She’s now staying with family in Carmel Valley and has been helping organize community support runs for Big Sur Fire. She and Emily Rose Peck, a Big Sur local who recently moved to Carmel Valley, have been gathering goods for fire crews, who requested everything from electrolytes, protein drinks and beef jerky to additional safety equipment and phone chargers.

Nepenthe, Deetjen’s, Ventana and Post Ranch Inn have evacuated staff and guests. See Monterey has compiled a list of hotels in Monterey offering discount rates to evacuees.

The County of Monterey, in collaboration with the American Red Cross, opened an emergency evacuation shelter at Carmel Middle School, 4380 Carmel Valley Road, for residents displaced by the fire.

“We’re not in code red right now. We’ve been blanketed by fog,” Matt Glazer of Deetjen’s says, “but we’re listening to all the fire scientists, we talk to firefighters and we look at our escape routes.

“Big Sur needs wise travelers, which means study what’s happening before you get here and don’t come during wildfires.”

For updates, visit montereycountynow.com