The wildfire, known as the Pfeiffer Fire, that ignited down in Big Sur on December 15 reached full containment before the Christmas holiday weekend, but not before destroying a total of 38 building, 34 of which were residences, and burning over 900 acres of trees and brush.
As we noted last week, the fire occurred in the Los Padres National Forest along a ridge that had not burned in about 100 years, which combined with the extremely dry year we've had made for some highly flammable fuel we should count ourselves lucky that the low wind kept the fire much more contained than the last big fires in the region, the Basin Complex Fire, which burned 162,818, and the Indians Fire, which burned 81,378 acres, both in June, 2008.
Of the approximately 100 residents evacuated, most lived on Pfeiffer Ridge Road and Sycamore Canyon Road, and as Monterey County Weekly reports, they were more cooperative with the evacuation than they had been in 2008. Everyone except those displaced were allowed back into their homes on Monday.
Tonight, residents affected by the fire are gathering for a meeting tonight with the U.S. Forest Service at Big Sur Station off Highway 1.
