Firefighters from across California are using Cal State Monterey Bay as a staging area as they work to contain the Timber Fire in Big Sur.
At the base camp in Marina, crews prepare for shifts that can take them into steep, rugged terrain where roads are limited and engines can’t always reach the fire line.
For firefighters accustomed to working elsewhere in California, the landscape presents a different set of challenges.
Tanner Wyandt, a firefighter with the Fresno-Kings Unit, said the terrain along the Big Sur coast is unlike what he typically encounters.
“T he terrain's just incredibly steep,” Wyandt said. “We have poison oak, we have timber. It's interesting how the terrain stratifies as you go up. So it's very unique.”
The steep slopes and changing conditions mean firefighters have to be more deliberate about how they approach the fire.
Wyandt said crews are paying particularly close attention to weather patterns and the marine layer along the coast.
“Not so much a fear, but definitely, we have to pay attention to our surroundings a lot more, especially with the weather patterns and the marine layer in there,” he said. “We definitely are a lot more reserved and calculated when it comes to our approach out there.”
For Jax Branco, a firefighter from Coalinga in Fresno County, the fire also looks different from what people might imagine.
“A lot of people, when they hear ‘fire,’ they probably think like, ‘Oh, it’s crazy 50-foot flame lengths,’” Branco said.
But relatively humid conditions along the coast can keep flames from reaching those heights, he said. That doesn’t mean the fire is easier to fight.
“It's pretty humid over here. And that’s another reason why it’s harder to put out,” Branco said. “It’s not as big of flame lengths that you would see, but it’s still fire, and it’s hard to put out, and it’s big.”
One of the biggest challenges, Branco said, comes before firefighters even reach the flames.
Parts of the Timber Fire are in areas that are difficult to access, with tight roads and terrain that prevents engines from getting all the way to the fire line.
“So pretty much crews, engine guys, everybody pack up and we go on a hike,” Branco said.
That hike can stretch a mile or two and involve climbing roughly 1,000 feet in elevation, he said. Firefighters have to carry the equipment they need with them, including hose packs, drip torches and other tools.
On fires in flatter areas of California, Branco said, crews may be able to move equipment and lay hose with fewer obstacles. In Big Sur, the terrain makes that much more complicated.
“I would just say logistics,” Branco said. “That’s pretty much the biggest issue with this fire.”
The crews arriving in Big Sur are also coming from different parts of the state, making coordination important once they are on the ground.
Wyandt said firefighters arrive with plenty of training from their home stations.
The key, he said, is putting all that preparation together with a solid plan once crews arrive at the fire.
“So just having all that and putting it together out here on the fire line,” he said, “that's really all the training that we need.”
On the edge of the CSUMB campus, the scale of the operation is visible in the rows of engines and equipment staged around the base camp. Water, showers and places to rest offer a temporary respite for the firefighters from all over before they head back into Big Sur’s steep coastal terrain.
