Backfires Are Tried Against Big Sur Blaze

Fire crews set backfires Sunday hoping to thwart a 10,500-acre wildfire that was burning along the steep slopes of Big Sur.

The backfires were set along a road about two miles north of the steep terrain where the main blaze was burning.

“That’s the line we’re trying to hold from,” said Rich Tobin, a spokesman for the Los Padres National Forest.

As of mid-evening, the blaze was 60% contained, although fire officials said they did not know when there would be full containment.

About 2,100 firefighters were on the lines, handicapped by a lack of passable roads and sloping terrain with some grades as steep as 70%.

Air support from 11 tankers and 11 helicopters also was limited, first by thick morning fog and then by a smoke-trapping inversion layer cutting visibility near the ground.

The blaze, believed to have been started by an arsonist, began last week and has destroyed one home and nine outbuildings, fire officials said. Fire crews were protecting 43 more homes, but no evacuation was ordered.

The scenic forest is located along the coast about 30 miles south of Monterey.