By PHILLIP MOLNAR
Herald Staff Writer
The fire in Big Sur was 74 percent contained by 4 p.m. Wednesday but a major wind change at midnight could have changed all that by Thursday.
Northwest winds of 35 to 40 mph were expected to be a crucial test for the 1.8-mile southern containment line built by firefighters along Sycamore Canyon Road.
"Tonight into tomorrow morning will be the most critical," U.S. Forest Service incident commander Mark Nunez said to a crowd of more than 50 residents Wednesday night.
The high winds were expected to last until 5 or 6 a.m., he said.
Colder temperatures, higher humidity and nearly 900 firefighters helped knock the fire down, increasing the containment from 20 percent earlier in the day.
Officials still do not know what caused the inferno that has claimed 14 homes, displaced roughly 100 people, burned 843 acres and blanketed the region in smoke since early Monday.
The rugged terrain has been the biggest challenge for emergency personnel.
"It's just tough to get access to it," said Rich Dickinson of the Fremont Fire Department.
Firefighters were setting their own fires in the heavily forested area on Wednesday morning in order to bring the fire to Highway 1.
The idea was to move the fire to where it is easier to fight, U.S. Forest Service Capt. Seth Mitchell said Wednesday morning.
"We're just trying to keep it locked in on the roads and go from there," he said while standing less than 5 feet from a blaze at the intersection of Pfeiffer Ridge Road and the highway.
He said they went a half mile up Pfeiffer Ridge, where all the homes were destroyed, and lit fires leading back to the highway. Putting hose lines on the steep terrain would be too difficult, he said.
"You bring the fire from Point A to Point B," he said. "... There's fire in several different spots, so to encompass it all, you need to do a burnout operation ... we're making it a more favorable terrain for us."
Mitchell, with sunburned face, echoed a feeling shared by many.
"Right now, everybody's good," he said. "... I think the only thing on people's minds is what's going to happen for Christmas."
Forest Service spokeswoman Lynn Olson said they were all hoping the containment line would hold throughout the night.
"If they get that bottom end buttoned up," she said, "then if the winds shift out of the north, the fire will burn in on itself. That would would be golden."
The forest service has spent roughly $1 million on the fire so far, mostly on air support, and 879 firefighters have assisted since it started, Forest Service spokeswoman Kathleen Phelps said. There have been at least three firefighters hurt, although all were considered minor injuries.
As of Wednesday evening, there was still no plan to close Highway 1 and officials said there was no danger to the village at Big Sur.
There was still no set time given for when displaced residents could return to their homes.
Firefighters were scheduled to be stationed on Rancho Rico Road in the area of Sycamore Canyon late Wednesday as a precaution, officials said.
Nunez said the humidity was expected to reach 90 percent overnight, which would aid firefighters. He added that he expected that Sycamore Canyon would be "somewhat sheltered" during the high winds.
Conditions have changed considerably in the northern half of Big Sur since Tuesday.
On Wednesday there was still heavy smoke, mixed with fog, but visibility had clearly improved on the road from Monterey to Andrew Molera State Park.
Point Sur, which was not visible from Highway 1 on Tuesday, could be seen as well as most of the landscape on the road south to the village.
Yet in the area south of Pfeiffer Ridge Road, the smoke was as thick as it was Tuesday, like a dusty fog.
A claim by a volunteer in the Big Sur Fire Brigade that there had been looting from an abandoned home was unfounded, according to the Monterey County Sheriff's Office. Commander William Kaye did confirm some property was stolen out of a car of an evacuee Tuesday morning.
Al Jardine, a member of The Beach Boys and Big Sur resident, was in attendance at a community meeting Wednesday. He said he was supporting a friend who lost his home on Pfeiffer Ridge.
"You just have to be a good listener," he said.
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