Soberanes Fire Recap
The Soberanes Fire in northern California has finally wound down, with officials marking the blaze at 100% contained as of Wednesday evening (10/12). The fire ignited from an illegal campfire on July 22nd–a full twelve weeks ago–and in the first week, destroyed 57 residences and 11 outbuildings. Luckily, no other losses have been reported since then.
How Soberanes Compares to Other Fires
The progress of the fire has been mostly stalled for weeks, with fire crews focusing on building containment lines in the troublesome and rugged terrain of the Ventana Wilderness (LPF). Subsequently, the fire perimeter and acreage has not budged much since late September. Collectively, the fire has topped a record $250m in suppression costs, dwarfing the previous high from 2002 of $165m (Biscuit Fire). The Soberanes Fire finished its run at 132,127 acres which is good for 17th place in California’s documented history and 6th largest ever in the Los Padres National Forest. The sheer size of the wildfire is apparent in comparison to both the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City.
Soberanes Fire size comparison with NYC and SF
Soberanes Fire Facts (10/14)
- Started: July 22nd, 2016
- Contained: Oct 12th, 2016 (83 days)
- Location: Big Sur, CA
- Size: 132,127 acres
- 94,933 acres CA-LPF – 72%
- 37,194 acres CALFIRE BEU – 28%
- Containment: 100%
- Fire Behavior: Interior smoldering with sporadic smoke possible.
- Structures Threatened: 0
- Structures Destroyed: 68 (57 primary, 11 outbuildings)
- Cost to Date: $249.9+ million
- Incident Page: Inciweb
- News Article: KSBW News
IMT Assignments
Since the blaze began, seven different incident management teams have been assigned to the storied fire (see list below). California’s IMT2 (Mills) team is expected to see out the remaining 21% of suppression repair and continue to BAER (Burned Area Emergency Response) operations. The full list of IMTs assigned to Soberanes:
- CAL FIRE Team 4 IC (Derum) taking command on 07/23/2016 at 1200
- CAL FIRE IMT (Derum) in unified command with CA IMT1 (von Tillow) on 08/05/2016
- CA IMT1 (von Tillow) in unified command with CAL FIRE IMT (King BEU) 08/19/2016 at 0600
- CA IMT1 (von Tillow) transferred command to AK IMT1 (Kurth) @ 0700 8/24/2016, No more unified command
- CA IMT1 (Opliger) will transition on 09/13/2016 at 0600
- CA IMT2 (Arroyo) assumed command of incident 09/29/2016 at 0800
- CA IMT2 (Mills) will assume command 10/13/2016 at 0600
Sources:
Inciweb
NIFC
KSBW News
3 Comments