Firefighter Blog: Officials: Big Sur Fires May Exceed 250,000 Acres

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June 28, 2008

Officials: Big Sur Fires May Exceed 250,000 Acres

The Indians Fire and Basin Complex Fire currently burning in the Ventana Wilderness will likely combine to become the the largest fire in modern California state history.

This morning's ICS-209 report for the Basin Complex Fire, now called Basin Complex West includes an estimated final size at 170,000 acres. The Basin Complex West fire will come close to matching the Marble-Cone Fire of 1977 that consumed 178,000 acres on the same ground.

The Indians Fire management team has stated since the start of the fire in May they expect their fire to exceed 80,000 acres. The fire has burned over 60,000 acres so far.

Wikipedia maintains a list of the largest wildfires in California history as;

1 - Santiago Canyon Fire of 1889: 300,000 acres ·
2 - Cedar Fire: 273,246 acres
3 - Zaca Fire: 240,207 acres
4 - Matilija Fire: 220,000 acres
5 - Witch Fire: 197,990
6 - Laguna Fire: 175,425 acres
7 - Marble-Cone Fire: ~178,000 acres
8 - Day Fire: 162,700 acres
9 - McNally Fire: 150,670 acres
10 - Old Fire: 91,281 acres
11 - Harris Fire: 90,440 acres (366 km²)

If the Basin Complex West and Indians Fire meet the stated expectations the combined acreage could challenge the Cedar Fire of 273k acres. Worth noting both current fire managers were in command of the Zaca Fire (#3 all time) at various stages last year.