Santa Barbara to reopen fire closure area; Big Sur back country remains mostly closed

The Los Padres National Forest, which has endured wildfires this summer from Santa Barbara to Big Sur, will reopen 100,000 acres of back-country forest lands in northern Santa Barbara County on Friday, according to a news release from the U.S. Forest Service.

The closure began Aug. 15 due to the Lightning Complex fires — a series of five fires caused by lightning — in an area about 20 miles east of Santa Maria. The fires burned 244 acres and are expected to be fully contained today, the release said. (Click here to see a map of the closure area that will be reopened.)

But 332,000 acres of forest lands up in Monterey County remain closed due to the Indians fire (started June 8) and the Basin Complex fire (started June 21). Both fires are now 100% contained.

The exceptions to the closure in the Big Sur area include Kirk Creek, Plaskett Creek and Arroyo Seco campgrounds as well as day-use areas of Pfeiffer Beach (pictured), Mill Creek, Sand Dollar, Jade Cove Beach, Willow Creek and San Carpoforo Beach. (Click here for current conditions.)

– Mary Forgione, Los Angeles Times staff writer

[Photo: Stan Russell]

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This entry was posted on Thursday, August 21, 2008 at 12:30 pm by Mary Forgione and is filed under Big Sur, California, Outdoors & Adventure, Santa Barbara. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.