The Associated Press
BIG SUR, Calif. (AP) -- Firefighters rappelled down ropes from helicopters to battle flames approaching a town in the scenic Big Sur and used explosives to clear fire lines around one of two huge blazes in Northern California that have
claimed more than 72,000 acres.
AP World Wide Photos/Phil Klein
Firefighters from Kern County work one of several fires in the Los Padres National Forest, 20 miles south of Big Sur, Calif., Monday Sept. 20,1999. Crews are fighting the fires in a very rugged mountainous terrain near camping and hiking areas. As many as 250 vacationers and monks at the New Camaldoli Hermitage, a monastery perched 1,300 feet above the Pacific Ocean, were ordered to leave Monday evening.
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Stubborn lightning-caused fires burned through more than 72,000 acres of Northern California's forests Monday and forced Benedictine monks to flee their monastery high in the coastal mountains of Big Sur.
The fires were burning in nearly inaccessible terrain in the Trinity Alps Wilderness Area about 210 miles north of San Francisco as well as in two areas of Big Sur, more than 100 miles south of the city.
``Some of these mountains go straight up and down,'' said Joe Pasinato, a Forest Service spokesman with the firefighters in Big Sur.
As many as 250 vacationers and monks at the New Camaldoli Hermitage, a monastery perched 1,300 feet above the Pacific Ocean, were ordered to leave Monday evening.
The Hermitage, reachable only by a narrow twisting road from the coastal highway, houses between 30 and 40 monks who maintain vows of silence and support their contemplative life by making fruitcakes.
The evacuation order was made after one of two large wildfires burning in Big Sur's Los Padres National Forest burned through two dry creeks and then raced up nearby hills. Twenty homes and other buildings were threatened, but no one was injured, said Paul Christensen, a fire information officer.
The other Big Sur fire came within a mile of another religious center Tassajara Hot Springs, which is populated by Zen Buddhists. Residents were advised to either evacuate, or be ready to leave in a hurry.
Firefighters rappelled down from helicopters to reach fire lines on nearly vertical slopes.
``We're planning on a long siege,'' said Joe Pasinato, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman.
More than 47,559 acres had burned by Monday in the Trinity fire, making it the largest wildfire currently burning in the nation, fire spokeswoman Rosemary Hardin said. It was spreading northwest towards the Klamath National Forest.
In Big Sur, blazes sparked on Sept. 8 have burned 25,700 acres of oak trees, sage, chapparal and other brush.
Nearly 5,000 people were trying to contain the two groups of fires, and a fleet of air tankers were dumping water or a mixture of chemicals and water on the blazes.
