Has the Monterey Area ever been hit by a major fire? (Salinas: homes, camping)

[Chimérique]

With so many CA fires burning the past few years along with extended drought conditions, I wonder if Monterey or Carmel has ever been in the direct path of a major fire?

As climate change brings less and less fog, and more offshore windy conditions, will the bone dry hills and valleys in the Monterey area experience a historic destructive fire?

It wouldn't take much to start a fire - down power line, spark from a car/truck, lighting strike, kid playing with matches, etc....

If not a major fire in the city itself, what's the closest one has come? Pacific Grove, Seaside, Carmel, Carmel Valley, Capitola, Aptos, Salinas Valley, etc?

Seaside was the first California city my family lived in. Actually Fort Ord, then we moved to Seaside.

[Barovelli]

Huckleberry Hill, Pebble Beach 1987.

36 Pebble Beach Homes Burned : Winds Whip Fire Out of Control; 100 Families Forced to Flee Area

Saw the flames from Highway 1 by MPC while driving home, then saw the flames again from the front yard in PG.

[Joyfully789]

Carmel Valley had fires a few years ago. My friends lost some property.

[onlymike]

The Soberanes fire in 2016 burned 132000 acres in big sur and the basin complex fire burned 162000 acres in big sur in 2008.

[saibot]

I was a young child, so it was maybe 1976 or 1977, when our family had to change our vacation plans of driving up the coast to Monterey because of a fire in Big Sur. It must have been a bad one, because that memory has stayed with me all these years.

[Barovelli]

Originally Posted by saibot

I was a young child, so it was maybe 1976 or 1977, when our family had to change our vacation plans of driving up the coast to Monterey because of a fire in Big Sur. It must have been a bad one, because that memory has stayed with me all these years.

The Marble Cone Fire.

The Marble Cone Fire was a wildland fire which burned for three weeks in August, 1977 in the Santa Lucia Mountains high country, at the Big Sur area of Monterey County, California. By the time it was extinguished, it had burned about 178,000 acres in the Santa Lucia Mountains, known as the Ventana Wilderness, making it the largest wildfire in recorded California history at that time. The fire burned 90% of the vegetation cover in the upper Big Sur River watershed

Memories can be odd - I read your post and immediately thought of the Marble Cone fire. Though I was not affected by it at all. No family camping or we went to San Luis reservoir that year.

[saibot]

Originally Posted by Barovelli

The Marble Cone Fire.

The Marble Cone Fire was a wildland fire which burned for three weeks in August, 1977 in the Santa Lucia Mountains high country, at the Big Sur area of Monterey County, California. By the time it was extinguished, it had burned about 178,000 acres in the Santa Lucia Mountains, known as the Ventana Wilderness, making it the largest wildfire in recorded California history at that time. The fire burned 90% of the vegetation cover in the upper Big Sur River watershed

Memories can be odd - I read your post and immediately thought of the Marble Cone fire. Though I was not affected by it at all. No family camping or we went to San Luis reservoir that year.

Wow! I was 8 in August, 1977, and I still clearly recall people talking gravely about the "fire in Big Sur."

[saibot]

Originally Posted by Barovelli

The Marble Cone Fire.

The Marble Cone Fire was a wildland fire which burned for three weeks in August, 1977 in the Santa Lucia Mountains high country, at the Big Sur area of Monterey County, California. By the time it was extinguished, it had burned about 178,000 acres in the Santa Lucia Mountains, known as the Ventana Wilderness, making it the largest wildfire in recorded California history at that time. The fire burned 90% of the vegetation cover in the upper Big Sur River watershed

Memories can be odd - I read your post and immediately thought of the Marble Cone fire. Though I was not affected by it at all. No family camping or we went to San Luis reservoir that year.

Wow! I was 8 in August, 1977, and I still clearly recall people talking gravely about the "fire in Big Sur." I feel like it was many years before any other California wildfire seemed like such a big deal, at least that I knew about.