🔥 CALPF Plaskett Fire
Description
Last updated: 2026-08-30 --- The type of incident is Wildfire and involves the following unit(s) Los Padres National Forest. --- State: California --- Coordinates: Latitude: 35° 54 20 Longitude: 121° 24 45 --- NOTE: All fire perimeters and points are approximations. --- Incident Overview: Daily Update (PDF)     |    Morning Update Spanish     |     Daily Maps (PDF)     |     Video Updates     |     Smoke Updates The Plaskett fire was discovered on August 27, 2026 at around 9:30 AM.  It began burning in a remote and inaccessible area on the southern part of the Monterey District, which allowed the fire to outpace initial attack.  It is currently estimated at 6,241 acres. CURRENT SITUATION:The Plaskett Fire was active all night, and firefighters remained in engaged in structure defense along the Los Burros road overnight, supported by night flying aircraft. Rocks rolling onto Highway 1 remains a concern. Fire crews near Sand Dollar and Plaskett creek executed tactical firing operations overnight as the fire backed toward structures and residences. Firefighters maintained the perimeter near Plaskett Creek, while northern teams opened existing road systems and installed hose lines. On the eastern front, the fire reached the length of the primary dozer line, crossing South Coast Road and resulting in several slop-overs into Fort Hunter Liggett. Ground teams, supported by multiple fuel cycles from night flying helicopters, engaged these slop-overs and conducted defensive firing near Los Burros Road to protect threatened homes and structures. Additionally, crews identified a new 100-foot by 100-foot spot fire across Buckeye Road in the Willow Creek drainage.Priorities for fire operations during the day are the protection of residential areas along the Los Burros ridge and toward Alder Creek. Crews will work to contain the small spot fire while scouting terrain further east of the ridge roads to establish new secondary fuel breaks. Operations will also continue to monitor fire spread backing toward Highway 1 to improve protection for coastal structures.Today, a large resource surge will continue, with firefighters reporting to logistical bases established to support both fires at Haystack, Big Sur, and at Plaskett.  A Mobile Retardant Base is being established on the east side of the fire to assist with aerial support on the fire’s east side. The fire has backed down to Highway 1 and firefighters have continued to focus on structure protection as the fire remains active. A large surge of resources continues to arrive on-scene at the fire. The fire gained the most acreage on the eastern side burning toward Fort Hunter Liggett and to the south, where firefighters are actively engaged in structure defense on Los Burros Road. Night flying helicopters are in place for continued structure protection overnight.Crews not engaged with structure protection continue to open CONTAINMENT line along Prewitt Ridge and along the South Coast Ridge Road. With no fire history in the area in more than 50 years, heavy vegetation is driving the active fire behavior. Weather over the next few days is expected to trend cooler with higher humidity. Firefighters will take advantage of favorable conditions to look for every opportunity possible to use direct containment tactics.WEATHER: No major day over day changes forecast with mostly sunny skies. Smoke shading will be more prevalent on the Plaskett fire. Temperatures running near or a few degrees below normal, mainly in the mid 70s to mid 80s. Humidity readings will trend more seasonable with afternoon minimums 18-28%. General winds from the Northwest 5-10 mph with afternoon ridgetop gusts to 15 mph. Most of the winds over the fire will be diurnally driven and light under 8 mph. The marine layer depth should be around 2000 feet and confined to the immediate coastline after mixing out by 1000 hours.Road CLOSURES AND EVACUATIONS: A hard road closure is in effect on State Route 1:  For updates, visit:  https://roads.dot.ca.gov/?roadnumber=1 or https://quickmap.dot.ca.gov/AREA CLOSURE:  The Los Padres National Forest has issued an Area Closure for Forest Service managed lands surrounding the Timber and Plaskett Fires.  Full text of the Closure Order, and Closure Order Map. Los Padres National Forest encompasses nearly two million acres of central California's scenic Coast and Transverse Ranges. The forest stretches across almost 220 miles from north to south and consists of two separate land divisions. The northern division is within Monterey County and northern San Luis Obispo County and includes the beautiful Big Sur Coast and scenic interior areas. The "main division" of the forest includes lands within San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura and Kern Counties. --- Source: InciWeb | http://inciweb.wildfire.gov/incident-information/calpf-plaskett-fire
Location
CA - Active Wildfire
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Details
Observed
Thursday, August 27, 2026
Auto-expires
September 13, 2026
Reported by
Trail Conditions Bot
Aug 30, 2026