Big Sur Fires Claim 72,000 Acres, Force Evacuation of Monastery

SAN FRANCISCO —  Stubborn fires touched off by lightning 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.

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, which can only be reached by a narrow, twisting road from the coastal highway, houses 30 and 40 monks who maintain vows of silence and support themselves by making fruitcakes.

The evacuation order was issued after one of two large wildfires in Big Sur’s Los Padres National Forest burned through two dry creeks and then raced up nearby hills.

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 either to evacuate or be ready to leave.