A fire has burned more than 10,000 acres on a remote island roughly 40 miles off Ventura, spreading within a half-mile of a rare Torrey Pine grove.
The stand on Santa Rosa, part of the Channel Islands National Park, is one of the only locations the trees are found. Sometimes called the Galapagos of North America, the five-island park is home to more than 2,000 plant and animal species, from rare seabirds to elephant seals. Some, like island foxes, are found there and nowhere else in the world.
Mike Theune, an information officer with the U.S. Wildland Fire Service, called the Torrey Pines “a priority area” to protect from the wildfire.
“It is definitely a place of significant interest, not only to the park, but also historically,” he said.
The blaze first reported early May 15 had ballooned to 10,029 acres by Sunday night with no containment. The entire island spans roughly 53,000 acres, according to Theune.
Flames have destroyed two historic structures and a storage shed, while the status of the South Point Light Station was unknown. Authorities have closed Santa Rosa to visitors until further notice and flown park staff, other than firefighting personnel, to the mainland.
The blaze had pushed northeast, reaching South Wreck Road and Quemada Canyon Road, and flames were burning roughly 2.5 miles from a historic ranch, Theune said. Firefighters were focused on creating more defensible space, removing spots where embers could catch, around the ranch, park housing, the pier and nearby bridge.
“Every opportunity that we have to go direct and fight this fire head on, we will take,” Theune said. But with the weather changes Monday, firefighters are also looking at opportunities to use aircraft, he said.
Winds made aerial operations ineffective over the weekend, but had started to shift direction, he said. Plans called for assessing whether water drops could start again to try to slow the fire’s spread.
Theune called weather conditions the biggest challenge so far in the firefight.
“Wind was the primary driver of the fire activity, but it also greatly reduced our ability to get more and more resources out to the island,” he said.
Additional personnel and equipment were on boats headed to Santa Rosa Monday morning.
This story will be updated.
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This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: National Park’s Santa Rosa Island fire grows to 10,000 acres
Reporting by Cheri Carlson, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
