BIG SUR, Calif. — Two endangered California condors recovering from lead poisoning were stranded Tuesday after the Timber fire engulfed the only road to their remote sanctuary near Big Sur, preventing staff members from replenishing their food and water.

With firefighting aircraft making a helicopter rescue impossible, wildlife workers faced the prospect of hiking into the rugged sanctuary before the U.S. Forest Service offered another way in: driving them there aboard one of its trucks.

The trapped birds were among the mounting consequences of a fire that grew to nearly 2,500 acres, prompted authorities to close a stretch of Highway 1 and forced more residents to evacuate Tuesday. The fire remained 5% contained.

The highway was closed as of 2 p.m. between Fernwood Resort and the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park Vista Point. Although motorists could still reach the closure points, officials urged visitors to stay away as Car Week crowds descend on the Monterey Peninsula.

“We’re really asking tourists to stay away from the area, especially because we’re in Car Week we don’t want to be in gridlock when emergency personnel are trying to get there as quickly as possible,” said Patsy Gasca, community disaster program manager for the American Red Cross of the Central Coast.

Point Sur State Historic Park, Andrew Molera State Park, Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park and Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park were closed Tuesday, along with many local businesses.

The fire’s northern and eastern portions remained active as the flames advanced northeast into the rugged Ventana Wilderness, Cal Fire said. The fire remained on the east side of Highway 1, though crews continued protecting structures near the highway in case the flames moved back down the hillside.

Authorities expanded evacuation orders Tuesday for areas stretching from near Andrew Molera State Park south through the Partington Ridge area. The orders covered parts of the Loma Vista area, Ventana Inn and properties near Partington Ridge and North Coast Ridge roads. Residents in surrounding areas were warned to prepare to leave.

The fire threatened 259 structures, Cal Fire said.

Cal Fire’s response included 480 personnel, eight helicopters, 36 engines, five bulldozers, seven water tenders and 13 crews. Air tankers from across the state were also flying fire-suppression missions as conditions allowed.

Josh Silveira, a Cal Fire battalion chief in Monterey County, said local, state and federal agencies were involved, including crews from Contra Costa and Alameda counties, the California Office of Emergency Services, Big Sur Fire Brigade and the U.S. Forest Service.

“That number’s expected to grow over the next couple days as we start to get our resources starting to make their way to the incident from around the state,” Silveira said.

Although the fire was moving northeast into an area with few structures, crews remained stationed in Big Sur and Ventana.

“We do have crews in place in Big Sur and Ventana doing structure defense, making sure that if the fire backs down the hill those residents are secure,” Silveira said.

The steep terrain has made the fire difficult to control. Much of the area lacks access roads, forcing firefighters to travel on foot and cut defensive lines by hand.

“On the ground, old school with shovels and picks,” Silveira said.

If left unchecked, the fire could eventually encroach on communities including Cachagua, roughly 5 to 8 miles northeast as the crow flies, Silveira said. He emphasized that was a “worst-case scenario” and that the community was not under an immediate threat.

“The chess game is, where do we engage the fire … to corral this thing out ahead of it to prevent it from impacting other communities,” Silveira said.

Weather could further complicate that effort. There was a 15% chance of showers and thunderstorms Wednesday afternoon and evening, but Silveira said any rain was unlikely to make a significant difference because of the area’s dry vegetation.

“Even though we may get wetting rain … it’s not really going to dramatically affect the fuel moisture,” he said. “It’ll dry out pretty quickly.”

The fire was burning primarily above the moisture of the marine layer, where warm, dry offshore winds from the Salinas Valley fanned the flames overnight, Silveira said.

The Timber fire remained far smaller than some of the historic blazes that have scarred Big Sur, including the 128,000-acre Dolan fire in 2020, the 132,000-acre Soberanes fire in 2016 and the 2008 Basin-Indians Complex fire, which burned more than 240,000 acres after two fires merged.

Smoke traveled as far north as the South Bay and East Bay, where the Bay Area Air District warned of hazy skies and the smell of smoke Tuesday and Wednesday. Although pollution levels were not expected to exceed federal health standards, conditions could change as smoke moves through the region.

Residents were advised to keep windows closed and set vehicle ventilation systems to recirculate air.

At Ventana Wildlife Society’s Big Sur Sanctuary, the two stranded birds — Condor 868 and Condor 340 — had been recuperating in a holding pen when the fire began over the weekend, said Kelly Sorenson, the organization’s executive director. The birds remained safe from the flames Tuesday, according to the organization.

The worldwide California condor population stood at 607 at the end of 2025, according to the latest federal count.

The fire “immediately engulfed the only access road” to the sanctuary, cutting off staff members who replenish the birds’ food and water, Sorenson said.

“They’re just kind of stuck there,” he said.

The organization considered hiring a helicopter but learned that airspace restrictions imposed because of the firefighting aircraft would prevent it from reaching the sanctuary. Just as it appeared staff members would have to make what Sorenson called a difficult hike to the property, the Forest Service offered to drive them there to release the birds.

“This fire just caught us right in the middle of allowing these two birds, Condor 868 and Condor 340, … to recuperate,” Sorenson said.

The organization was also monitoring wild condors in the area. Because the birds do not fly at night, they could be vulnerable if flames reach their roosting sites, Sorenson said.

Sorenson said 12 condors died in the 2020 Dolan fire.

Elsewhere in Big Sur, the fire displaced travelers but also brought out a familiar community response.

At Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn, an idyllic fixture along Highway 1, employees evacuated 38 guests in less than 20 minutes Sunday night, sending them north and south along the California coast to continue their travels.

Several staff members remained at the property, where they helped with structure protection and cooked meals for firefighters using the inn as a base, Executive Director Matt Glazer said.

A strike team has been stationed at Deetjen’s since Sunday night. When the first firefighters arrived directly from another blaze near Bakersfield, employees learned they had not eaten and went to work in a kitchen still stocked for the hotel guests who had just evacuated.

“It was easy for us to turn around and bust out some breakfast burritos that first morning,” Glazer said. “It’s how we do what we do. Deetjen’s has always been a community center of Big Sur, and we lend a helping hand wherever we can.”

Employees also delivered breakfast burritos to neighboring properties, where residents had been working to protect their homes, Glazer said.

“They’ve been fighting fire for like 36 hours straight,” he said.

Deetjen’s had not faced a direct threat as of Tuesday morning, though dense coastal fog mixed with smoke and reduced visibility at the inn.

“We know above us is where the fire is active,” Glazer said. “It’s immediately adjacent to our watershed, both up the hill to the north and up the hill to the south, but it’s still several thousand feet away from any of our structures.”

Around Big Sur, Glazer said, community members were again rallying to help one another.

“This is what Big Sur does – what Big Sur does is shows up,” Glazer said. “People are very aware of their neighbors and aware of each other, and everybody is willing to help. Big Sur is a resilient people.”

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