Basin Complex Fire on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
The Basin Complex Fire was a massive wildfire near Big Sur that ignited on June 21, 2008, and was the result of a
lightning
Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous release of an avera ...
strike. It eventually grew to , becoming the second-largest wildfire of the 2008 California wildfire season, and burning most of the Ventana Wilderness
The Ventana Wilderness of Los Padres National Forest is a federally designated wilderness area located in the Santa Lucia Range along the Central Coast of California. This wilderness was established in 1969 when the Ventana Wilderness Act redesig ...
. State and federal officials spent more than $120 million to fight the fire, making it is the most expensive fire in California history up to that time, and the second most expensive in U.S. history, exceeded only by the Biscuit Fire
The Biscuit Fire was a massive wildfire in 2002 that burned nearly in the Rogue River–Siskiyou National Forest, in southern Oregon and northern California, in the Western United States. The fire was named after Biscuit Creek in southern Orego ...
in 2002. Eventually, the Thomas Fire
The Thomas Fire was a massive wildfire that affected Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, and one of multiple wildfires that ignited in southern California in December 2017. It burned approximately before being fully contained on January ...
surpassed the Basin Complex Fire in firefighting costs as well.
The fire
The fire forced the evacuation of Big Sur prior to the July 4 holiday weekend.Camp Pico Blanco
Camp Pico Blanco is an inactive camp of (originally ) in the interior region of Big Sur in Central California. It is operated by the Silicon Valley Monterey Bay Council, of the Boy Scouts of America, a new council formed as a result of a merger ...
was forced to evacuate the camp and diverted its Scouts to Boulder Creek Scout Reservation in Santa Cruz. The camp lost only one building, an outlying ranger's cabin. Big Sur residents were permitted to return on July 9.
, the fire is the twentieth-largest wildfire in California, since accurate records began in 1932.
References
{{California wildfires by year 2008 California wildfires Wildfires in Monterey County, California Santa Lucia Range Monterey Ranger District, Los Padres National Forest June 2008 events in the United States July 2008 events in the United States