It became a state park after Hearst Corp. donated the land in 1957.
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The castle, he said, is full of “priceless, irreplaceable items”.
Hearst Castle staff had an evacuation plan but declined to provide specifics, citing security concerns.
“A fire has never come this close before”, Chambers said. A spokesperson for Cal Fire tells the San Luis Obispo Tribunethat, as of late Sunday morning, the fire has grown to 24,096 acres and is about two-and-a-half miles from the historic home of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. “The Blue Cut Fire posed a real danger to residents living in these areas”. Investigators were seeking the cause of the blaze that broke out a week ago.
A huge wildfire that has been raging for days has created a crisis for the famed California landmark Hearst Castle, located above San Simeon on the state’s Central Coast.
The evacuations affect 2,448 people, according to Cal Fire.
Nobody was killed in the fire, though there were firefighters injured.
Veteran fire officials said property loss in the area could have been much worse, but credited early deployment of firefighters and equipment for limiting damage. All evacuation orders have been canceled.
Despite its being well over a week old, the fire surged with new activity on Monday and threatened to jump the lines that were containing it, though by day’s end containment remained at 35 percent.
“So we dropped what we were doing and got out”, Lydeen said.
“It’s not like going down the street in Los Angeles”, he added. “You have to do it by hand, bulldozers can’t get in there”, firefighter Larry Kurtz said. The Blue Cut Fire destroyed 105 homes and scorched more than 37,000 acres.
Fire officials are asking the public for help in identifying the source of the Blue Cut wildfire.
“That isn’t from us”, he said.
In Northern California, fire crews were gaining control Sunday on an arson fire that destroyed 189 homes. As firefighters advanced on the blaze, evacuation orders were gradually lifted. It is just one of several major wildfires in California this summer. It is the 20th most destructive in state history, Berlant said.
“What we need to do is to treat fires more like the natural disasters that they are, and allow the agency – the forest service – to draw on an emergency fund so we don’t have to rob Peter to pay Paul”, he says.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention said Sunday the 6-square-mile fire in Lower Lake is now 95 percent contained.
“The fire is now burning through Rock Butte area and into Monterey County west of lake San Antonio”, the fire agency said in its Monday morning Incident Update.
That recognition belongs to a fire that is 135 square miles big and is located along Highway 1 north of Big Sur, threatening four hundred homes. Firefighters, engines, and heavy equipment continue to operate in the area.
Nevertheless, the California Parks and Recreation Department said the castle, a state-designated “historical monument” that hosts almost 800,000 visitors a year, would be kept closed through August 28 “due to the proximity of the wildfire”.
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5 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details.
