The Marble-Cone Fire was a wildland fire which burned for three weeks in August, 1977 in the Big Sur, California high country. By the time it was extinguished, it had burned about 178,000 acres (720 km2) in the Santa Lucia Mountains, known as the Ventana Wilderness, making it the largest wildfire in recorded California history at that time. The fire burned 90% of the vegetation cover in the upper Big Sur River watershed. This posed the threat of serious flooding in the Big Sur River Valley, where a much smaller August 1972 fire had led to disastrous flooding later that year. Fortunately, moderate rains resulted in no major flooding problems.
Famous quotes containing the word fire:
“The true preacher can be known by this, that he deals out to the people his life,—life passed through the fire of thought.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)