Sparked by lightning, a fire burned more than 1,100 acres of dense forest in the Point Reyes National Seashore this week, threatening the towns of Bolinas and Olema and sending clouds of grey smoke across the region.
Firefighters struggled to access the blaze because of its remote location, and air support was unavailable because resources were focused on other fires in California. As of Wednesday night, the Woodward Fire was 0 percent contained.
The fire’s edge is four miles away from Bolinas, and winds from the northwest inundated the town with smoke and ash. Many residents heeded an evacuation warning and left the area.
“We know this fire will grow,” said Bret McTigue, a Marin County Fire battalion chief.
Smoke was first spotted after 4 p.m. on Tuesday, a few miles west of the Bear Valley Visitor Center and about one mile inland from Sculptured Beach. Fire crews were already in the area, fighting a separate, five-acre fire just two miles north. They hiked to the origin of the newly spotted fire, but suppression options were slim because the area was inaccessible by vehicle. Without engines or hoses, firefighters relied on saws and axes to try to secure a perimeter.
Mr. McTigue said the Woodward Fire, which began near the Woodward Valley Trail, likely started by lightning on Monday morning, then smoldered for a day before spreading.
The dry forest of firs, pines, bays and oaks is ripe for fire growth. Fallen leaves and branches easily combust, and the tall trees readily burn, sending flames torching into the sky.
Incident commanders quickly requested two airplanes and two helicopters from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, but no air support was received. In the late evening, winds picked up to 40 miles per hour, and the fire continued to stretch south.
At 7 p.m., the fire department announced the blaze at 50 acres and by the next update at 10 p.m., the burn zone had grown to 700 acres. An evacuation warning was issued for residents living west of Highway 1 from Olema to Bolinas. Twenty-five campers were taken out of the Wildcat and Glen Campgrounds, and an evacuation center was established at West Marin School.
B.G. Bates, a Bolinas resident who lives on the edge of the seashore, left town rather than waiting for the warning to become an order. Her home is at the end of a single-exit route, so traffic was a concern.
“If I wait for the order, I will be stuck, and the way this is moving, I’m worried,” she said.
After a sleepless night, she packed her valuables into her ash-covered car and headed to her office over the hill. Lingering fears about an inferno claiming her home have surfaced.
For longtime residents, the fire brings back memories of the 1995 Mount Vision Fire, which burned 45 homes on the Inverness Ridge and over 12,000 acres in the seashore. Twenty-five years later, the National Park Service has another major challenge on its hands. The strategy is focused on identifying ridges, roads and trails where a perimeter can be established.
Greg Jones, the fire management officer for the seashore, and Carey Feierabend, the acting superintendent, were not available for comment.
On Wednesday morning, 94 personnel were assigned to the fire, up from 60 the day before. Most of the firefighters were from Marin County Fire, with some support from volunteer fire departments. The crews are all that Marin can spare while still covering the rest of the county.
Air support was again not available, as Cal Fire strategically positioned its resources at fires that threaten life or property.
The Woodward Fire was the culmination of a bizarre week of weather. On Saturday, inland temperatures over 100 degrees prompted visitors to swarm the coast. The seashore closed multiple parking lots, and the filling station in Point Reyes Station ran out of gas.
That night, rumbling thunder and flashing lightning awoke many residents in a rare storm.
Roger Gass, a National Weather Service meteorologist, described the lightning as a once-in-a-decade event. In this particular case, it was caused by a mix of heat, abnormal wind patterns and high moisture content from Tropical Storm Fausto, off the coast of Baja California.
Elevating the fire threat, rainfall was low during the thunderstorms; the coast saw less than a quarter-inch of rain, according to Inverness Public Utility District rain gauges.
“This was dry lightning,” Mr. Gass said. “The lightning strikes were hitting the ground where there was no rain hitting the ground, and in many cases that is what has caused all these wildfires to start.”
The storm brought down over 10,000 lightning strikes across California this week, and 200 strikes in Marin. The strikes caused at least nine ignitions in the county, including several small sparks that firefighters were able to quickly contain and a few slightly larger fires. Seventeen acres burned on Mt. Barnabe on Sunday morning, and on Monday morning, over 2,000 PG&E customers lost power in West Marin after a lightning strike impacted electrical equipment.
Across the state, over 370 fires and 300,000 acres have burned since Saturday.
Register with your address at alertmarin.org and nixle.com for evacuation notifications and emergency information. For the latest updates on fire activity, visit twitter.com/marincountyfire or call the Marin County Fire public information hotline at (415) 473.7191.
Anna Guth contributed reporting to this article.