Marble-Cone Fire

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)^[1] 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.^[2]

References

External links

• "Changes in Distribution of Owl Species Subsequent to Habitat Alteration by Fire", Bruce Elliot, California Department of Fish and Game Western Birds 16:25-28, 1985
• "Burn Species", David Rogers, Double Cone Quarterly, Spring 2000

v t e Notable California wildfires, by size Largest fires since 1932 #1 - Cedar Fire: 273,246 acres (427 sq mi; 110,579 ha) #2 - Rush Fire: 271,911 acres (425 sq mi; 110,038 ha) (California portion) #3 - Rim Fire: 257,126 acres (402 sq mi; 104,055 ha) #4 - Zaca Fire: 240,207 acres (375 sq mi; 97,208 ha) #5 - Matilija Fire: 220,000 acres (340 sq mi; 89,030 ha) #6 - Witch Fire: 197,990 acres (309 sq mi; 80,124 ha) #7 - Marble-Cone Fire: ~178,000 acres (280 sq mi; 72,030 ha) #8 - Laguna Fire: 175,425 acres (274 sq mi; 70,992 ha) #9 - Basin Complex fire: 162,818 acres (254 sq mi; 65,890 ha) #10 - Day Fire: 162,700 acres (254 sq mi; 65,842 ha) #11 - Station Fire: 160,557 acres (251 sq mi; 64,975 ha) #12 - McNally Fire: 150,670 acres (235 sq mi; 60,974 ha) Smaller notable fires Old Fire (2003): 91,281 acres (143 sq mi; 36,940 ha) Harris Fire: 90,440 acres (141 sq mi; 36,600 ha) Indians Fire: 76,554 acres (120 sq mi; 30,980 ha) Moonlight Fire: 65,000 acres (102 sq mi; 26,305 ha) Sawtooth Complex fire: 61,700 acres (96 sq mi; 24,969 ha) Ranch Fire: 58,401 acres (91 sq mi; 23,634 ha)