Incident commanders describe backburns, dozer lines and drones in Big Sur firefight

Operations officials gave a step-by-step account of firefighting tactics used against the Timber and Plasket fires. Clint Green, operations section chief with California Team 3, described a recent back-burn operation from Manuel Peak down to Highway 1 that "took about 2 to 2.5 days," tied into Old Coast Road and is being extended via dozer lines toward LP Dam and Batcher's Gap. Green said crews are using masticators and hose lines to bolster dozer lines and that the team favors ridge-top lines where feasible to create more-holdable straight lines.

Green said firing plans are methodical and depend on incident meteorology; crews pretreat the green side of containment lines with retardant and bucket drops before backfiring. On technology, he described drones assigned to the incident for mapping and ignition: "They're about the size of a paintball" (referring to ignition spheres called dragon eggs) and each drone can carry "anywhere from 3 to 400 of those" with ~20-minute flight cycles between battery swaps, allowing night operations without risking aircrew lives. Operations staff said current plans reuse some lines from the 2016 Soberanes incident but adapt tactics to current fuels and weather.

The team reported dozer-line progress: crews expect to complete a ridgeline segment from Drop 0.50 up toward Los Padres Dam in roughly 2–3 days, and further bolstering east of Tassajara Road toward Piney Creek in 4–5 days. Officials invited residents to review the briefing map after the meeting to locate the blue trigger lines that lead to evacuation warnings/orders.