Resident Keith Bispo stayed at his house the past week to protect he and his neighbors’ properties after the Palo Colorado community in Big Sur, Calif., was evacuated. Many other homes in the area were destroyed. (Associated Press)
A car destroyed from wildfires sits in Big Sur, Calif., Friday, July 29, 2016. Lodge managers and cafe owners along California's dramatic Big Sur coast were looking Friday at a summer of jittery guests and cancelled bookings after fire officials warned that crews will likely be battling a wildfire raging in steep, forested ridges just to the north for another month. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
The remains of a staircase destroyed at a hilltop home is viewed in Big Sur, Calif., Friday, July 29, 2016. Lodge managers and cafe owners along California's dramatic Big Sur coast were looking Friday at a summer of jittery guests and cancelled bookings after fire officials warned that crews will likely be battling a wildfire raging in steep, forested ridges just to the north for another month. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
BIG SUR, Calif. — Lodge managers and cafe owners along California’s dramatic Big Sur coast were looking at a summer of jittery guests and cancelled bookings after fire officials warned that crews will likely be battling a wildfire raging in steep, forested ridges just to the north for another month.
Big Sur establishments were already reporting as much as a 50 percent drop in business, said Stan Russell, executive director of the chamber of commerce.
That’s even though the only signs of the blaze were fire trucks and an occasional whiff of smoke along the famously winding and scenic Highway 1.
Normally, this time of year “is when everybody really runs at 100 percent,” Russell said Friday about tourism in the area. “This is when we make our money.”
The week-old blaze a few miles north of Big Sur had been blamed for one death, that of a bulldozer operator working the fire line.
The fire has destroyed 57 homes and burned 42 square miles.
Flames were concentrated in forested ridges above the summer fog line along the coast.
