Well, we’ve often said that it is not a matter of if fire will come to Chews Ridge, but when and from which direction.

The Ventana Wilderness was pummeled by twelve hundred lightning strikes on September 8th and 9th when streaming subtropical moisture from the Gulf of California unexpectedly formed into a massive electrical storm directly over the Central Coast. It was a truly awe-inspiring display. Bolts marched inland and struck as close as four miles from MIRA’s Oliver Observing Station. Wildfire soon broke out.

Within days, forty-seven separate fires had been reported in the Los Padres National Forest (hence the designation "Kirk Complex"). The very weather conditions that make for peerless summertime seeing on Chews Ridge—laminar flow and exceptionally low humidity above the inversion layer—also made for optimal burning conditions.

Direct air attack alone proved ineffective in halting the advance of the Tassajara fire. One week into the conflagration, indirect firefighting operations were initiated. A strike team consisting of a dozen dozers suddenly appeared at the Oliver Observing Station to create a firebreak up the drive and then down the ridgeline separating Piney Creek and Calaboose Canyons. When the topography proved adverse to continuing this cut all the way down to Arroyo Seco, strike team members were called back. Not content with cooling their heels while plans were being revised, the dozer operators pushed out a safety zone on the west side of the observatory. This safety zone, along with the partially completed line, later provided invaluable protection for the OOS during backfiring operations.

Monarch and Tiger hand crews from the Angeles and Cleveland National Forests expanded the safety zone by cutting brush back down the slope to the east. Because of the unobstructed views, and being mostly upwind of the smoke, the observatory became a veritable beehive of activity. CDF engine crews stood an around-the-clock watch. Forest Service generals convened on the roof to strategize, and the MIRA canteen was open for business. Much coffee was brewed, and all the amenities of modern living (like flush toilets) were extended.

Congressional approval was sought and obtained so old firebreaks could be reestablished using mechanized equipment within the bounds of the federally protected wilderness. These firebreaks were the same ones that had ultimately been effective at containing the spread of the fast-moving Marble Cone blaze of 1977. (Marble Cone torched 177,000 acres just seven years prior to the completion of the Oliver Observing Station.) Had conditions worsened, had it been necessary to backfire from all these contingency lines, the Kirk Complex fire would have gone down in the annals of California history as the largest backfiring operation ever undertaken.

Fortunately for MIRA, the fallback position of setting a backfire from the Chews Ridge lookout to Arroyo Seco through Piney Creek Canyon and the OOS never became a reality. In part, this was simply due to improving weather conditions and favorable winds (the continued prospect of flush toilets and fresh-brewed Colombo Supremo coffee probably didn’t hurt our cause any, either). Hotshot crews Terra Torched a black line along the west side of the firebreak that once was the MIRA driveway. This backfire and another above China Camp stopped the Miller Canyon portion of the fire from sweeping over Tassajara Road, hooking around the line already cut, and taking a run at the observatory.

The Tassajara fire continued to claw westward into the Carmel River drainage for quite some time after the threat to the observatory passed. Finally, in late October, containment on both the North and South Complex fires was reached at more than 86,000 acres combined.