6 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY AUGUST 13-19, 2026 www.montereycountynow.com NEWS Within days of the 2025 Moss Landing fire, Ivano Aiello, a Prunedale resident and a marine geologist at Moss Landing Marine Labs, noticed something was off. Most obvious were the chunks of battery material, visible to the naked eye, scattered around Elkhorn Slough, pieces that had once been part of Vistra’s Battery Energy Storage System at Moss Landing. Aiello, who had years of restoration data from before the fire, did what any curious scientist might: collected samples to look at what changed under a microscope, only to find metals concentrations 1,000 times higher than before. The battery storage facility, the largest in the world, caught fire in the center of a global academic hub, so where state and local agencies failed to study the impacts tied to a growing industry, local researchers and community groups stepped in. “That we had all of this before data was lucky,” says Kerstin Wasson, research coordinator of the Elkhorn Slough Reserve. On Friday, Aug. 7, nine researchers presented their latest findings on the battery fire’s fallout at a symposium at Moss Landing Marine Labs. The researchers, working with full schedules and shoestring budgets, presented over the course of seven hours to roughly 70 people, with hundreds more registered to watch online. The Estuary Monitoring of Battery Emissions and Residues (EMBER) research group received additional financial support totaling $300,000 in grants over the past 18 months, according to Wasson, including donations from members of the Packard family, CDFW and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Deep Dive Local researchers fill gaps left by state and local agencies after the Vistra battery fire. By Katie Rodriguez On Saturday, Aug. 8, sometime in the evening, a fire at Timber Top, a popular camping destination in Big Sur’s Ventana Wilderness, began to spread. It was reportedly slow-moving, at first. To the best of Josh Silveira’s knowledge, battalion chief with Cal Fire in Monterey County, all campers in the area self-evacuated that night. As of press time, Aug. 12, the fire had grown to more than 3,150 acres and was 5 percent contained. The cause of the fire is under investigation by the U.S. Forest Service, and evacuation orders are in place for five zones encompassing popular areas including the Henry Miller Memorial Library, Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn and Alila Ventana Big Sur. More than 500 structures were threatened, according to Cal Fire, with no reports of structure damage. The fire has been burning to the northeast into the Ventana Wilderness, Silveira says. Weather conditions are expected to remain similar, warmer at higher elevations and cooler at lower elevations. Cal Fire is watching a 15 to 20 percent chance of thunderstorms and precipitation through the week. To keep the roadway clear of traffic, a concern as Car Week is underway, Caltrans announced the closure of a 10-mile stretch of Highway 1 on Tuesday for an undetermined period of time. Pebble Beach representatives worked with local officials to develop a contingency plan for their Tour d’Elegance, which typically traces the coast from Pebble Beach into Big Sur. Casey Cushing, a Big Sur resident under evacuation orders, says she could see the fire come within 1,000 feet from her house after hiking up the hill to catch a glimpse. The smoke was deceiving, she adds, as it’s been foggy at lower elevation areas and near the coast. “My cats were basically giving me the signal like it’s time to go... they were kind of limp,” she says, “and I was not feeling great either from the smoke.” Cushing, who also experienced the Dolan Fire in 2020, says one major concern among locals has been monitoring illegal campfires during the summer. Like many other residents who evacuated, Cushing relocated to an area north of Big Sur. She’s now staying with family in Carmel Valley and has been helping organize community support runs for Big Sur Fire. She and Emily Rose Peck, a Big Sur local who recently moved to Carmel Valley, have been gathering goods for fire crews, who requested everything from electrolytes, protein drinks and beef jerky to additional safety equipment and phone chargers. Nepenthe, Deetjen’s, Ventana and Post Ranch Inn have evacuated staff and guests. See Monterey has compiled a list of hotels in Monterey offering discount rates to evacuees. The County of Monterey, in collaboration with the American Red Cross, opened an emergency evacuation shelter at Carmel Middle School, 4380 Carmel Valley Road, for residents displaced by the fire. “We’re not in code red right now. We’ve been blanketed by fog,” Matt Glazer of Deetjen’s says, “but we’re listening to all the fire scientists, we talk to firefighters and we look at our escape routes. “Big Sur needs wise travelers, which means study what’s happening before you get here and don’t come during wildfires.” For updates, visit montereycountynow.com. After Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn staff evacuated guests, firefighters moved in as a place of respite during the Timber Fire. The inn also provided meals and coffee. Timber Burning Big Sur responds to the Timber Fire, which continues to spread amid Car Week events. By Katie Rodriguez Ivano Aiello and other researchers of the battery fire emphasized that timing and methodology of the sampling matter, helping explain why many reports found little to no fallout while others did. “My cats were giving me the signal it’s time to go.” DANIEL DREIFUSS DANIEL DREIFUSS DEEP continued on pg 8
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