A Big Sur Podcast
A Big Sur Podcast
An ongoing conversation with people from near and far about Big Sur's past, present, and future. A Big Sur Podcast interprets “community” to mean ALL people from around the world who are curious about, and who care about, the preservation and restoration of the wild and rural character of Big Sur. Stories are told by visitors and residents, plumbers and linesmen, musicians and authors, dancers and jugglers and others. Sometimes we drift (way) off-topic into the arts, sciences, personal stories, gossip, politics, philosophy, ornithology, Henry Miller, and our zeitgeist in general. We like that!
The opinions expressed here belong to the people who express them. They may or may not line up with yours, mine, or your neighbor’s — and that’s exactly the point. Different perspectives, lived experiences, and even wildly clashing views are what make conversations worth listening to: enriching, infuriating, life-affirming, and sometimes all three at once.
If you are planning a visit to Big Sur and you listen to some of the folks on this Podcast talk about their love of the place your visit will probably be a lot more rewarding. Please email magnus@henrymiller.org with any comments, critique & suggestions.
Music intro clip courtesy John Holm: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DZ06evO0Rh2QU
Sound editing software by Hindenburg: https://hindenburg.com/
Please support the podcast by making a donation to the Henry Miller Library, a 501(c)3 nonprofit arts organization. Thank you!
A Big Sur Podcast
# 138 Living With Fire: Big Sur - Command and Community: Fire Chief Matt Harris
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Big Sur Fire Chief Matt Harris takes us inside the Timber and Plaskett Fires from the perspective of the local department: the first night, the competition for resources, unified command, evacuation orders, community knowledge and the preparations that helped protect Big Sur. He also describes what must change before the next fire - and why a successful response should be understood as a beginning, not an end.
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One community. Two major fires. And one recurring problem: local knowledge can be indispensable on the ground while still struggling to reach the people making decisions.
This is the eighth conversation in Living With Fire: Big Sur, our ongoing look at the Timber and Plaskett Fires and of Big Sur's larger relationship with wildfire.
Matt first appeared on A Big Sur Podcast in episode 43, recorded beside the creek in Emil's Canyon in 2022. We talked then about his childhood on the South Coast, the loss of Pacific Valley Center, his path into the fire service and the work of building a local department around neighbors helping neighbors.
This time, Matt returns after the Timber and Plaskett Fires to describe the response from the fire chief's seat.
He reconstructs the first night of the Timber Fire: the initial dispatch, the difficult terrain, the limited access and the point at which a small local response became a large and increasingly complex incident.
Matt describes entering unified command with the Forest Service - and, later, being removed from it. He explains what that changed for communication, logistics, resource requests and his ability to act on priorities identified by the community.
The conversation moves into one of the hardest questions in this series: what should happen when residents remain behind during an evacuation order? Matt distinguishes preparation and useful local knowledge from actions that can endanger residents and firefighters alike.
We also discuss what was different this time: the seasonal Big Sur Fire hand crew, defensible-space work completed before the emergency, and a coastwide mapping project that gave incoming responders immediate information about structures, roads, water sources and potential control lines.
Near the end, he tells the story of Partington Ridge - where local preparation, resident work and incoming fire crews came together around a plan he believed could hold.
This is Matt Harris's account, not a final after-action report. It intersects with the other voices in this series, sometimes confirming them and sometimes complicating them.
His message to the community and its agency partners is direct: "Inform us and let us help you."
And his closing conclusion may be the larger one: we are all on the same team, but our roles and responsibilities must be clearer before the next fire.
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• Earlier Matt Harris conversation episode 43
• Big Sur Fire hand crew information
• Official Timber Fire incident page
• Official Plaskett Fire incident page
• Ready Monterey County and Alert Monterey County
• Big Sur Multi Agency Advisory Council
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Earlier Living With Fire conversations
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This podcast is a production of the Henry Miller Memorial Library with support from The Arts Council for Monterey County!
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