As we write this, the Trabing fire along the Highway One corridor between Watsonville and Aptos is still burning.  So far it has consumed 630 acres and at least fifteen structures.  Residents in the rush to evacuate had just minutes scoop up their irreplaceable belongings, family pets, and livestock and flee for safety.

Yesterday a sudden blaze along southbound Highway 1 near the Holman Highway exit and Pebble Beach gate closed down one lane and two highway ramps. A quick response by firefighters prevented the loss of a number of homes in the Cielo Vista area.

The Indians fire west of King City, burning since June 8, is only 50 percent contained and voluntary evacuations are still in effect for the Pine Canyon area.

A long-running legal dispute between two homeowners and their own homeowners’ association, and the City of Monterey, has resulted in Monterey’s Parcel B, site of the contentious Veterans-Quarry Park Trail, not being maintained to fire-safe standards for far too many years. Parcel B, surrounded by densely populated forested neighborhoods, is now overgrown with highly-combustable non-native undergrowth and deadfall. It is a tragedy waiting to happen.

A homeowners’ association cannot realistically be expected to assess or mitigate the extreme fire danger created by this lack of maintenance. It will require the expertise and resources of the City’s Urban Forestry Department to address and correct the severe wildfire hazard that has developed on Parcel B.

The board of the Monterey Vista Neighborhood Association has unanimously adopted a resolution that calls upon the City of Monterey and its officials to finally acquire the deed of ownership for Parcel B (as all but the aforementioned two homeowners voted in good faith to negotiate in 2002 when the transfer was proposed by the City), so the City may assume the responsibility for maintaining the land to fire-safe standards, as well as to safeguard continued public access to long-used trails that link Veterans and Quarry Parks.  In this the MVNA board members are joined by the Skyline Ridge Homeowners’ Association, and over 100 individual neighborhood residents (read them here - 2mb pdf file).

The local headlines of the past few days are a stark warning to all of us neighborhood residents.  If we do not press the City of Monterey to take decisive action concerning this matter, our homes may be the next to go up in smoke and ashes.