A small fire is burning in the Little Sur watershed this afternoon. Reports place it along the east side of Serra Grade on the Old Coast Rd. Serra Grade is the steep climb to the north from the Little Sur River. The fire is supposed to be backing down toward the river and may have burned about 20 acres so far. It may also have affected some power poles, as power is out in places and phone service is currently spotty along the northern Big Sur coast.
Most of the area where the fire is reported to be burning was “burned out” during the Basin Complex fire two years ago.
Google Earth view of Serra Grade (the white road cut near the right side of the image). Hwy. 1 at the mouth of the Little Sur River is visible on the left.
6:15 Update: There’s now a report that the fire is west of the Old Coast Rd. in the Serra Grade area – apparently in the grasslands near the top of the above picture. This would place the fire on the slopes of Serra Hill and outside the Basin Complex burn area.
7:40 Update: Fog is getting thicker and things are getting cooler and damper. We doubt this fire will be burning much more than it already has. Action photos of a helicopter drawing water from the Little Sur Lagoon may be viewed on bigsurkate.
8:25 Update: CAL FIRE now puts the fire at 35 acres and says it’s 50% contained.
Fire declared 100% contained at 7:30am Wednesday August 4 2010
Xasáuan Today 
And did you hear, XT, the cause of the blaze? CAL FIRE says: It seems that the best guess for the cause of the fire was one of the El Sur Ranch bulls rubbing his back on one of the power poles along the Serra Grade and knocking it down. It is only a best guess, but makes for a great story (as Martha relayed to me)
Sounds like a lotta bull … to knock down a power pole – XT