As Big Sur’s Timber Fire continues to crescendo, many locals have chosen to stay and fight for their homes and businesses in spite of mandatory evacuation orders.

Kirk Gafill, owner of California icon Nepenthe, said he saw the beginnings of the fire coming over the ridgeline across Highway 1 from his family business on Sunday night. He knew right away what he was dealing with. “We’re right back into it with the fires,” he told SFGATE on Tuesday from the restaurant. 

By Monday afternoon, most of the residents on the Nepenthe property — employees at the restaurant — had evacuated the region. Others, he said, chose to stay. He estimated that about half a dozen people associated with the business, including his son and his mother, were still there to provide “support and security” to their remaining neighbors. He said they will continue to stay and help out, monitoring the blaze’s progress “until that’s not a prudent decision.”

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For Gafill, staying was an easy decision. “I always look at the priority: yourself and your family, and in our case, our employees and physical properties and business and public we’re serving,” he explained. “When we have to close, it simplifies the public aspect. Then we have to ensure employees, whether they stay or evacuate, that their personal health and safety come first.”

Local residents, who call themselves the “Coast Ridge Road Boys,” voluntarily battle flames as the Timber Fire continues to burn in Big Sur, Calif., on Aug. 10, 2026.

He compared the first 72 hours of a fire in this region to “the fog of war.”

“There’s a lot of rumors and a lot of contradictory information” in that initial timeframe, he said. “Once incident management gets a hold of the situation, we get into kind of the rhythm of the event.”

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