Update: The evacuation zones for both the River Fire and the Carmel Fire were expanded Wednesday afternoon. The new zones are shown in orange on the map above.
The estimate of the size of the river fire, burning at the edge of the Salinas Valley, grew quarter hour by more than 6,000 acres.
In its report at 7 a.m. Tuesday, the San Benito Monterey unit of the California Department of State Forest Management and Fire Protection said the fire had burned 4,509 acres. At 7 a.m. Wednesday, the estimate was 10,672 acres, or 16 square miles.
The approximate perimeter is shown in red on the map above, and the required evacuation area is shown in orange.
The River Fire started early Sunday when a lightning storm swept over the area.
Meanwhile, the Monterey Bay area has two newer fires to deal with: the Carmel Fire, eight miles to the south, and the Dolan Fire, discovered by satellite images Tuesday night off the coast of Big Sur.
According to the Los Padres National Forest Facebook page, the Dolan Fire quickly grew to 2,500 acres overnight. The east side of Dolan Canyon was evacuated Tuesday night, and Highway 1 is closed between Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park and Ragged Point in San Luis Obispo County.
The Carmel Fire started at noon near Carmel Valley Road and Cachagua Road, 3½ miles from Carmel Valley Village. By 7 a.m. Wednesday, it had burned 742 acres and destroyed three structures; 20 structures were threatened.
Updates on evacuations and emergency services can be found on the Twitter feed Monterey County Office of Emergency Services.
Maps for other fires in Northern California:
The Monterey Herald contributed to this report.
