Iconic Big Sur hotel, restaurant mostly destroyed in late-night fire: ‘It’s so sad’
Most of a century-old Big Sur hotel and restaurant was destroyed by fire on Aug. 10, according to Facebook posts by Big Sur Fire.
Firefighters responded to the structure fire at Lucia Lodge, an iconic property perched 300 feet atop a Big Sur bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, at about 11:30 p.m., said Big Sur Fire, an all-volunteer nonprofit organization that provides fire protection, rescue and emergency medical services to the Big Sur community.
When they arrived, flames had already broken through the restaurant roof, Big Sur Fire said.
The firefighters immediately began fighting the blaze and were able to stop the fire’s spread toward the general store section, the group said.
Agencies including Cal Fire, Monterey County Regional Fire District, Mid Coast Fire Brigade and the U.S. Forest Service sent crews to help battle the blaze.
According to Angela Padilla, Big Sur Fire’s assistant administrator, the majority of the Lucia Lodge restaurant and kitchen was destroyed, and other parts of the lodge including the store, were damaged.
“It’s so sad,” Padilla said, adding that the hotel’s rental rooms with their “million-dollar view” apparently did not burn.
Padilla said crews remained on site as of 1 p.m. Aug. 11, mopping up and monitoring the remains of the blaze. She said they planned to remain there at least for the rest of the daylight hours.
The fire’s cause is still under investigation, but there was “nothing super obvious” that firefighters noticed at the time, Padilla said.
According to the Lucia Lodge website, it was constructed by one of Big Sur’s 19th-century pioneer families and and those who stay are welcomed to the village of Lucia by “the fifth generation of the Harlan family.” The town and the lodge, according to the site, are “named after the metamorphic mountains that surround it.”
A recent episode of the Netflix show “Ratched” featured Lucia Lodge.
This story was originally published August 11, 2021 at 1:49 PM.
