Fire burns Big Basin State Park’s historic buildings

Photo: Grant Marek / SFGATE

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Wildfire flames raced through Big Basin Redwoods State Park on Tuesday, and officials said Wednesday night that multiple structures were damaged, including the park’s headquarters, historic core and campgrounds.

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Wildfire flames raced through Big Basin Redwoods State Park on Tuesday, and officials said Wednesday night that multiple structures were damaged, including the park’s headquarters, historic core and

… more Photo: Grant Marek / SFGATE

Fire wipes out Big Basin State Park’s historic buildings

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Wildfire flames raced through Big Basin Redwoods State Park on Tuesday and destroyed multiple structures, including the historic headquarters, the nature center, campgrounds and more.

California State Parks released a statement Wednesday night that the park sustained “extensive damage,” but didn’t provide details on damage to its stands of ancient redwoods, some nearly 2,000 years old.

Established in 1902, Big Basin is California’s oldest state park, which features a park village. The headquarters was built in 1936 by crews of the Civilian Conservation Corps with local redwood logs and stone, and is registered with the National Register of Historic Places.

An arm of the CZU August Lightning Complex — a group of fires burning in San Mateo and Sonoma counties — entered the park in the Santa Cruz Mountains on Tuesday. All campers, day-use visitors and State Parks staff at Little Basin and Big Basin were evacuated Monday night ahead of the blaze. The CZU Complex was named for the fires ignited by a rash of thunderstorms early this week. On Wednesday evening, Cal Fire said the blaze had torn through more than 25,000 acres and was zero percent contained. (Read more about the CZU Complex on SFGATE.)

The park is closed until further notice, with other parks near the CZU Complex also shuttered until further notice, including Portola Redwoods State Park, Butano State Park, Rancho del Oso Unit, Año Nuevo State Park, Castle Rock State Park and Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, including the Fall Creek Unit.

Twenty-two miles northwest of Santa Cruz, Big Basin forms part of the Northern California coastal forests eco-region and contains the largest continuous stand of ancient coast redwoods south of San Francisco. The 18,000-acre park is home to a plethora of wildlife including deer, banana slugs, raccoons, bobcats, egrets, herons and acorn woodpeckers. The lush canyons are also home to many waterfalls. The existential threat posed to the flora and fauna in the California Historical Landmark’s 18,000 acres has never been so severe.

Communities surrounding Big Basin have been evacuated including Boulder Creek, a community of 5,000 people high in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

See a complete list of all the state parks closed around California due to wildfires here. Find updates on the CZU Complex from Cal Fire here.

SFGATE Editor Andrew Chamings contributed to this story. Amy Graff is the news editor for SFGATE. Email her: agraff@sfgate.com.