{"id":1625,"date":"2026-05-19T00:39:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T00:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usglobalnews.com\/?p=1625"},"modified":"2026-05-19T00:39:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T00:39:54","slug":"california-island-fire-linked-to-sailors-distress-flare-scorches-10000-acres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usglobalnews.com\/?p=1625","title":{"rendered":"California island fire linked to sailor\u2019s distress flare scorches 10,000 acres"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"border-color:var(--article-border);background-color:var(--article-inner-background)\" class=\"dcr-wqti5a\">\n<div class=\"dcr-2zxs1v\">\n<div style=\"--grid-area:media\" data-gu-name=\"media\" class=\"dcr-1fnjjtg\">\n<div class=\"dcr-14emo0l\">\n<div class=\"dcr-tr9ye5\">\n<figure id=\"04d4436a-5eca-448c-a356-4194c6b26df3\" class=\"dcr-142siv7\">\n<div id=\"img-1\" class=\"dcr-1t8m8f2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Smoke billows from a hillside fire near a coastline, with flames visible along the burn line\" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/2476d8aaacfc2ea615f594b0f5de34d4e5be3e51\/0_0_874_824\/master\/874.jpg?width=465&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" width=\"465\" height=\"438.3981693363844\" loading=\"eager\" class=\"dcr-evn1e9\"><span class=\"dcr-v822l1\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-gup2gr\">\n<div class=\"dcr-fntg6k\"><label for=\"the-checkbox\" class=\"dcr-1xgwz8b\"><\/label> <\/p>\n<div id=\"the-caption\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1os51wo\"><span class=\"dcr-hvsf4t\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">The fire on Santa Rosa Island in the Channel Islands national park was at 0% containment on Monday, according to California officials.<\/span> Photograph: Coast Guard Air Station Ventura<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><a href=\"#img-1\" data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-13fd1ms\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><button data-element-id=\"04d4436a-5eca-448c-a356-4194c6b26df3\" type=\"button\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-4tmywn\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><span class=\"dcr-194i6pr\">View image in fullscreen<\/span><\/button><\/a><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"dcr-n4pnam\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1hdkqum\"><span class=\"dcr-hvsf4t\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">The fire on Santa Rosa Island in the Channel Islands national park was at 0% containment on Monday, according to California officials.<\/span> Photograph: Coast Guard Air Station Ventura<\/figcaption><\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:border\" data-gu-name=\"border\" class=\"dcr-1fnjjtg\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:headline\" data-gu-name=\"headline\" class=\"dcr-1fnjjtg\">\n<div class=\"dcr-14emo0l\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1aqe7zu\">\n<h1 class=\"dcr-1k1a1x\">California island fire linked to sailor\u2019s distress flare scorches 10,000 acres<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:standfirst\" data-gu-name=\"standfirst\" class=\"dcr-1fnjjtg\">\n<div class=\"dcr-15in7js\">\n<p>Fire on Santa Rosa Island in Channel Islands national park becomes state\u2019s largest this year and threatens rare plants<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:body\" data-gu-name=\"body\" class=\"dcr-kn9unn\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1a4fred\">\n<div id=\"maincontent\" class=\"dcr-ydnaza\">\n<div class=\"article-body-commercial-selector article-body-viewer-selector dcr-1c9t5u6\">\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A wildfire that broke out on an island in the Channel Islands national park has become California\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2026\/05\/18\/california-wildfire-santa-rosa\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">largest wildfire so far<\/a> this year, burning through more than 10,000 acres, destroying historic structures and endangering rare plant communities that conservationists had struggled to reclaim.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.com\/2026\/05\/18\/santa-rosa-island-fire-explodes-to-more-than-10000-acres-over-weekend\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">six dozen firefighters<\/a> have been deployed to control the blaze, which broke out on Friday, but their efforts have been undermined by strong winds. The fire is now at 0% containment, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fire.ca.gov\/incidents\/2026\/5\/15\/santa-rosa-island-fire\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">a Cal Fire incident report<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The fire on Santa Rosa Island appears to have started after a sailor crashed his boat against the rocks on the shore of the island, leaving him stranded. The 67-year-old man shot at least two flares in an attempt to get passing boats to take notice of him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The attempt appeared to work, according to Kenneth Wiese, a spokesperson for the US Coast Guard\u2019s south-west district. Wiese said people onboard two separate vessels contacted the National Park Service to say they suspected someone was marooned on Santa Rosa, part of Channel Islands national park off the southern <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/california\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">California<\/a> coast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The Coast Guard sent a helicopter that was already in flight to retrieve the man, who had spent the night on the island. The man had etched the letters \u201cSOS\u201d into the charred ground, according to images posted to Instagram by the Coast Guard. Officials took him to a hospital in nearby Camarillo. He did not appear to have been injured.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"2e482071-3c16-457d-9068-8c128d93967e\" data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-173mewl\">\n<div id=\"img-2\" class=\"dcr-1t8m8f2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"a man in front of a \u2018SOS\u2019 sign \" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/164d21473918997ba334e03519ab7077e02c190c\/0_0_852_1006\/master\/852.jpg?width=445&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" width=\"445\" height=\"525.4342723004695\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"dcr-evn1e9\"><a href=\"#img-2\" data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-13fd1ms\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><button data-element-id=\"2e482071-3c16-457d-9068-8c128d93967e\" type=\"button\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-4tmywn\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><span class=\"dcr-194i6pr\">View image in fullscreen<\/span><\/button><\/a><\/div><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-fd61eq\"><span class=\"dcr-1inf02i\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">The letters \u2018SOS\u2019 carved out by the sailor on the island.<\/span> Photograph: Coast Guard Air Station Ventura<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cWe do know that he launched some flares to try to get some attention,\u201d Wiese said. \u201cIt paid off for him. We were able to get him out of there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">But the flares may have set off a wildfire along the southern coast of the 53,000-acre island. Wiese said he could not confirm the cause of the fire, but said the National Park Service (NPS) was carrying out an investigation. The NPS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The NPS posted a notice on Sunday that Santa Rosa Island was closed to visitors while firefighters attempted to control the fire. The agency evacuated staff on Sunday, <a href=\"http:\/\/v\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">according to the Mercury News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The fire has reportedly destroyed two structures: Johnson\u2019s Lee Equipment Shed and Wreck Line Camp Cabin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The Channel Islands boast high levels of biodiversity that has led some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/may\/10\/channel-islands-conservation-oceans\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">to describe them as the \u201cGalapagos of California<\/a>\u201d. But Santa Rosa\u2019s ecology has been compromised by more than a century of uncontrolled grazing by livestock and non-native ungulates set loose there for hunting. Both the livestock and non-native wildlife were removed more than a decade ago, allowing native plants to rebound.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Six native plants grow exclusively on Santa Rosa Island, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/national-parks\/article\/national-park-largest-wildfire-22264388.php\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">according to San Francisco Gate<\/a>. The NPS is also hoping that firefighters can shield a rare area of Torrey pines from the blaze, the outlet reported.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-print-layout=\"hide\" class=\"dcr-qxqnsy\"><span class=\"dcr-1rq3vad\">Explore more on these topics<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-1dzx48f\">\n<ul class=\"dcr-1rrvs2w\">\n<li class=\"dcr-hj8byr\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/california\" class=\"dcr-1gwziyt\">California<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-hj8byr\"><a href=\"\/world\/wildfires\" class=\"dcr-1gwziyt\">Wildfires<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-hj8byr\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/west-coast\" class=\"dcr-1gwziyt\">West Coast<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-hj8byr\"><a href=\"\/tone\/news\" class=\"dcr-1gwziyt\">news<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dcr-nu129i\"><a href=\"mailto:?subject=California%20island%20fire%20linked%20to%20sailor%E2%80%99s%20distress%20flare%20scorches%2010,000%20acres&amp;body=https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/may\/18\/california-national-park-fire-santa-rosa-island?CMP=share_btn_url\" class=\"dcr-125qj9d\">Share<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-zhx6xs\"><a data-link-name=\"meta-syndication-article\" href=\"https:\/\/syndication.theguardian.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2F2026%2Fmay%2F18%2Fcalifornia-national-park-fire-santa-rosa-island&amp;type=article&amp;internalpagecode=us-news\/2026\/may\/18\/california-national-park-fire-santa-rosa-island\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"Reuse this content\" class=\"dcr-14rjinq\">Reuse this content<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"--grid-area:right-column\" data-gu-name=\"right-column\" class=\"dcr-1h2hraq\">\n<div class=\"dcr-tn16h9\">\n<section class=\"dcr-1hko8ef\"><\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The fire on Santa Rosa Island in the Channel Islands national park was at 0% containment on Monday,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1628,"href":"https:\/\/usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625\/revisions\/1628"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}