After erupting on May 15, the wildfire burning on Santa Rosa Island had blackened more than 16,942 acres — nearly a third of the island — and was 26 percent contained by Wednesday morning.
The fire has closed the island to visitors, prompted the evacuation of 11 Channel Islands National Park Staff, and destroyed three structures while threatening other historic buildings and rare and endangered plant species found only on the island and nowhere else in the world.
It reportedly started after a 67-year-old mariner crashed his sailboat into the rocks around the island and fired an emergency flare, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, but authorities say the “human-caused” outbreak is still “under investigation.”