Shipwrecked Sailor May Have Set CA's Largest Wildfire Currently Burning

A sailor who became shipwrecked on Santa Rosa Island off the Southern California coast may have inadvertently set what is now the state's largest of several wildfires currently burning.

The 67-year-old man crashed his sailboat on the island, which is part of Channel Islands National Park, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

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Coast Guard officials initially said the sailor fired emergency flares to signal for help, which inadvertently sparked a wildfire, the New York Times reported. Officials later said that the cause of the fire remains under investigation.

The mariner was uninjured and rescued on Saturday morning, after spending the night on the island, according to the Coast Guard.

The fire continued to burn: As of Tuesday afternoon, the Santa Rosa Island Fire had scorched 16,938 acres and was 5% contained, according to Cal Fire.

Though the island is not permanently settled by humans, the blaze remains a major concern: There are six plant species found only on the island — and no where else in the world, according to U.S. Wildland Fire Service officials.

The fire was burning close to a stand of Torrey pines, a critically endangered species found only on the island and in coastal San Diego County, the New York Times reported.

“We are absolutely concerned,” Mike Theune, a National Parks spokesman told the Times. “It’s extremely rare, considered possibly the rarest pine in the world, and it only grows naturally in these two places.”

As of Monday, the fire had destroyed three buildings and forced 11 Park Service staff members to evacuate from their housing, the Times reported.

The Santa Rosa fire was one of several wildfires burning as of Tuesday. Among the others is the Sandy Fire, burning near the densely populated San Fernando Valley, which has forced 17,000 people to evacuate.