About 100 firefighters remain on Angel Island today where a 380-acre fire left much of the park blackened earlier this week.
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. crews are currently working to restore power. The park will reopen Monday if power is returned soon, but campsites will remain closed for the next two weeks, Angel Island State Park Superintendent Dave Matthews said.
There will also be limited access to the burn area itself as fire crews are removing dead trees and dousing smoldering hot spots.
Park employees are searching for artifacts in the burn areas as part of a "cultural resources inventory", Matthews said. Those could include Native American artifacts or remnants from the years when the military used the island during the two World Wars.
"There has been a lot of human activity on the island over the years and there could be artifacts that were unearthed during the fire. I don't anticipate any munitions," Matthews said.
The fire that burned nearly half of the 780-acre island began around 9 p.m. Sunday in campsites 1, 2 and 3 on the northeast side of the island. The cause of the fire is still undetermined. There have been no reports of deaths among the 60 deer on the island but one raccoon was killed, Matthews said.
There is ample vegetation for deer to feed on in the unburned east side of the island and on the unscathed west side, Matthews said.
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"After the rains come there will be plenty of food sources," Matthews said.
