Monterey >> Even though the two major wildfires plaguing Monterey County are now only about 50 miles apart, fire officials are not worried they will merge, mostly because of the containment lines being built around the Soberanes conflagration.

“Areas along the southeast border of the (Soberanes) fire is where they are still building containment lines,” said Chad Carroll, public information officer at the Toro Park incident command center. “It’s also in an area where they have had fires in the past and have been able to contain the fires.”

Carroll explained that crews are working “on having a really good, solid stop.” By using proven, existing lines, “updating them and clearing the brush off,” it is likely that “as the fire continues to grow, when it hits the end, it will all wrap up quickly at the very end.”

So far the 34-day-old Soberanes Fire has burned more than 90,000 acres and remains 60 percent contained.

“People are commonly asking, ‘why is it still only 60 percent contained?’ ” Carroll said, illustrating his point with a map. As the fire grows it’s moving in a southeast direction and only adding little bits of containment on the sides, Carroll said. When it hits the “solid stop” containment, which is expected near the end of the month, it will wrap up quickly.

The California State Parks department announced the reopening of some state park units in the Big Sur area that were closed because of the Soberanes Fire.

Guided tours of the Point Sur Light Station Historic Park will resume on Saturday, portions of Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park including McWay Falls Trail have reopened but all areas east of the parking lot as well as the two environmental campsites west of Highway 1 remain closed.

The Big Sur Lodge will be reopening Friday, but Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park day use and campgrounds remain closed as well as Andrew Molera State Park, and Garrapata State Park, where the Soberanes Fire started July 22.

Thursday’s Soberanes Fire activity was centered around the lines extending from south of Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park to Cold Springs along the fires southwestern flank, and the area south of Los Padres Dam to Tassajara Road.

In the Big Sur area, crews were lighting backfires as the weather allowed while eight aircraft dumped retardant near Cold Springs.

Along the southeastern edge of the fire, containment lines built either by hand or bulldozers were being set in the dam area while structures, like the Jack English cabin, were being wrapped in foil blankets as protection from the flames.

Evacuation orders were still in place for Coast Ridge Road from mile marker 1.5 to Marble Peak at the end of the road and evacuation warnings remained for Tassajara Road from Carmel Valley Road to the Tassajara Hot Springs Zen Center.

The Soberanes Fire has destroyed 68 structures, damaged five others.

In southern Monterey County, the 11-day-old Chimney Fire has consumed almost 44,000 acres and is 41 percent contained.

Fire crews were working on the northwest flank and reported good results with the contingency lines in front of Hearst Castle, said a Cal Fire spokesman.

Wednesday night winds drove the fire into the northwest region with higher humidity, which helped firefighters reinforce containment lines.

By noon Thursday fire evacuations were lifted for communities south of Lake Nacimiento including Tri-County, Cal Shasta, Rancho Del Lago and South Shore Village, but residents of those private, gated communities were asked to carry government-issued identification, a current utility bill or other evidence showing an address within the communities. Access by the general public will be prohibited.

Evacuation orders remain in place for Christmas Cove, Oak Shores, North Shore Boat and Ski, Laguna Vista, Lake San Antonio, Sapaqua Valley, and Bryson Hesperia in both San Luis Obispo and Monterey counties.

For a map showing how close the two fires are go to bit.ly/28Lbe6h.

For fire updates, go to http://bit.ly/2aI6JJZ.

For the latest air quality reading, go to mbuapcd.org/air-quality/.

A donation collection center is located in the Big Sur State Park Multi-Agency Building, 47555 Highway 1 in Big Sur.

To donate go to co.monterey.ca.us/oes/Soberanes-Fire/Soberanes-Fire-donations.pdf.

James Herrera can be reached at 831-726-4344.