According to fire officials, there is the possibility of southeast winds accompanied by thunder storms with lightning over the weekend.  Barring any new fires, the Indians Fire is expected to be completely contained by Thursday.

Meanwhile, many of the rustic inns, restaurants and art galleries that dot the rugged Central Coast are nearly deserted this weekend at the height of the tourist season as a huge wildfire threatens Big Sur.

KCBS' Mike Colgan reports

The blaze had charred nearly 42 square miles as of Friday in the Los Padres National Forest and destroyed 16 homes in the Big Sur area, one week after it was started by a lightning storm that also ignited more than 1,000 wildfires from the Central Coast to the Oregon state line.

Firefighters braced for the possibility of more lightning in Northern California during the weekend.

The Big Sur fire was only 3 percent contained. Firefighters concentrated on protecting more than 500 homes and other buildings threatened by the blaze and let the wildfire rage virtually unchecked in remote mountain wildernesses.

A roughly 12-mile stretch of coastal Highway 1 was closed, shutting off access to several popular tourist spots. Thick smoke obscured iconic coastal vistas.

"Our No. 1 priority is we want to stop any new, small fires," said Jason Kirchner, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service.

The fire threat has already led communities to cancel plans for Fourth of July fireworks displays.

The blazes also have spread a smoky haze over much of the San Francisco Bay area and Central Valley, prompting air regulators to urge people to stay indoors. Air pollution readings in Northern California and the Central Valley were two to 10 times the federal standard for clean air, said Dimitri Stanich, spokesman for the California Air Resources Board.

More than 1,000 fires, mostly caused by lightning, burned from the Central Coast to the Oregon border.