The west side fire is out - it was mostly contained a few hours after it started thanks to very fast, multi-organization response and favorable wind conditions which helped prevent the fire from getting out of control. Very little of the burned area is actually on park property, but there are noticeable charred areas on either side of the road just outside of the west side entrance.
Fire crews have been continuing to work for the past couple of days to make sure that the fire is completely contained and burning remnants dealt with.
In regards to fire regimes - Pinnacles is dominated by chaparral habitat and not coniferous forest, and fire ecology is different in chaparral habitats. Chaparral is adapted to burn hot but infrequently - at intervals of 30-150 years. So the lack of major fires in recent years is not due to poor management, fire suppression, or fuel buildup - this is jusr the way that chaparral plant communities have evolved to deal with fire over time. Attempts to burn chaparral more frequently - according to 10-20 year intervals - has actually decreased overall diversity of chaparral communities and encouraged expansion of non-native grasses, effectively contributing to type conversion from chaparral to grassland communities in many areas in California. Chaparral communities actually burn "naturally" with much less frequency than certain forest types (like redwood forests). Chaparral wildfires would "naturally" be driven by lightning strikes - which we get very rarely - and would burn with high intensity, quickly burning everything in these habitats. Regrowth is pretty effective in these environments though due to resprouting from roots and fire-adapted seeds lying dormant in the soil for decades.
Basically we have been managing fire ecology incorrectly in both forests and chaparral habitats - too much suppression in forests and too much prescribed or accidental burning in chaparral.
Anyway, back to Pinnacles - Park Service fire crews have been working for the past five years to increase fire clearance areas around building structures and roads for access, and will continue to do so over years to come. The long-term vision - likely many years in the future - is to move staff out of high-risk areas like Bear Gulch, either closer to the east side entrance or (for work) to office spaces outside of the park boundaries. At that point fire crews could mostly just let wildfires burn, while hopefully defending main access roads and historic structures from total destruction.
The park is likely due for more fires given sparks from vehicles on roads next to dried-out grass and other flammable roadside vegetation, but I will admit I am not in any hurry to see vast swaths of the park burn!