New evacuation warnings issued in SLO County as Gifford Fire grows to 72,000 acres
The Gifford Fire continued to burn in eastern San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties on Monday, chewing through thousands of acres of rugged terrain near Highway 166.
Here’s the latest on the fire, which is the largest currently burning in California and second in size so far this year to only the Madre Fire that blackened more than 80,000 acres in the same area last month.
Update, 3:45 p.m.:
By 3 p.m., the Gifford Fire had grown to 72,460 acres, according to the emergency response app Watch Duty.
The southeastern edge of the first posed the greatest threat, according to an operational video update from the Los Padres National Forest on Facebook.
“The fire has been extremely active as it works to the south along the Cuyama Valley,” California Interagency Incident Management Team 5 Operations Section Chief Don Fregulia said in the video.
Near the San Rafael wilderness in the south, crews are faced with “extremely difficult terrain” and are “smoked out” of the area, Fregulia said.
“This fire has potential to continue to move to the south, however if we get back on the Sierra Madre ridge, we can keep it out of the valleys at risk, structures and agriculture lands in the Cuyama Valley,” he said.
The south boundary of the fire is holding steady while the Madre Fire scar contains growth on the eastern edge, Fregulia said. Clear skies in the north allowed air tankers to fly Monday, he said.
The heavy smoke from the fire was visible from space on satellite imagery.
As smoke conditions worsened moving south along the Central Coast, Direct Relief began distributing free N95 masks in Buellton, Santa Barabara and Goleta.
Meanwhile, the SLO County Office of Emergency Services opened a phone response line.
For questions about the Gifford Fire, call 805-543-2444 for SLO County and 833-688-5551 for Santa Barbara County.
Update, 2:10 p.m.:
A fire broke out on the northern border of the Gifford Fire evacuation zones on Monday afternoon.
The grass fire, which broke out in the 16900 block of Midway Road at 1:20 p.m., grew to 10 acres by 1:42 p.m., according to emergency response app Watch Duty.
The fire had a potential for 30 acres, according to the app.
Forward progress was stopped at 2:10 p.m., according to the app.
Original story:
The Gifford Fire burning in a remote area of southeast San Luis Obispo County grew significantly over the weekend, triggering new evacuation warnings by Monday morning as crews struggled to contain the blaze amid hot summer conditions.
As of 9 a.m., the Gifford Fire had burned 65,062 acres in SLO and Santa Barbara counties, according to the Los Padres National Forest. With containment remaining at 3% and hot, dry conditions continuing into the week, the Forest Service expected fire activity to increase throughout Monday afternoon. At 9:39 a.m., the emergency response app Watch Duty was showing the fire perimeter at 66,985 acres.
Just west of the scar of the Madre Fire, which burned over 80,000 acres of the Carrizo Plains in July, the Gifford Fire was burning on both sides of Highway 166 and into the Los Padres National Forest to the south. The highway remained closed at this time.
The Gifford Fire was quickly approaching the size of the Madre Fire, which was the largest to burn in California this year, according to Cal Fire’s 2025 Incident Archive.
Together, the two have burned more than 145,000 acres in the rugged eastern corners of SLO and Santa Barbara counties.
Meanwhile, a three-day closure of Highway 41 for road work was canceled on Monday due to the Gifford Fire.
As of Saturday, 3 people had been injured in the fire.
Evacuation warnings were expanded Monday morning for SLO County to Zones SLC-311, SLC-312 and SLC-334, according to the SLO County Office of Emergency Services on X.
At 12:11 p.m., the Watch Duty app reported the fire would soon impact the Pine Canyon area in Santa Barbara County.
Ten zones erew under evacuation orders, requiring immediate evacuation, including: LPF-014, LPF-015, LPF-016, LPF-017, LPF-018, LPF-019, SLC-263, SLC-335, SLC-336 and SLC-337.
Twelve other zones rewe under evacuation warnings: LPF-011, LPF-013, SLC-225, SLC-239, SLC-240, SLC-262, SLC-264, SLC-297, SLC-298, SLC-311, SLC-312 and SLC-334.
An interactive map of all the zones in both San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties under evacuation warning and order can be found here.
What happened overnight?
The fire, which sparked on Friday, grew 15,000 acres overnight while crews fought to stop its vertical progress.
In the north, firefighters made significant progress constructing dozer lines that connected with the Madre Fire, according to the Los Padres National Forest.
On the east and west flanks, dozers worked to build containment lines. In the Cuyama Valley, containment lines were built to keep the fire on Sierra Madre Ridge. To the west, containment lines extended down to the Iron Ox Ranch and then east toward Aliso Creek.
Gifford Fire expected to keep growing
Sunny and smoky conditions are expected throughout most of Monday, with afternoon temperatures in the mid-80s to lower 90s, relative humidity dropping to between 15% and 25% and diurnal winds that may increase fire activity in the afternoon, the National Forest said. A warming and drying trend is expected to continue from Wednesday through next weekend.
As the fire aligns with topographical features along grass- and brush-covered hillsides on Monday, the main priorities were to improve containment lines to the north to prevent the fire from spreading toward the Manchaca Wilderness, according to the National Forest.
Containment efforts continue to the east and west, and crews were also providing structure protection in Schoolhouse and Cottonwood Canyons, the National Forest said.
Evacuation shelter remains open in Santa Maria
As new evacuation warnings and orders came in, a temporary evacuation point in Santa Maria opened Saturday evening for evacuees affected by the Gifford Fire.
Benjamin Foxen Elementary School at 4949 Foxen Canyon Road in Santa Maria opened for those seeking shelter from the fire. American Red Cross personnel were on site for assistance and information. You can contact the American Red Cross at 805-678-3073.
For more details and information, visit ReadySLO.org.
This story was originally published August 4, 2025 at 10:55 AM with the headline "New evacuation warnings issued in SLO County as Gifford Fire grows to 72,000 acres."
