With fire crews bracing for hotter, dryer weather, the evacuation zone was expanded for California’s biggest fire of the season.
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Wednesday’s new orders were for an area near the north edge of the Gifford Fire, burning since last week in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties. The expansion brought the zone to 660 square miles.
Fire managers for the U.S. Forest Service had not revised the previous day’s estimate of the fire’s size — 83,932 acres, or 131 square miles, with 9% containment.
On Tuesday morning, Gifford became the state’s biggest fire of 2025, surpassing Madre, which last month burned 80,779 acres just to the east, in the Carrizo Plain area.
The map above shows Gifford’s evacuation area in red and the approximate fire perimeter as a black line. Shown as a gray tone is the Madre Fire perimeter.
The Gifford Fire started on Friday, Aug. 1, along Highway 166 east of Santa Maria. The cause is under investigation. About 2,300 firefighters have been contending with rugged terrain in the sparsely inhabited area.
Wednesday’s report from the Forest Service team said a warming and drying trend is expected to continue until the weekend. “Thursday could see temperatures into triple digits, increasing fire behavior,” it said.
For updates and details of the evacuation, including warning areas, see the Genasys Protect map for Santa Barbara County or the San Luis Obispo County emergency site.