The Gifford Fire burning in eastern San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties continues to grow, fueled by strong winds, dry vegetation and steep terrain.
As of Monday the wildfire has burned more than 120,000 acres and is 33% contained. The multiagency effort has cost more than $70 million in firefighting resources and forced more than 450 residents to evacuate.
Crews are working on suppression efforts on the fire’s northwest edge, near the Garcia Wilderness and the rural community of Pozo.
“There's a lot of steep and rugged terrain up there—very challenging landscapes.” said Bert Fuiava, a public information officer with the Gifford Fire. “There are a lot of inaccessible areas where our fire crew can’t get to and plus it's a wilderness. That's why they're working around the wilderness constructing dozer and hand lines.”
Fuiava says the wind continues to push the fire past some containment lines.
“The wind and the conditions up there is pretty gnarly,” he said. “Some of our containment lines won't hold, so the fire just continues to spread. So we're working very hard to come up with tactics so we can better fight this fire.”
Firefighters are also monitoring the Huasna Valley to the west and areas further north, including Santa Margarita and Creston—now within 20 miles of the fire’s edge.
Evacuation warnings and orders remain in place across both counties. Officials are urging residents to monitor emergency alerts and fire updates from local agencies.
