As the Gifford Fire continues to burn, emergency officials say road closures, like the shutdown of Highway 166, are made with public safety as the top priority.
Highway 166 was closed on August 1, when flames from the fire reached both sides of the road in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, according to Mark Ruggiero, a public information officer assigned to the fire.
“The fire activity was so dangerous that they could not allow anybody to travel along that road,” Ruggiero said.
But flames aren’t the only factor in shutting down a major route. Ruggiero said crews also assess infrastructure damage, visibility, and whether the road is part of an ongoing fire investigation.
“There was some infrastructure damage done to the highway, guard rails and things,” he said. “So it's a joint effort between the incident management team, the counties, Caltrans, CHP to determine that the road is completely safe for traffic to flow again and once the investigation is done.”
Because the fire has moved away from the Cuyama Highway, CalTrans engineers have been able to move in and begin assessing the fire damage to the road.
“Engineers need to go every 10th of a mile by 10th of a mile to inspect Hwy 166,” said Kevin Drabinsky, public information officer for CalTrans District 5. “ We're assessing everything – the shoulders, slopes, signage, guardrails – and developing a plan of action to affect those repairs.”
Emergency management teams also use predictive mapping tools to anticipate where the fire might move and close roads before the flames arrive.
“As the fire moves, we draw boxes around the fire and determine the best way that we can attack the fire and suppress it,” Ruggiero said. “Roads that are in those areas will need to be closed if the fire were to make major runs and blow up.”
As of Friday morning, no other major highways are expected to close, though crews continue to monitor fire behavior.
The latest updates on road closures may be found at ReadySLO.org and ReadySBC.org.
