Gifford Fire burned more than 30,000 acres in the Rospadres National Forest within two days as firefighters struggled to quell the flames at Sierra Madre Mountains.
Wildland firefighters continued to fight the flames on Saturday along Highway 166 in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo County about 20 miles east of Santa Maria, according to the US Forest Service and CAL Fire. However, firefighters were faced with challenging situations such as high temperatures, dry vegetation and robust terrain.
As of Saturday evening, the fire had been trapped at 5%, continuing to bite the tall dry grass and chaparrals covering steep hills and mountains. Evacuation orders and warnings were issued for farmland near the unorganized community of the Falley.
The fires are on federally managed land, but Cal firefighters joined the response to support more ground personnel and fire aircraft.
The Gavin Newsom’s Press Office, who was criticized on social media platform X for its explosive growth, repeatedly said that the fire was not on state lands.
Read the post: “#GiffordFire started on Trump’s federally managed land in the Rospadres National Forest.” “Trump just destroyed the funds for the wildfire, but @cal_fire is intervening to clean up what the federal government’s non-controlled fueled.”
Newsom has criticized President Trump for cutting funds for forest management, including activities such as prescribed burning and processes that reduce the risk of explosive fires due to active burnout in controlled environments.
Saturday evening, California Interagency Incident Management Team – consisting of federal, state and county firefighters from a variety of agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Land Management, Indian Affairs Bureau, National Park Service, National Park Service, Emergency Services Bureau, and county-level fire departments.
The fire was first reported around 2pm Friday near Gifford Trailhead in the Rospadres National Forest, not far from the boundary of the recently extinguished Madre Fire. According to Cal Fire, Blaze had multiple starting points along the Highway 166.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
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