The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office canceled evacuation warnings and orders for some communities affected by the Gifford Fire Monday including, in blue, west of Tepusquet Road and near New Cuyama.
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office canceled evacuation warnings and orders for some communities affected by the Gifford Fire Monday including, in blue, west of Tepusquet Road and near New Cuyama. Evacuation order zones are in light red and warning zones are in yellow. The fire perimeter is shown with a dark red outline. Credit: Santa Barbara County photo

Santa Barbara County canceled some evacuation orders and warnings for the Gifford Fire Monday afternoon, including near Tepusquet Canyon and New Cuyama. 

The wildfire, which is currently the largest burning in California, has scorched almost 120,000 acres since starting Aug. 1 and has a huge firefighting force of more than 4,200 people. 

Most growth in recent days has been reported on the northwest edge of the blaze, in San Luis Obispo County. 

The Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management updated its evacuation map at ReadySBC.org Monday afternoon to reflect the changes and alerted residents. 

People in the affected areas should stay vigilant, but it’s a good sign that first responders feel confident enough to downgrade and cancel some evacuation orders in the county, OEM spokesperson Jackie Ruiz said. 

She said 252 people are affected by the new evacuation warning zones and 17 people are within the evacuation order zones.

Gifford Fire-related evacuation information for Santa Barbara County is available at ReadySBC.org and updates for San Luis Obispo County can be found at ReadySLO.org.

Highway 166 remains closed to through traffic between Highway 101 in Santa Maria and Perkins Road in New Cuyama. Caltrans crews are working on repairs to fire-related damage along the roadway.

Noozhawk executive editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com.