Within hours of the Aug. 1 ignition, the Gifford Fire exploded as flames raced through tall, dry grasses and thick chaparral, blackening terrain on both sides of Highway 166 while consuming thousands of acres amid swirling winds.
It marked the second fast-moving blaze of the summer along the Highway 166 corridor known to firefighters for its distinctive — and previously deadly — characteristics responsible for rocketing the size of fires.
Less than two hours after starting, the Gifford Fire had burned more than 800 acres, according to firefighters. Roughly 24 hours later, the Gifford Fire’s total acreage topped 23,000 acres. By Aug. 3, the total fell to a little less than 40,000 acres. On Aug. 4, it topped 65,000 acres.
Two weeks after igniting, the Gifford Fire topped 132,600 acres after burning in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, but a huge force of firefighters — nearly 5,000 — achieved 69% containment as of Friday.
“It is a unique corridor. It’s known for having fire behavior like we’ve been experiencing with the Gifford Fire and the Madre Fire,” Capt. Scott Safechuck of the Santa Barbara County Fire Department said.
On July 2, the Madre Fire displayed a similar speed, reaching 35,000 acres the day after igniting off Highway 166, east of the Gifford Fire. By July 4, it hit 70,800 acres. The final for the fire deemed active for 24 days was 80,779 acres.
Together, the fires have blackened more than 210,000 acres, or roughly 328 square miles, over six weeks, with the Madre burn scar actually proving helpful in stopping the Gifford blaze’s spread on the eastern border.
Swirling and shifting winds, drainages going in different directions and dry vegetation have helped feed the fire’s growth.
“If you look at the annual grasses like a bunch of matches, it burns with intensity and it carries with the wind very fast. The embers cast out in front of it, so the wind pushes and fans the fire where it just starts consuming large areas of grass and builds up a lot of energy,” Safechuck said.
As the fire hits the thicker vegetation, it generates more energy, helping fuel the flames even more.
“When it gets in alignment with the drainages that are steep back in that corridor, it’s like a trifecta and just accelerates the fire,” Safechuck said.
Highway 166 stretches from the coast to the Cuyama Valley, where the weather hits higher temperatures with lower humidity, leading more toward a desert landscape.
A firefighting tool from Mother Nature — the coastal marine layer — stretches a bit into the inland area and can benefit firefighting efforts.
The explosive growth of this summer’s two blazes stands out when compared to other incidents, including the 2009 La Brea Fire in the Los Padres National Forest. The first day saw the fire hit 1,300 acres.
Last summer’s Lake Fire above the Santa Ynez Valley started July 5 and hit 4,673 acres in the first 24 hours, 16,452 acres by July 7 and 20,320 acres by July 8. The final acreage was 38,664.
Jurisdiction of land along Highway 166 varies, but typically three agencies — Santa Barbara County Fire, Cal Fire in San Luis Obispo County and the Los Padres National Forest — send crews and equipment when fires start along the route. Other local agencies, such as the Santa Maria Fire Department, also respond.
On the afternoon of Aug. 1, incident commanders also deployed aircraft, bulldozers and hand crews.
“When the fire’s moving that fast, it’s out-moving the pace we can move at,” Safechuck said.
The fire grew very rapidly, leading to a request for a complex incident management team hours after the ignition.
“What they do is they come and they bring a lot of horsepower that we can’t do on our own,” Deputy Fire Chief Garrett Huff with the Santa Barbara County Fire Department said. “They’ve been really responsible for getting us the equipment, the logistics, the support to actually put this fire out.”
Friday’s anniversary of a tragedy that claimed the lives of four Nipomo-based firefighters 46 years ago helped highlight the hazards of fires along Highway 166.
During an Aug. 6 Cuyama Valley community meeting about the Gifford Fire, Huff noted the loss of lives because of the “squirrelly” winds in the area.
“It is a very dangerous place for us,” Huff said. “The winds do some very different things to the fires, and this is a direct result of the wind taking effect.”