Air tankers and drones are among the forms of aerial support available to the crews—made up of more than 4,500 personnel—tackling the Gifford Fire, which has grown to more than 129,000 acres since Aug. 1.
Helicopters are in the mix as well—some armed with a crucial accessory firefighters are using to essentially fight fire with fire.
“[We] brought in a helitorch, and that operation will allow us to light fire from an aerial platform,” California Interagency Incident Management Team 5 Operations Section Chief Nate Hamm said at the San Luis Obispo Veterans Hall during an Aug. 11 community meeting.
Hamm said that firefighters had been setting up special control lines along Hi Mountain Road, Pozo Road, and other areas over the past few days prior to the meeting “in preparation for a planned firing operation,” which crews began carrying out on Aug. 12.
Throughout the night, crews took advantage of favorable conditions—including slightly cooler weather—to slow the fire’s spread and reinforce containment lines around the Garcia Wilderness area within the Los Padres National Forest, according to an Aug. 13 update from the U.S. Forest Service.
Waiting for specific conditions like weather and other factors was part of firefighters’ strategic plan for the 36-hour firing operation, in which the preparation work and decision-making felt like “for a lack of a better word, wargaming every possible scenario and every possible weather parameter,” Team 5 Fire Behavior Analyst Garret Hazelton said at the Aug. 11 meeting.
Team 5 and other agencies battling the wildfire have an incident command post in Santa Margarita. Class was back in session for students at Santa Margarita Elementary School for their first day of school on Aug. 13, which prompted fire officials to coordinate with the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office to set up a special route for firefighters exiting the command post to avoid school crosswalks.
As of Aug. 13, 17 zones across San Luis Obispo County were under evacuation warnings, while 21 were under evacuation orders. Huasna resident Scott Wilson’s property is split between the two designations, he explained.
“Part of the ranch is under an evacuation order, and part of the ranch is under evacuation warning,” Wilson told New Times on Aug. 12.
Wilson said the 6,000-acre ranch has been part of his wife’s family since the 1940s. They live there with their three adult children and their families, under separate roofs on different parts of the ranch. His daughter’s home is within a section that escalated from evacuation warning to order sometime during the course of the multi-day megafire.
“Her family lives on that side of the road, so they actually went [to stay] with some good friends, but the rest of our kids [and grandkids] have all stayed,” Wilson said. “We’re on the other side of Huasna Road.”
During his daily commutes to San Luis Obispo, where Wilson works as the owner of Central Coast Archery, he said he’s felt comforted by the dozens of fire engines he’s seen so often lately.
“Every morning when I drive in, there’s got to be 40 Cal Fire trucks heading to Huasna,” Wilson said, shortly after stopping by a carwash in SLO on Aug. 12 to clean his ride, covered in ash from the commute, he added.
“I’ve seen trucks from all over the state out there,” he said. “It’s pretty comforting to see them well ahead of things.” Δ
This article appears in Aug 14-24, 2025.
Los Padres forest is home to the only wild horse herd on the central coast, the Black Mountain Wild Horse Territory (WHT). Black Mountain horses are a fascinating story. In May, I collaborated with Wild Horse Education on the Black Mountain WHT story, “Small CA Herd in Danger.” It would be great to see SLO New Times include Black Mountain horses in your reporting! The horses contribute to safely reduce wildfire risk, risk of catastrophic wildfires, protect wildlife habitat, the environment, communities, economy, and are good for tourism.