Air tankers and drones are among the forms of aerial support available to the crews—made up of more than 4,000 personnel—tackling the Gifford Fire, which has grown to 123,000 acres since Aug. 1.
Helicopters are in the mix as well—some armed with a crucial accessory firefighters will use to essentially fight fire with fire.
“We also 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 have 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,” originally scheduled to begin on Aug. 11.
“We have crews in place. They will remain in place overnight through tomorrow and into the next day for when the fire does force our hand and we have an opportunity to light a backfire,” Hamm said. “Although the fire was intense in its activity today, it was not burning quickly toward the control lines so it did not force the firefighters’ hands out there.”
The 36-hour strategic firing operation will “be happening in the next coming days,” Hamm added, as of Aug. 11, whether it’s when the Gifford Fire forces “firefighters’ hands” to begin or the opportune moment with “the highest chance of success” occurs.
At the Aug. 11 meeting, Team 5 Fire Behavior Analyst Garret Hazelton described the preparation and decision making that goes into the firing operation as “for a lack of a better word, wargaming every possible scenario and every possible weather parameter.”
While an evacuation order and warning were active in two respective zones of Santa Barbara County, as of Aug. 12, multiple zones across San Luis Obispo County remain under orders and warnings.
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 the Sun.
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 under the evacuation order.
“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 trucks 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 added. “It’s pretty comforting to see them well ahead of things.”
This article appears in Aug 14-24, 2025.