Five Cities Fire Authority says Gifford Fire 33% contained after recent growth; crews to conduct firing operation

Chief Hallett of the Five Cities Fire Authority told the Arroyo Grande City Council on Aug. 12 that FCFA continues to support operations on the Gifford Fire and has kept local staffing at three personnel per upper apparatus since early August to preserve response capacity. "FCFA continues to support the Gifford fire response," Chief Hallett said, describing deployments that included a Type 3 engine on Aug. 1 and a UTV on Aug. 2.

The authority reported the fire at 125,648 acres and 33% contained as of the afternoon of Aug. 12, with primary growth in the Garcia Wilderness Area. Chief Hallett said shifting winds had kept the fire active and that the most active work at the time focused on a northwest corner of the incident, where dozer lines and containment lines had been constructed. He said that firing operations planned in that northwest area were expected to continue through the following afternoon and would likely generate "a lot of smoke production." "That firing operation is gonna take place up in this Northwest area. It's gonna last probably through tomorrow afternoon," he said.

City Manager Downing told the council department heads had met several times the prior week to prepare staff for potential local impacts and thanked mutual-aid resources that had deployed to support operations. Downing said the city had held a community meeting at the Rio Grande fire station on Aug. 7 that he estimated drew about 150 attendees.

Chief Hallett explained containment calculations to the council, noting that areas south of Highway 166 were where officials had high confidence containment lines would hold and that west and north sections remained active with spot fires and slopovers pulled up by crews. He estimated roughly 20,000 to 30,000 acres would still need to burn off to reach a higher-confidence containment in the northwest sector.

Council members asked whether the fire threatened California Valley; Chief Hallett said that, because the Madre burn scar held earlier progression off Highway 166, the chance of movement into California Valley was "fairly low" at that point. Council and staff discussed evacuation and public information steps; no new evacuation orders were issued during the council update.

The council received the briefing; no formal action was taken. City staff said they would continue daily coordination with incident commanders and maintain public information through county and incident channels while monitoring air quality and local response needs.