Firefighters battle vegetation fire east of Santa Maria

Firefighters responded Sunday afternoon to a vegetation fire that broke out in the rugged Tepusquet Canyon area east of Santa Maria.

Santa Barbara County and Los Padres National Forest crews were dispatched at about 12:30 p.m. to the fire, which was reported about five miles southeast of Twitchell Reservoir.

The fire was burning along a ridgetop east of Blazing Saddle Drive, according to Capt. Scott Safechuck of the county Fire Department.

It had blackened 3 to 4 acres, Safechuck said, and was spreading at a moderate rate.

At 1:30 p.m., crews on scene put the size at 5 to 6 acres.

A full vegetation fire response was sent to the incident, including hand crews, bulldozers and firefighting aircraft.

Two fixed-wing aircraft were making retardant drops on the blaze, along with water-dropping helicopters.

This story was originally published July 24, 2022 at 3:30 PM.