Madre Fire slows as containment holds in SLO County. See latest acreage
Crews continued to make progress on the Madre Fire burning in remote eastern San Luis Obispo County on Monday, with the overall acreage burning barely increasing from the day before.
As of 11 a.m. Monday, the Madre Fire had burned 80,479.5 acres of grassland — an increase of around 231 acres from Sunday afternoon — and was holding at 30% containment by fire and emergency services, according to public safety app Watch Duty.
The fire, which was originally spotted Wednesday afternoon along Highway 166 near New Cuyama, grew exponentially over the holiday weekend, clocking in as the largest wildfire in California so far this year.
On Wednesday alone, the fire quadrupled in size in a matter of hours, reaching 35,000 acres by Wednesday evening.
By Friday, more than 70,000 acres were burning, with flames spreading north toward the Carrizo Plain National Monument propelled by strong winds over hilly terrain.
As of Saturday morning, the fire was 10% contained at over 79,000 acres, and plateaued there as the holiday weekend wrapped up.
Multiple zones in the surrounding area were still under evacuation warnings in San Luis Obispo County, though some warnings for Kern County were lifted as of Monday morning.
Evacuations have been ordered in the following zones:
- LPF-017
- SLC-226
- SLC-240
- SLC-263
- SLC-264
- SLC-265
- SLC-298
- SLC-299
- SLC-300
- SLC-312
- SLC-313
- SLC-337
- SLC-338
- SLC-339
- SLC-358
Evacuation warnings were also issued for the following zones:
- SLC-225
- SLC-239
- SLC-266
- SLC-301
- SLC-359
- SLC-365
- SLC-366
- SLC-367
- Santa Barbara County-East of the Rock Front area, West of Cotton Wood Canyon Rd, and South of Highway 166.
As of 10:37 a.m. on Monday morning, evacuation warnings were also lifted in the following Kern County zones, according to Watch Duty:
- KRN-245
- KRN-249
- KRN-259
- KRN-281-B
