The Madre Fire has grown to 35,530 acres in less than 24 hours, making it this year’s largest wildfire in California.
The vegetation fire, which burned 3,300 acres within two hours after starting around 1 p.m. Wednesday near State Route 166 east of Santa Maria, is in the area by the border between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. Pushed by fast winds and topography, it’s burning primarily in San Luis Obispo County on federal land: Los Padres National Forest and Bureau of Land Management parcels.
The fire is 20 miles northwest of a small northern Santa Barbara County town, New Cuyama.
The blaze is burning east and northeast onto the Carrizo Plain, Los Padres National Forest reported.
Multiple agencies are responding to the fire with seven air tankers, two helicopters, several engines, bulldozers and hand crews, the national forest reported at an intergency website, inciweb.wildfire.gov/incident-information/calpf-2025-madre-fire. There are 303 personnel responding to the fire.
The fire is burning along grass and dry brush, Los Padres National Forest spokesman Andrew Madsen in Solvang told The Center Square Wednesday.
“The presence of dry, cured annual grasses will support high rates of spread with intense flame lengths,” Los Padres National Forest said Thursday.
The national forest noted hot conditions, with highs in the mid- to upper 90s, was expected Thursday. Light winds Thursday morning were expected to increase from the west, eventually reaching gusts of 20 to 25 mph.
Evacuations have been ordered in eight zones, with another evacuation warnings issued in another six areas.
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Los Padres National Forest and the Bureau of Land Management are in a unified command responding to the fire.
In other blazes further south, the Wolf Fire in Riverside County hasn’t expanded beyond the 2,414 acres reported on Tuesday and is now 55% contained, Cal Fire reported. The fire started Sunday.
Two smaller fires in the county, Juniper and Mindy, are almost entirely contained, according to Cal Fire.
