The Madre Fire has become California’s largest wildfire of the year after it spread to more than 52,000 acres in under 48 hours.
In a historic year of deadly brush fires for the state, the blaze erupted Wednesday afternoon in the remote Los Padres National Forest in San Luis Obispo County, about 120 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
Fanned by strong winds and dry vegetation, the fire quickly engulfed 35,000 acres through Wednesday evening before scorching nearly 52,600 acres – an area larger than Washington, D.C. – by 9 p.m. Thursday, according to Cal Fire.
“The Madre Fire continues to grow,” the U.S. Forest Service warned in a statement Friday morning. “As we approach the holiday weekend, the Madre Fire, the largest of 2025, is a stark reminder of potential dangers.”
Cal Fire officials also pleaded with Americans ahead of the Fourth of July weekend to “celebrate responsibly” and not “turn a joyous holiday into a painful event” by mishandling fireworks, sparking further wildfires.
The Madre Fire was just 10 percent contained Thursday evening with more than 590 firefighting personnel deployed to put out the flames, officials said.
It continued to burn Friday morning near State Route 166, which connects the Central Coast to the southern San Joaquin Valley.
A portion of the highway between its intersection with Highway 101 in Santa Maria and the town of New Cuyama has been closed, according to California’s Department of Transportation.
Fifteen evacuation order zones had been issued by Thursday evening, including for small communities near Highway 166, according to the San Luis Obispo County Office of Emergency Services.
An evacuation warning was put into effect Friday morning in Kern County near the southwest portion of the county line.
More than 200 residents had been evacuated, the San Luis Obispo County Fire Department said. Only three customers remained without electricity Friday morning, according to Poweroutage.us.
Smoke billowed south of the blaze over Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, the National Weather Service in Los Angeles said. It also impacted Kern County to the fire’s northeast, officials said.
The cause of the Madre Fire is still being investigated, as officials grapple with dozens of smaller brush fires smoldering across the state.
In its latest update, California Governor Gavin Newsom’s press office said that “the state remains in lockstep with our federal partners,” and had sent “significant air support” and ground crews to try and extinguish the blaze.
The governor has faced a string of highly destructive wildfires this year after the Palisades Fire, Eaton Fire and Hughes Fire broke out in Los Angeles in January.
The three fires took more than 30 lives and scorched about 47,000 acres, with the flames being fanned by a fierce windstorm known as the Santa Ana winds.
More than 15,000 structures were destroyed and hundreds of thousands of residents were placed under evacuation orders. The Hughes Fire was spreading at an estimated speed of 23 football fields per minute.
Just days after returning to the White House, Donald Trump visited LA to survey the wildfire damage after threatening to withhold federal assistance from California and accusing the governor of restricting access to state water reserves.
After the Border 2 Fire erupted in San Diego County in late January, officials warned that rains brought another deadly threat: mudslides, flash floods, and debris flows.
Last month, the Mexico Assist Fire had been burning for 12 days and devoured about 26,000 acres before it was discovered on June 19 by fire crews. Cal Fire’s latest status report from June 27 said that the fire was zero percent contained.
