The Gifford fire, which has injured three people, grew on Sunday to nearly 40,000 acres within the Los Padres National Forest in south-central California after several small fires merged into one large wildfire, officials said.
The fire was 5 percent contained as of Sunday, according to InciWeb, a government site that tracks wildfires.
Firefighters have been battling the blaze affecting Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties since Friday, fire officials said.
The wildfire is primarily burning vegetation and has had multiple ignition points along Highway 166, a road that cuts across the forest and is about 20 miles northeast of the city of Santa Maria near the central coast, said Andrew Madsen, a spokesman for the Los Padres National Forest.
A spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service confirmed that a series of small fires began along a stretch of Highway 166, a corridor known for fires linked to vehicular traffic. Those individual fires combined into one large wildfire as of Saturday.
About 360 residences are threatened by the fire, said Scott Safechuck, a Santa Barbara County Fire Department spokesman. There have been no reports of damaged or burned structures and no fatalities, Mr. Safechuck said.
One person sustained serious burns and was transported to a hospital in Santa Maria for treatment, a park official said. Two contractors were taken to a hospital after their vehicle rolled over. One sustained moderate injuries while the other had minor ones, officials said.
The Gifford fire had grown to 39,676 acres as of Sunday, the authorities said. Fueled by dry conditions and warm weather, the fire continued to spread aggressively, they said.
The forecast called for onshore winds to push into the area Sunday afternoon, which were then expected to affect the fire’s behavior, officials said. Hot and dry conditions were expected through Tuesday.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation.
Ground crews and aircraft were being used to suppress the fire, officials said. The fire is burning in a rural, sparsely populated agricultural area, according to park officials.
If the fire continues moving east, it could enter the recently burned terrain of the Madre fire, which scorched more than 80,000 acres in San Luis Obispo County and was declared out just last weekend, the authorities said.
The fire is burning next to the rural communities of Cuyama and New Cuyama, which are home to about 600 people. There is an evacuation order for the west of New Cuyama, Mr. Safechuck said, but not for the community itself.
Reporting was contributed by Orlando Mayorquín, Amy Graff Yan Zhuang and Alexandra E. Petri. Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
Mark Walker is an investigative reporter for The Times focused on transportation. He is based in Washington.
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