California wildfire scorches nearly 53,000 acres in a day

A wildfire in California’s central San Luis Obispo County that began on Wednesday had burned 52,592 acres by Thursday night, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. The Madre Fire quickly became the state’s largest individual fire of 2025. It outpaced the Palisades fire in January purely in terms of size. However, a string of wildfires including the Palisades and Eaton fires burned more total acreage at that time and were much more destructive in terms of loss of life and structures. The blaze was just 10% contained on Thursday night, according to Cal Fire.

What areas have been burned? The scorched area was mainly dry brush close to the Los Padres National Forest as of Thursday, according to local news. But 50 structures were threatened, and authorities issued evacuation orders for parts of the San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, local news reported. Nearly 600 firefighters and several helicopter and air tanker crews were fighting the fire as of Thursday, according to Cal Fire.

The military protection mission in Los Angeles earlier this week released about 150 California National Guard members from their new duties protecting federal immigration agents. The released guardsmen would help fight wildfires, according to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who called on the federal government to return the rest of the Guard to state control.

Dig deeper: Read my report on the explosion of a California fireworks warehouse.