The Gifford fire, which broke out Friday afternoon after a car reportedly driving on a flat tire sparked roadside brush, grew Monday to cover more than 100 square miles in the sparsely populated Cuyama Valley and Los Padres National Forest.

The fire is burning in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties on both sides of Highway 166 — which remains closed in both directions between Santa Maria and Maricopa — and has charred 72,460 acres with just 7 percent containment, according to a Tuesday morning incident update.

The blaze, dubbed the Gifford fire because it started near the Gifford trailhead, grew out of at least four smaller fires that erupted Friday along Hwy. 166 about 30 miles east of Santa Maria, said Flemming Bertelson, a spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service.

“That gave u

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