Update: At 10:34 a.m. CalFire updated the status of the Lizzie Fire to 95% contained, having burned 124 acres.
Update: At 12:31 p.m. on Tuesday, the City of SLO shared an email update to clarify that the second and third fires are unrelated to the Lizzie fire, “but the cause of all fires remains under active investigation.”
Update: At 7:19 a.m. on Tuesday, Cal Fire updated that the 100 acre LizzieIC fire is 35% contained.
Update: At 7:29 p.m. the City of SLO sent out a news release that said one firefighter was injured with a minor laceration. Fire resources will remain at the scene overnight and 300 additional personnel will be at the scene during the day. An aircraft will be monitoring the fire at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning, according to the release.
Update: As of 7:48 p.m., CalFire updated that the Lizzie Fire is still actively being contained at 100 acres.
Update: According to readyslo.org, as of 7 p.m., the evacuation order was lifted from South of Lizzie Street, East of Fixlini and North of Bishop Street, allowing residents to return home. The evacuation warning remains in place.
Update: As of 6:58 p.m. more than 3,135 PG&E customers in SLO County have lost power due to the wildfire risk in the area, according to their website. The estimated restoration is 9:30 p.m.
KSBY reports that two of PG&E’s poles were damaged in the LizzeIC fire and they are actively working to restore power.
Update: At 6:03 p.m., the Cal Poly official Instagram shared that Cal Fire contained “both fires on campus” and crews will work overnight “performing mop up”. The post added that Highland Drive is closed from Santa Rosa Street to California Boulevard and will remain closed until Cal Fire allows the street to reopen.
Update: As of 5:58 p.m., cars are allowed to exit campus from the intersection of California Boulevard and Campus Way. Entry into campus is blocked in this same intersection.
Update: As of 5:53 p.m., readyslo.org updated that a temporary evacuation site was established at the Madonna Shopping Center.
Update: As of 5:40 p.m., helicopters were still dropping fire retardant in the hills behind SLOHS.
The San Luis Obispo Fire Department and Cal Fire are monitoring vegetation fires that broke out this afternoon in San Luis Obispo.
The first is located behind San Luis Obispo High School (SLOHS) and the second and third are behind the agricultural lands at the edge of Cal Poly’s Campus, according to a campus-wide emergency notification.
Mustang News is waiting to confirm the locations and containment of the second and third fires with SLO Fire.
Officials are now calling the vegetation fire behind SLOHS the LizzieIC fire, according to the County of SLO X – formerly known as Twitter – page.
Evacuation orders were given to SLOHS and nearby neighborhoods after the vegetation fire broke out behind the school, according to a Facebook post from the City of SLO Fire Department. As of 3:35, SLO Fire updated their Facebook to include evacuation notices for the south of Lizzie Street, east of Fixlini Street and north of Bishop Street.
Firefighters are trying to push the flames back towards SLOHS for containment, according to a Mustang News reporter on the scene. SLOHS Athletic Director Adam Basch told Mustang News that when he left the high school campus at 4 p.m. no buildings had experienced damage.
At 4:10 pm, readyslo.org shared an additional evacuation warning for zones SLO-E012, SLO-E018 and SLC-E237 and shared that residents of these affected areas should be prepared to evacuate.
SLO Fire is directing residents to readyslo.org for the most up-to-date information.
Helicopters were seen circling the hills behind SLOHS dropping fire retardant over live fire. Smoke is visible from several spots around the Cal Poly, Highland and Bishop neighborhoods.
The Cal Poly campus received the emergency notification at 4:48 p.m. that said the fire near San Luis High is not impacting the campus, though the air quality is being affected by smoke and ash. Cal Poly is urging students to stay indoors.
The emergency alert said fire crews are addressing two small fires in the agricultural lands at the edge of Cal Poly’s campus behind the Crop Science near Highway 1 and Stenner Creek Road and between the Cal Poly Lemon Orchard and Mustang Village.
“These two fires are not causing immediate safety concern for our campus community,” Campus Spokesperson Matt Lazier wrote in an email to Mustang News.
According to the emergency alert, Highland Drive is closed from Santa Rosa Street to California Boulevard.
The Watch Duty fire map shows a second fire active in the Highland neighborhood. Mustang News has yet to confirm the second fire with SLO Fire.
This is an ongoing story. Mustang News will continue to update this article as new information arises.
Mustang News reporters Cassandra Garcia, Elizabeth Boland, Caroline Kelleher, Matthew Ho, Krithi Sankar and Jessa Rosenthal contributed to the live reporting of this story.