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Forest Service reports #GIBRALTARFIRE is at 65-70 acres. 10-15 mph winds. Evacuation warnings issued zones 3, 4, and 5. Evacuation warning includes areas north of hwy 192, east of Cold Springs Rd., west of Buena Vista Rd., and south of East Camino Cielo.

(Information from www.independent.com - http://www.independent.com/news/2015/oct/29/fire-montecito-foothills/) As of 8:45 a.m., one air tanker, dispatched from Paso Robles, had dropped about 1,200 gallons of retardant on the Gibraltar Fire, but two other planes — dispatched from the Santa Maria Air Tanker Base — have not yet dropped because of air turbulence. Another tanker, loaded and ready to go, is waiting at the Santa Maria facility for the green light to go.

Directing traffic from a plane in the air is Mark Nunes, aviation director for the U.S. Forrest Service. According to Jim Kunkle, the contractor who runs the Santa Maria Air Tanker Base, when winds sheer down the mountains toward the sea, that creates air turbulence that makes it too dangerous to get close enough to the fire to drop. Kunkle said the two hovering tankers hold a combined capacity of 6,200 gallons of retardant. He said it takes tankers about 15 minutes to fly from Santa Maria to the Gibraltar Fire and anywhere from 4-to-7 minutes to reload, depending on the capacity of the tanker.

Kunkle said the Forest Service ordered over ten tankers. "They’re going after everything they can get,” he said. Kunkle expressed confidence the base is big enough and prepared to handle such volume “seamlessly.” The major hitch, obviously, is dropping the load of retardant on the flames.