Thousands evacuated as new fast-growing fire ignites near Los Angeles

A new, rapidly spreading wildfire has broken out in Los Angeles County, forcing tens of thousands to evacuate, an area already impacted by some of the most destructive fires in history. The “Hughes” fire ignited Wednesday morning about 45 miles northwest of the city of Los Angeles, near Castaic Lake, an area of mountains and canyons adjacent to multiple residential neighborhoods and schools.

Fueled by strong winds and dry vegetation, the fire quickly spread to more than 9,200 acres within hours on Wednesday. While no homes or businesses have been reported damaged so far, fire officials expressed confidence in containing the blaze. This new fire's location is just north of two large fires that devastated multiple Los Angeles-area communities earlier this month.

Local news footage showed residents near the Hughes fire using hoses to water down their homes and gardens, while others were seen hastily evacuating their communities. Aircraft were dropping water and fire retardant on the orange flames in the hills. A red flag warning was once again issued for the area, cautioning that the fire risk was extremely high due to strong winds and dry, low-humidity conditions. Winds in the area were blowing at about 20 to 30 mph but could increase, which would intensify the fire and make aerial operations more difficult.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna stated that approximately 31,000 people in the area were under mandatory evacuation orders, with another 23,000 warned they may need to evacuate. A jail in the area was evacuating nearly 500 inmates. Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said that while the fire was still spreading, he was confident that firefighters were making progress. “The situation is still fluid, the fire is still out of control, but we are slowly gaining the upper hand,” he said.

Chief Marrone explained that this fire is different from the Palisades and Eaton fires earlier this month that killed at least 28 people and destroyed more than 10,000 homes and businesses. He stated that this fire is smaller, the winds are not as strong as the 70 to 90 mph winds during the previous fires, and there are plenty of helicopters and planes available to fight the fire from the air. “I think we’ve all been on edge for the last 16 days,” he said, “We were able to get a lot of fire resources in early, and that is changing the course of this fire.”

Ed Fletcher of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection told the BBC that this fire is different from the fires earlier this month. He said that the winds are not as strong at this time and that there are a lot of firefighters working to contain the blaze. “It is very dry and we know that the winds are going to get stronger later,” he said, “We’ll know a lot more in a few hours.” Fletcher pointed out that the area is not densely populated and the current winds are pushing the fire toward Castaic Lake, which is acting as a buffer between the fire and the Castaic area, home to about 20,000 residents. “If the fire goes over the lake,” he said, “it would be much more complicated.”

A woman who evacuated her home told NBC 4 that she was stuck on Interstate 5, a major California thoroughfare. The interstate was closed in some sections in the area due to the fire. “It looked like a cloud, but when you got closer, it looked like we were driving into hell,” she described the black smoke and red flames she saw. “It’s really scary, honestly.” She admitted to being on edge after seeing the nearby Palisades and Eaton fires. “I don’t know why they keep happening,” she said, “It’s definitely a scary time for this area.”

Officials said that two more fires broke out on Wednesday further south near San Diego and Oceanside. These two fires were smaller – the Lilac fire near Oceanside was 85 acres and the Center fire was 3.9 acres – but were both burning in populated areas. Firefighters appeared to have contained both of those fires and evacuation orders were largely lifted. Dana Dierkes, a spokeswoman for the Angeles National Forest, pointed out that the strong winds and dry vegetation are making these recent fires harder to fight. “In California, we don’t have a fire season. We have a fire year,” she said, “We’ve had wildfires in January before, but the Santa Ana winds exacerbate that. When we’ve had a year that’s this dry, wind is a huge factor.”

Rain is forecast for the area this weekend, which is good news for extinguishing the fire threat. But the rain also brings new concerns of mudslides, flooding, and landslides. Areas that have recently burned are particularly at risk because the scorched ground is less absorbent. Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order on Monday to help release resources to prepare for post-fire flooding and landslides. Crews have been filling thousands of sandbags for vulnerable areas.