California firefighters are working to extinguish yet another blaze — the Hughes fire — that erupted Wednesday and has already grown to span more than 10,000 acres across Los Angeles.
Since early January, the area has been plagued by two other massive wildfires, the Palisades and Eaton fires, that claimed more than two dozen lives and devoured thousands of homes, places of worship and beloved restaurants.
Now, 4,000 firefighting personnel and the California Air National Guard are trying to extinguish the fast-growing Hughes fire to the north. At its most devastating, the flames raced across Castaic, a unincorporated community, at a speed of 23 football fields every minute.
“The situation remains dynamic and the fire remains a difficult fire to contain, although we are getting the upper hand,” Los Angeles County Fire Department Chief Anthony Marrone said Wednesday evening.
Where is the fire currently burning?
The new rapidly-moving wildfire ignited just before 11 a.m. Wednesday and has engulfed the already charred region.
The fire broke out near Castaic Lake in Castaic, 16 miles north of Santa Clarita and 45 miles north of Los Angeles, and scorched 3,407 acres in less than two hours, according to Cal Fire. By 3 p.m., it had spread to 5,000 acres.
The wildfire has burned through the immediate area around the reservoir, while smoke and haze have shrouded the surrounding region, from California State Route 126 outside of Santa Clarita on the southern end to Lancaster Road in Sandberg on the northern end.
The area stretching from Piru in the west to Green Valley in the east is also engulfed in smoke.
Red flag warnings are in effect for most of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties through Friday morning, with Thursday being “the period of greatest concern,” according to the National Weather Service.
Winds are also expected to pick up Thursday, with peak wind gusts of up to 50 mph. The winds combined with the dry conditions and low humidity could lead to “extreme fire behavior” and rapid fire growth, the agency warned. Temperatures are expected to decline from Friday as a cold storm system moves over the region, the NWS said.
A second blaze, the Sepulveda fire, erupted later on Wednesday at about 11 p.m. at Getty Center Drive exit in Bel Air. It continued to rage on the eastern side of the 405 Freeway in the Sepulveda Pass – with media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s sprawling vineyard and winery perilously close to the flames.
According to the LAFD on Thursday morning, it was held at 40 acres with all “forward progress stopped,” as an estimated 200 firefighters work to mop up hotspots.
Evacuation warnings were beginning lifted, with no structures damaged or injuries reported.
What have the impacts been?
As of Thursday morning, the fire has expanded to 10,126 acres and is only 14 percent contained. No fatalities have been reported and no structures have been destroyed.
But many lives have already been upended.
Evacuation orders were issued to more than 31,000 people in the vicitinty of the the two wildfires. A further 23,000 were also put under evacuation warnings, meaning they should be prepared to leave if told to do so.All five schools in the Castaic Union School District – teaching almost 1,900 students – were closed on Thursday with Superintendent Bob Brauneisen noting “poor air quality and the need to assess the safety of our facilities”.
Segments of I-5 freeway temporarily closed after the fire broke out, before they began to reopen at about 5 p.m on Wednesday, according to the California Highway Patrol.
More than 4,500 inmates from Pitchess Detention Center were evacuated and moved to another facility due to the fire.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would “provide the federal government with whatever it needs to extinguish this fire.”