Firefighters north of Los Angeles were racing on Thursday morning to contain a brush fire that had exploded the day before, quickly burning more than 10,000 acres and forcing the temporary closure of parts of Interstate 5.
Red flag warnings, indicating dangerous fire weather conditions, were in effect for much of Southern California on Thursday. The National Weather Service office in Los Angeles warned that wind gusts of up to 65 miles per hour could cause new or existing fires to grow quickly.
The strong winds added to anxiety over a new, smaller brush fire that broke out late Wednesday in Los Angeles near Interstate 405 and the Getty Museum, burning 40 acres and prompting firefighters and aircrews to rush to the scene. An evacuation warning that had been briefly issued for the area was lifted early Thursday, and fire officials said the progress of that blaze, named the Sepulveda fire, had been stopped.
The larger blaze, named the Hughes fire, ignited Wednesday morning and prompted evacuation orders and warnings for more than 50,000 people as it burned in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. It was 14 percent contained by early Thursday morning, according to Cal Fire, the state fire agency.
The fire is burning near Castaic Lake, a reservoir about 40 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Many Californians know the area as the home of the Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park. It is north of the Palisades fire, which has consumed more than 23,000 acres since it started more than two weeks ago.
On Wednesday night, people in a Castaic subdivision watched the Hughes fire smolder in the hills across the highway. A few helicopters crisscrossed the sky as wind chimes rang and palm fronds rustled over the low hum of traffic on I-5 below.
Flames appeared in the hills above the Pitchess Detention Center, a jail in the mandatory evacuation zone for the fire. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said it was “poised and ready” to keep the facility’s inmates safe.
The fire had burned mostly brush as of late Wednesday, and there had not been any reports of damaged structures. But after weeks of enduring some of the most destructive blazes in California history, it was the last thing residents wanted to deal with.
The Hughes fire was nearly the size of the 14,000-acre Eaton fire, which began on the same day as the Palisades fire and destroyed more than 9,000 structures. The Eaton fire was 95 percent contained on Wednesday; the Palisades fire was 70 percent contained.
The Weather Service said that warm and dry conditions were expected on Thursday, with another round of Santa Ana desert winds peaking around 9 a.m. Pacific time. Cooler conditions were forecast for Friday and through the weekend, with intermittent showers expected starting Monday morning, which could ease the fire threat.
Nazaneen Ghaffar and Claire Moses contributed reporting.
