LOS ANGELES — Firefighters gained more ground Thursday on a fast-moving brush fire that erupted north of Los Angeles on Wednesday and within hours exploded to thousands of acres amid high winds, officials said.
The Hughes Fire, which started near Castaic Lake, was 36% contained and had burned more than 10,000 acres by Thursday evening, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire.
No structures have been destroyed, officials said.
The fire had prompted mandatory evacuation orders Wednesday for more than 31,000 people. They had been lifted by Thursday afternoon, but around 54,900 people remained under an evacuation warning, meaning they should be prepared to leave if ordered, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.
Smoke from the Hughes Fire near Elderberry Lake in Castaic on Thursday.Maxar Technologies
“This fire was one of those tough, fast-moving Santa Ana wind-driven fires,” Brent Pascua, a battalion chief with Cal Fire, said Thursday.
The fire, which occurred as the region was under a warning for high winds and critical fire weather, erupted little more than two weeks after the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires started in the Los Angeles area, killing at least 28 people and destroying thousands of homes.
It was reported at 10:24 a.m. Wednesday near Lake Hughes Road, close to Castaic Lake, in northern Los Angeles County, fire officials said. Dry, dead and dying brush gave it plenty of fuel, Pascua said.
The cause was under investigation.
A second fire also broke out Wednesday in Sepulveda Pass, growing to 40 acres near the densely populated Sherman Oaks neighborhood and UCLA, but its progress was stopped, and Cal Fire said it was 60% contained by Thursday.
The area remained under red flag warnings through 10 a.m. Friday, the National Weather Service said, although Thursday was the greatest day of concern. “Any fire that starts can grow fast and out of control,” the agency warned.
Inmate firefighters work as the Hughes Fire burns north of Los Angeles, near Castaic, on Wednesday.Mario Tama / Getty Images
The winds that fueled the Hughes Fire’s spread Wednesday were not as powerful as the hurricane-force winds that fueled the Palisades and Eaton fires Jan. 7, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said. Those winds kept firefighting aircraft grounded.
Experts have pointed to the link between climate change and the conditions that make fires like those that have roared across Los Angeles in recent weeks more likely.
The Palisades and Eaton fires destroyed entire communities, and the city’s fire chief has called them one of the worst disasters in Los Angeles history.
The Eaton Fire, which devastated the community of Altadena and burned homes in other cities, was 95% contained Thursday after having burned more than 14,000 acres, fire officials said. More than 9,400 structures, including homes, have been destroyed.
The Palisades Fire damaged or destroyed thousands of structures in Pacific Palisades and Malibu and along the scenic Pacific Coast Highway. It has burned more than 23,400 acres and was 72% contained by Thursday, Cal Fire said in an update.
Both fires occurred during extreme Santa Ana winds that gusted more than 80 mph, a strength characteristic of hurricanes, which created what officials have called a firestorm.
The causes of both fires remained under investigation.
