New Forest Fires Near Los Angeles Expand To 9,400 Hectares

Firefighters in Los Angeles County. (Wikimedia Commons/Cal FIRE_Official)

Strong winds and dry shrubs caused a new forest fire that broke out in northern Los Angeles on Wednesday, spreading rapidly to more than 9,400 hectares (38 square km), forcing more than 31,000 people to flee.

Hughes's fire about 50 miles (80 km) north of Los Angeles further weighed on firefighters in the region who had managed to control two major fires in the metropolitan area.

In just a few hours on Wednesday, the new fire expanded to two-thirds the size of the Eaton Fire, one of the two major fires that had hit the Los Angeles area.

Officials warned people in the Lake Castaic region of Los Angeles County that they were facing a "direct threat to lives," while most Southern California was still under red flag warnings for the risk of extreme fires due to strong and dry winds.

About 31,000 people were under mandatory evacuation orders and another 23,000 faced evacuation warnings, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna told a news conference.

Meanwhile, the Angeles National Forest said the entire 700,000-hectare (2,800-square km) park in the San Gabriel Mountains was closed to visitors.

As a result of the red flag warning, about 1,100 firefighters were deployed around Southern California to anticipate a fast-moving fire, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said.

More than 4,000 firefighters are trying to extinguish Hughes' fire, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said.

Southern California did not experience significant rain for nine months, causing dangerous conditions, but a bit of rain is expected to fall from Saturday to Monday, which may provide the much-needed assistance firefighters.

Interstate 5, the northern-south main highway in the western United States, is temporarily closed in a mountainous trajectory area known as the Grapevine due to poor visibility from smoke, the California Highway Patrol said.

However, firefighters managed to extinguish a fire that was big enough to reopen the highway, Marrone said.

While the fire has only broken out, two deadly fires that have hit Los Angeles since January 7 have been under control, Cal Fire said.

The Eaton fire, which scorched 14,021 hectares (57 square km) east of Los Angeles, was controlled by 91 percent, while the larger Palisaades fire, which has spent 23,448 hectares (95 square km) on the west side of Los Angeles, was successfully controlled by 68 percent.

To note, control measures the percentage of fire perimeters that firefighters can control.

Since two fires broke out on January 7, the fire has burned an area of nearly Washington, DC, killing 28 people, and destroying or destroying nearly 16,000 buildings, Cal Fire said.