The new fire led to mandatory evacuation orders for over 30,000 people, including inmates in a detention center.
The Hughes Fire that broke out on Wednesday morning in a rugged mountainous area north of Los Angeles has exploded to more than 10,000 acres. The wildfire has led to mandatory evacuation orders for tens of thousands of people, including inmates at a Los Angeles detention center.
The fire, which is burning in both Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, was 14 percent contained as of 10:22 p.m. It has not claimed any structures, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said at a press conference Wednesday evening.
Currently there are 4,000 firefighters deployed; approximately 32,000 people are affected by evacuation orders, and approximately 23,000 more are under evacuation warnings, he added.
Located near Castaic Lake six miles north of Six Flags Magic Mountain, the Hughes Fire erupted around 10:40 Wednesday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire). Within two hours, it had devoured 5,000 acres, and skies were darkened and ash falling as far away as Ventura, approximately 50 miles from Castaic.
Those evacuated on Wednesday included nearly 500 inmates at Peter J. Pitchess Detention Center, roughly five miles south of where the fire started. The inmates were evacuated onto another facility on the campus, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said. Pitchess houses approximately 4,500 all-male inmates at the facility. At the time of Wednesday evening’s news conference, inmates were sheltering in place inside the facility’s concrete structures.
The California Highway Patrol closed Interstate 5, the major north-south highway extending from the Mexican to the Canadian border, due to poor visibility on the Grapevine, a mountainous passage north of Los Angeles, and to allow access for emergency vehicles. It has since reopened.
Weather is predominately driving the fire, Marrone said. “The situation remains dynamic, and the fire remains a difficult fire to contain, although we are getting the upper hand.”
Large swaths of Southern California will remain under a red-flag warning for extreme fire risk until Friday as dry and sweeping Santa Ana winds continue to whip through much of the region.
