More than 31,000 people were ordered to evacuate as a new wildfire that started north of Los Angeles on Wednesday quickly spread to more than 9,400 acres (38 square kilometers) due to strong winds and dry brush.
Firefighters who have successfully brought two significant fires in the metropolitan region largely under control were further tested by the Hughes fire, which occurred approximately 50 miles (80 km) north of Los Angeles and produced massive flames and smoke plumes over a hilly area.
The new fire surged to two-thirds the size of the Eaton Fire, one of the two massive fires that have devastated the Los Angeles region, in a matter of hours on Wednesday.
Officials warned people in the Castaic Lake area of Los Angeles County that they faced immediate threat to life, while much of Southern California remained under a red-flag warning for extreme fire risk due to strong, dry winds.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna told a press conference that 31,000 people were under mandatory evacuation orders, with another 23,000 facing evacuation alerts.
The Angeles National Forest announced that its whole 700,000-acre (2,800-square-kilometer) park in the San Gabriel Mountains was closed to tourists.
Following the red-flag warning, some 1,100 firefighters were dispatched throughout Southern California in preparation of fast-moving flames, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).
Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone reported that more than 4,000 firefighters were working on the Hughes Fire.
Southern California has gone without significant rain for nine months, contributing to hazardous conditions, but some rain was forecast from Saturday through Monday, possibly giving firefighters much-needed relief.
Helicopters scooped water out of a lake to drop on the fire while fixed-wing aircraft dropped fire retardant on the hills.
While the new fire raged, the two deadly fires that have ravaged Los Angeles since Jan. 7 came under greater control, fire officials stated.
The Eaton Fire that scorched 14,021 acres (57 square km) east of Los Angeles was 91% contained, while the larger Palisades Fire, which has consumed 23,448 acres (95 square km) on the west side of Los Angeles, stood at 68% contained.
Containment measures the percentage of a fire’s perimeter that firefighters have under control.
Since the two fires broke out on Jan. 7, they have burned an area nearly the size of Washington, D.C., killed 28 people and damaged or destroyed nearly 16,000 structures, Cal Fire said. At one point, 180,000 people were under evacuation orders, according to Los Angeles County officials.
Private forecaster AccuWeather projects damage and economic losses at more than $250 billion.
A series of smaller wildfires has been extinguished or brought largely under control in Southern California the past two weeks.
