California: Days after rapidly moving wildfires left behind a trail of massive destruction in Los Angeles, California, a new ‘Hughes Fire’ has prompted evacuation orders or warnings for more than 50,000 people in the US state.
A new fire exploded Wednesday north of Castaic, quickly charring 5,000 acres and forcing thousands to flee from their homes amid a month of extreme fire conditions that have plagued Southern California. The Hughes fire started off of Lake Hughes Road just before 11 a.m. and quickly prompted evacuations orders in and around Lake Castaic, extending toward Interstate 5 on the west and south of Sanberg to the north. More than 19,000 people were ordered to evacuate and another 14,000 people were in areas where evacuation warnings were issued.
Fanned by strong Santa Ana winds, the fire—initially reported at 50 acres—exploded to more than 5,000 acres in under two hours, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Data from CAL Fire showed that the Palisades fire, which has charred 23,448 acres of land to date, is under 68 percent containment. The Eaton fire, meanwhile, is under 91 per cent containment after burning down 14,021 acres.
Traffic was snarled out of Castaic as residents in hillside communities rushed to escape the advancing flames. On Wednesday afternoon, the blaze forced officials to close a section of the northbound 5 freeway just north of state route 126. The southbound 5 Freeway at Grapevine Road on the southern edge of Kern County was also closed.
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