
New wildfire near Los Angeles explodes to 8,000 acres, forces evacuations
By David Swanson and Daniel Trotta
CASTAIC, California (Reuters) - -A new wildfire that broke out north of Los Angeles on Wednesday rapidly spread to more than 8,000 acres (32 square km), fueled by strong winds and dry brush, forcing mandatory evacuation orders for more than 19,000 people.
The Hughes fire about 50 miles (80 km) north of Los Angeles further taxed firefighters in the region who have managed to bring two major fires burning in the metropolitan area largely under control.

(Updated Thurs., Jan. 21, 5:50 am local time)
SEE ALSO: Animal rescuers care for L.A. wildfire evacuees - dogs, donkeys, horses
In just a few hours on Wednesday, the new fire grew to more than half the size of the Eaton Fire, one of the two monster conflagrations that have ravaged the Los Angeles area.

(Smoke forecast for Thurs., Jan. 23, 2025)
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.
Vehicles drive on a highway and a cloud of smoke rises on the background as firefighters and aircraft battle the Hughes Fire near Castaic Lake, north of Santa Clarita, California, U.S. January 22, 2025. REUTERS/David Swanson
Some 19,000 people, a number roughly equal to the entire population of the community of Castaic, were under mandatory evacuation orders, the Los Angeles County Fire Department said. Another 16,000 were under evacuation warnings.
Los Angeles County, the state of California and the U.S. Forest Service said their firefighters were responding. The Angeles National Forest said its entire 700,000-acre (2,800-square-km) park in the San Gabriel Mountains was closed to visitors.

Minimal rainfall in the forecast (Updated: Thurs., Jan. 23, at 5:50 am local time)
As a result of the red-flag warning, some 1,100 firefighters were deployed around Southern California in anticipation of fast-moving fires, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said.
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.

Smoke and flames rise as firefighters and aircraft battle the Hughes Fire near Castaic Lake, north of Santa Clarita, California, U.S. January 22, 2025. REUTERS/David Swanson
Helicopters scooped water out of a lake to drop on the fire, video on KTLA television showed, as flames spread to the water's edge.
Interstate 5, a major north-south highway, was closed in the area of the fires due to poor visibility, the California Highway Patrol said.

(Precipitation forecast for California for Sunday, Jan. 26)
While the new fire raged, the two deadly fires that have ravaged Los Angeles came under greater control, Cal Fire said.
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.
A cloud of smoke from the Hughes Fire rises as firefighters and aircraft battle it near Castaic Lake, north of Santa Clarita, as seen from a highway nearby, California, U.S. January 22, 2025. REUTERS/David Swanson
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.
Thumbnail courtesy of REUTERS/David Swanson.
(Reporting by David Swanson in Castic and Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California;Editing by Mary Milliken, Sandra Maler and Rod Nickel)