Winds and dry conditions across SoCal driving new fires
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Southern California is facing another day of dangerous winds and dry conditions that sparked new blazes across the region in a month marked by unprecedented fire losses.
In the last day, hundreds of weary firefighters battled a massive conflagration near Castaic and a smaller but unnerving fire in the Sepulveda Pass in Brentwood and Bel-Air. Damage from the fires has been kept at bay due to aggressive water drops and winds that while strong did not match those seen during the Jan. 7 firestorm that destroyed thousands of structures, including many homes.
On Thursday morning, a brush fire broke out in Camarillo, prompting temporary evacuations at Cal State Channel Islands and University Glen and resulting in the college canceling classes for the day.
The Laguna fire, which broke out around 9:40 a.m., burned 50 acres amid 35-mph wind gusts and humidity levels at 6%. Firefighters rushed to the scene and launched an aerial attack, dropping water on the blaze as it charred brush along Round Mountain in an area surrounded by farmland. Roughly two hours later, firefighters had stopped forward progress of the blaze.
The Laguna fire is the latest blaze in a nerve-racking week as Southern California headed into a fourth consecutive day of red flag fire weather warnings. The alerts caution that conditions are ripe for fires to ignite and spread rapidly.
“This is a dangerous fire day today,” the National Weather Service posted on X. “Winds will continue to increase and expand this morning. Humidity is already extremely dry. Much of LA and Ventura counties are at critical Red Flag levels. Any new fire can grow rapidly.”
There have been red flag warnings in some part of Southern California for 14 of the last 17 days. The stretch started Jan. 7, the day the Palisades and Eaton fires began their devastating spread, leveling swaths of Pacific Palisades and Altadena.
Overnight, officials were dealing with the Sepulveda fire, which broke out off the 405 Freeway just after 12:30 a.m. The blaze triggered mandatory evacuations for parts of Brentwood and Bel-Air, including homes along Casiano Road and Chalon Road, as well as Moraga Drive, which is lined with multimillion-dollar properties.
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Shortly before 2 a.m., the Los Angeles Fire Department said the fire, which burned 45 acres, had stopped spreading. The fire was 60% contained as of Thursday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The Hughes fire, which broke out just before 11a.m. Wednesday, charred more than 10,100 acres in the area north of Castaic and forced thousands to flee their homes.
More than 31,000 people were ordered to evacuate, and warnings were issued to 23,000 others. Some evacuation orders and warnings were downgraded Thursday as crews began to get a handle on the blaze. The fire was 14% contained as of Thursday morning.
But firefighters in the thick of challenging weather conditions still have work to do in the area.
Santa Ana winds were expected to strengthen and peak during the day Thursday, but winds will linger through at least Friday morning, according to the National Weather Service. The weather service has extended its red flag fire weather warning through Friday at 10 a.m. for much of the counties of Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura.
Temperatures in the Castaic area were expected to reach the high 70s or low 80s on Thursday, exacerbating the dry conditions in the area. Humidity across Southern California has dipped below 10%.
“We’re still in the middle of this extended period of extreme dryness, and we’re looking at this next wind enhancement picking up,” said Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Peak gusts Thursday were forecast to be a bit stronger than anticipated earlier in some locations. Gusts on Thursday could reach 45 mph in the western San Fernando Valley, Oxnard and the Grapevine section of Interstate 5; 53 mph in Ramona; 54 mph in Acton; 55 mph in Fillmore and Idyllwild; 59 mph in Santa Clarita; 62 mph in Thousand Oaks; 68 mph in Beaumont; and 69 mph in Alpine.
A stone’s throw from the flames, residents watched the spectacle like fans at a sporting event — phones held aloft, sharing the shocking images.
With the air so dry — and not moistening up overnight — it is a “really concerning period for humidities,” Kittell said. Plants and other fuels are “ready to burn.”
However, rain is on the horizon for Southern California. Precipitation could start as early as Saturday afternoon and last until Monday night.
Rainfall could total nine-tenths of an inch for Covina; nearly three-quarters of an inch for downtown L.A., Long Beach and Santa Clarita; two-thirds of an inch for Redondo Beach; three-fifths of an inch in Fillmore and Canoga Park; and about half an inch in Thousand Oaks and Oxnard. Eleven inches of snow could fall on Wrightwood, and 4 inches along the Grapevine section of Interstate 5.
“It’s not going to get us out of the fire season,” Bryan Lewis, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said of the rain. “With those much higher relative humidities coming in it’ll certainly help firefighters’ efforts.”
President Trump is scheduled to visit California on Friday to see the damage from the fires firsthand. In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity that aired Wednesday night, the president hinted that he may withhold aid to California until the state adjusts how it manages its water resources. Trump blamed California’s conservation of the endangered Delta smelt in the northern part of the state for fire hydrants running dry in Los Angeles.
“I don’t think we should give California anything until they let water flow down,” he said.
But water managers and experts have said Southern California’s cities are not currently short of water, pointing out that the region’s reservoirs are at record high levels following plentiful deliveries during wet months in 2023 and 2024.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has said a change in water management in Northern California would not have affected the fire response. The governor’s office said on social media that California “pumps as much water now as it could under prior Trump-era policies,” and that “there is no shortage of water in Southern California.”
Even with ample supplies in reservoirs, local water systems were pushed to their limits in places as the fires rapidly spread, driven by strong winds.
When the L.A. water system lost pressure in parts of Pacific Palisades, some fire hydrants ran dry in high-elevation areas, hindering the firefighting effort. Newsom last week ordered an investigation into the loss of water pressure to hydrants, and the lack of water available from a reservoir in Pacific Palisades that was out of commission for repairs.
Since Jan. 1, at least two dozen fires have started in Southern California, burning more than 50,000 acres as the region experiences a shift from wet weather to extreme dry weather — a phenomenon scientists have described as “hydroclimate whiplash.” These swings can worsen wildfires, flooding and other hazards and are growing more frequent and intense because of human-caused climate change, research shows.
In the meantime, the Hughes fire will continue to keep firefighters busy on Thursday as they work to keep the blaze within its current footprint.
Firefighters overnight grappled with extreme fire behavior, challenging terrain, strong winds and low humidity. Still, with crews on the ground and retardant and water drops, firefighters were able to keep the fire from spreading to Elderberry Canyon, the Castaic Hydroelectric Power Plant and surrounding communities, according to Cal Fire.
Three Cal Fire helicopters dropped roughly 113,000 gallons of water on the fire. Meanwhile, eight air tankers dropped more than 30,000 gallons of retardant, according to Cal Fire.
Air quality was in the unhealthy range in the area of the Hughes fire, according to the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District. An alert was issued Wednesday afternoon for Camarillo, Fillmore, Moorpark, Oxnard, Piru, Santa Paula, Simi Valley and Ventura. On Thursday, schools in the area were closed.
A smoke advisory was also issued for a wide swath of northwestern L.A. County from the Santa Monica and Malibu coastline to the south up through the San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita and into the Castaic Lake area.
In the days after the devastating wildfires, air monitors recorded some of the highest levels of air pollution in recent years, coinciding with a surge in hospital visits.
Moments after the Hughes fire exploded, L.A. County Deputy Dist. Atty. Jonathan Hatami said he raced out of the Michael Antonovich Antelope Valley Courthouse in Lancaster and drove back to Santa Clarita, where hundreds of kids were being evacuated from West Creek Academy as the sky overhead darkened with smoke.
“You had some parents crying. You had younger kids ... they were crying. You could see the smoke from the school. Everybody is kind of on edge,” said Hatami, whose children are 8 and 10.
The veteran prosecutor, whose wife is a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who had been dispatched to help with evacuations, said his entire family was experiencing “fire fatigue” after more than two weeks spent waiting for wind-driven flames to threaten their home.
“It’s a lot. I love California. I love Los Angeles, but this is definitely stressful,” he said. “It’s hard to go to work when you’re worried your house could burn down and your kids are at school, and your wife is out there, and you don’t know what’s going to happen with her.”
A fire broke out Wednesday night along the 405 Freeway in the Sepulveda Pass near the Getty Center, burning about 20 acres and spurring an evacuation warning.
The fire was burning about five miles north of the county’s Castaic jail complex, forcing deputies to move 476 inmates from the tent-like barracks at Pitchess Detention Center to the concrete North County Correction Facility. Both buildings are part of the same jail complex that is within an evacuation zone.
On Wednesday, Rob Mower raced home through the flames and police roadblocks to make sure his house wasn’t on fire.
His house was fine, he said, as helicopters thumped overhead and a long convoy of emergency vehicles raced by, sirens blaring. He has lived in Castaic for 22 years, he said, and has had fires burn right up to his backyard.
“This happens every few years,” he said with a shrug. “It’s just part of living in California.”
After a report from The Times, officials have called for an external review into delayed evacuation alerts in western Altadena, during the Eaton fire.
Meanwhile, crews battling the Palisades fire continued to make progress overnight despite Santa Ana winds gusting 35 to 50 mph overnight. As of Thursday morning, containment of the fire had jumped to 72%, according to CalFire.
In the Eaton fire area, firefighter operations were continuing to wind down. Crews continued mop up through the perimeter of the fire zone and damage inspections for burned properties have been completed, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department. The blaze, which burned just over 14,000 acres and destroyed 9,418 properties, was 95% contained as of Thursday.
Staff writers James Queally, Matt Hamilton and Ian James contributed to this report.
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