As of 4:30 a.m. Thursday, January 23, this blog is no longer being updated in real-time. For the latest updates on the Eaton, Palisades and other fires ravaging Southern California, here is where to find continuing coverage.
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Hughes fire scorches more than 10,000 acres near Castaic; thousands flee
A new fire exploded Wednesday north of Castaic, charring more than 10,000 acres and forcing thousands to flee their homes amid a month of extreme fire conditions that have plagued Southern California.
The Hughes fire started off Lake Hughes Road just before 11 a.m. and quickly prompted evacuations orders in and around Castaic Lake, which by afternoon extended toward Ventura County to the west and near Sandberg to the north. More than 31,000 people were ordered to evacuate, and warnings were issued to 23,000 others.
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Hughes fire: Evacuations, road closures, shelters
The Hughes fire is burning around Castaic Lake north of Castaic. The blaze broke out shortly before 11 a.m. Wednesday amid red flag warnings for the region. Fanned by strong winds, the blaze had grown to about 10,400 acres and was 56% contained as of Friday morning.
Evacuations
Los Angeles County reduced evacuation orders to warnings for areas in and around Castaic Lake. This zone roughly encompasses an area east of Ridge Route and Old Ridge Route roads, south of Liebre Mountain Road and west of South Portal Road, including an area north of Tapia Canyon Road and east of Lake Hughes Road.
Ventura County lifted evacuation orders and warnings Thursday morning. However, the Lake Piru Recreation Area remains closed until further notice.
Most updated evacuation instructions can be found here, and here.
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Fire in Bel-Air frays nerves as red flag weather is set to peak Thursday in Los Angeles
A fire ignited late Wednesday in Bel-Air on the eastern side of the 405 Freeway in the Sepulveda Pass and burned into the early morning hours Thursday.
The fire, across the freeway and a mile north from the Getty Center, moved uphill amid wind gusts in the area that at one point reached 25 mph, according to Todd Hall, meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Contributing to the fire conditions was extremely dry air; relative humidity was 3% to 8%.
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New fire breaks out along I-405, along Sepulveda Pass
A new brush fire has broken out near Interstate 405, along the Sepulveda Pass.
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Fires and windstorms caused at least $350 million in damage to L.A. public facilities, report says
The wildfires that have torn through Pacific Palisades and other parts of Los Angeles this month have damaged or destroyed about $350 million in public infrastructure, including streetlights, recreation centers and a library that burned down, according to a city report.
The initial cost estimate, which examined damage from the first four days of the fires, was presented Wednesday to the City Council as part of a larger discussion on the impact of the emergency on the city budget.
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Video: A look from the ground at the Hughes fire
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As the Hughes fire swells, some residents gather near the flames to witness the spectacle
As the sun began to set over Castaic Lake on Wednesday, the hills to the north and east were engulfed in flames, casting an eerie orange glow across the valley below.
The Hughes fire ignited earlier in the day north of Castaic and by evening had grown to more than 9,000 acres, forcing the evacuation of about 31,000 people.
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California attorney general charges L.A.-area real estate agent with price gouging in wake of wildfires
A real estate agent in La Cañada Flintridge is facing criminal charges for allegedly raising the price of a rental property by 38% after the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said Wednesday.
“May this announcement serve as a stern warning to those who would seek to further victimize those who have lost everything,” Bonta said in a release. “DOJ is aggressively and relentlessly pursuing those who are trying to make a quick buck off someone else’s pain.”
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I-5 reopens after fire closure, officials say
A stretch of Interstate 5 in northern Los Angeles County that was closed because of the nearby Hughes fire reopened Wednesday evening, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Earlier Wednesday afternoon, officials closed the freeway in both directions through the Grapevine, with northbound lanes shut down at the interchange with Highway 126 and southbound traffic closed at Grapevine Road on the southern edge of Kern County.
“For a variety of reasons, we will reopen the freeway so that people can go back and forth again,” L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna said during a news conference.
However, Luna stressed that those who do not need to travel should still avoid the area.
“If you do not live in this area, if you’re following the smoke, if you want to go see what the firefighters are doing, turn on the television set,” he said. “Do not drive into these areas. You are impacting the ingress and the egress of emergency vehicles. We don’t need more traffic. We want less traffic.”
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‘It’s hard to go to work when you’re worried your house could burn down.’ Fleeing flames in fire-weary SoCal
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 his children and hundreds of others 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.
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Hughes fire grows to 9,400 acres
The Hughes fire has grown to more than 9,400 acres, officials said late Wednesday afternoon.
More than 4,000 firefighters are responding to the fire, which was 0% contained as of 5 p.m, L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said.
About 31,000 people in Castaic and other areas surrounding the fire were under evacuation orders and an additional 23,000 were under evacuation warnings, L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna said.
There were no reports of damaged or destroyed structures, Marrone said.
Sheriff’s deputies have been deployed to evacuated areas to assist with security efforts, Luna said.
“I want to make sure people know that if you leave your homes, there will be additional deputies working out there in the neighborhoods to make sure your homes are safe,” he said at a news conference.
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Hughes fire causing unhealthy air across swath of Southern California
The Hughes fire has emitted enormous plumes of smoke during its rapid growth in the Castaic area, leading to potentially unhealthy air quality nearby, officials said.
The smoke has caused the air quality index to fall into the unhealthy range in Camarillo, Fillmore, Moorpark, Oxnard, Piru, Santa Paula, Simi Valley and Ventura, according to the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District.
Air quality monitors downwind of the Hughes fire recorded hazardous levels of smoke and soot, according to the district. Some of the highest levels were recorded at Rio Mesa High School in El Rio, due north of Oxnard.
The local air district urged residents to stay indoors as much as possible, close all windows and doors and wear protective masks to limit their exposure.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District also issued a smoke advisory for a wide swath of northwestern Los Angeles County. The potentially affected area stretches from the Santa Monica and Malibu coastline to the south up through the San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita, Angeles National Forest and into the Castaic Lake area.
Smoke will most heavily impact areas near and to the southwest of the fire, including the San Gabriel Mountains, the Interstate 5 corridor near Castaic Lake and Santa Clarita, according to the AQMD.
Children, seniors and pregnant women are especially vulnerable to the effects of smoke and soot. When ultrafine particles from wildfires are inhaled, they travel into the lungs and even into the bloodstream, where they can trigger respiratory and cardiovascular problems.
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Castaic Animal Care Center evacuated as Hughes fire spreads
The L.A. County animal shelter in Castaic has been closed and its animals evacuated, a county official said.
The Castaic Animal Care Center has been fully evacuated and animals being housed there were transferred to Lancaster Animal Care Center, according to L.A. County Department of Animal Care and Control spokesperson Chris Valles.
Valles didn’t know the specific number of animals evacuated.
Residents fleeing the fire can take large animals to Pierce College Equestrian Center at 6201 Winnetka Ave, in Woodland Hills.
Small pets can be taken to the animal care centers in Palmdale, 38550 Sierra Highway, Palmdale; Agoura, 29525 Agoura Road, Agoura Hills; and Lancaster, 5210 W. Avenue I, Lancaster.
Valles recommended that pet owners living in evacuation zones prepare an emergency kit with leashes, blankets, any microchip or vet information, medication and water.
“If you are ordered to evacuate, you can grab the kit and leave immediately with your pet,” he said.
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19,000 in L.A. County ordered to evacuate amid Hughes fire; Ventura County also orders evacuations
About 19,000 people are under evacuation orders and an additional 15,000 are under evacuation warnings due to the Hughes fire north of Castaic, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna.
“If you are in these areas and you get an evacuation order, you need to leave,” Luna said on KCBS-TV.
Pitchess Detention Center South is about three miles away from the fire and is under an evacuation order.
“We are in the process of evacuating 476 inmates,” Luna said.
People in the Sheriff’s Department’s two other facilities, North County Correctional Facility and Pitchess Detention Center North, are sheltering in place, “but we’re constantly evaluating that for the safety of all of our inmates,” Luna told the TV station.
Deputies at one point were moving inmates from Pitchess to the North County Correctional Facility, another jail in the same complex slightly farther from the fire. The jail was listed in the evacuation zone by the afternoon.
Ventura County issued an evacuation order for an area east of Lake Piru and west of the 5 Freeway at 1:40 p.m. and also issued an evacuation warning for the area east of Camulos to the L.A. County border and north of Highway 126 to Lake Piru.
Daniel Swain, a UCLA climate scientist, explained during a livestream on Wednesday that the predicted winds in the evening could drive the fire into Ventura County.
“This is not a good place to have a fire under northeast winds,” Swain said, “because there is an almost contiguous, very dense fuel bed all in this region.”
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Interstate 5 closed in both directions along the Grapevine due to Hughes fire
Interstate 5 is being closed in both directions along its Grapevine section due to the Hughes fire north of Castaic.
The 45-mile section of roadway connects Los Angeles County with the San Joaquin Valley.
The northbound 5 was closed at the interchange with California 126 on the northern edge of Valencia, Caltrans said.
The southbound 5 was closed at Grapevine Road, on the southern edge of Kern County, according to the California Highway Patrol.
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Video: Hughes fire explodes, forcing evacuations north of Castaic
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A new fire exploded Wednesday north of Castaic, spreading quickly and forcing additional evacuations in fire-weary Southern California.
The Hughes fire started off of Lake Hughes Road just before 11 a.m. and evacuations were ordered shortly after.
Evacuations were ordered in and around Lake Castaic, extending toward Interstate 5 on the west and south of Sanberg to the north.
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Red flag fire warnings most significant now through Thursday night, will last through Friday morning
Red flag fire weather warnings are expected to be the most significant from Wednesday midday through Thursday evening, the National Weather Service said.
The weather service said it was extending the red flag fire weather warning — which warns of critical fire behavior and rapid spread of fires — through Friday at 10 a.m. for much of the counties of Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura.
Firefighters were battling the rapidly spreading Hughes fire, north of Castaic, prompting evacuation orders Wednesday morning.
Meteorologist Lisa Phillips of the weather service said she was seeing a significant amount of smoke between the Grapevine section of Interstate 5 all the way through Ventura County.
Smoke could be smelled inside the weather service’s Oxnard office, said meteorologist Ryan Kittell of the weather service.
At around 1:15 p.m., gusts were up to 39 mph at the higher elevations around the Hughes fire north of Castaic; most other weather stations around the area were reporting gusts of around 15 mph to 25 mph, Kittell said.
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Castaic jail complex in wildfire evacuation zone; officials plan to shelter in place
When a rapidly growing wildfire spread to more than 5,000 acres of northern L.A. County, Sheriff Robert Luna told locals to evacuate immediately.
“If you are in these areas, and you get an evacuation order, you need to leave,” he said in a midafternoon television interview. “You need to leave immediately. Don’t argue, we need to get you out of there. Your life depends on it.”
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What we know about Hughes fire risk and nearby L.A. County jail
Amid Hughes fire, evacuations were ordered in and around Lake Castiac, extending toward Interstate 5 on the west and south of Sanberg to the north, including a county jail.
It’s unclear how jail officials would carry out an evacuation, if one becomes necessary. For years, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has struggled with a shortage of inmate transport buses, due to an aging fleet that has become increasingly difficult to repair.
By late last year, officials told The Times that only 20 of the department’s 82 buses were operational.
Though the county approved funding for 20 new buses in September 2023, the first did not arrive until December of last year. The remaining buses are slated to arrive every few weeks until the order is expected to be completed in August.
On Wednesday, a department spokeswoman said that jail officials could potentially use state and other local resources, but it was not immediately clear what resources that would entail.
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What we know about winds fueling the Hughes fire
With the Hughes fire burning near Castaic, north winds reached 14 mph, and 31-mph wind gusts were recorded Wednesday afternoon, said meteorologist Ariel Cohen with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
The wind gusts are expected to increase over the next several hours into tonight and tomorrow, Cohen said. Forecasts show that gusts could reach up to 40 mph in the evening and even higher overnight.
A red flag warning is in effect through 8 p.m. Thursday and a high wind warning is in effect through 2 p.m. Thursday afternoon.
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Boiling won’t help. Explaining the Palisades and Altadena ‘Do Not Use’ water alerts
At least eight water districts in Los Angeles County — six in the Altadena area and two in the Malibu/Palisades area — have issued do-not-use or do-not-drink water advisories since the Eaton and Palisades fires began burning earlier this month, meaning customers should not use that water until they get the all-clear.
If you’re wondering how fires can make drinking water dangerous, the first thing to understand is this: The structures where we work and shop, dine and sleep and just generally live our lives are full of materials that release toxic waste when those materials burn.
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Altadena reopens to reveal devastated homes — but a community still standing
As she surveyed the charred remains of her old Altadena neighborhood, Jocelyn Boyd stared in silent disbelief.
Loma Alta Park, where the public swimming pool once served as a summertime sanctuary for her and other Black residents, had been ravaged by the Eaton fire.
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This reservoir was built to save Pacific Palisades. It was empty when the flames came
After flames leveled nearly 500 homes in Bel-Air and Brentwood in 1961, Los Angeles had a reckoning over firefighting.
By 1964, city leaders had added 13 fire stations, mapped out fire hydrants, purchased helicopters and dispatched more crews to the Santa Monica Mountains. To accommodate growth in Pacific Palisades, they built a reservoir in Santa Ynez Canyon, as well as a pumping station “to increase fire protection,” as the L.A. Department of Water and Power’s then-chief water engineer, Gerald W. Jones, told The Times in 1972.
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Many residents with disabilities can’t flee fires on their own. Could a database help?
Facing mounting questions over a chaotic evacuation, top L.A. County officials say they want to build a database of residents with disabilities who require help fleeing a neighborhood engulfed in flames.
L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone told county supervisors at a public meeting Tuesday that the ongoing wildfires underscored the need for a “database to track people who have mobility challenges or health challenges.”
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Trump’s order to cut off funding to sanctuary cities could threaten L.A. fire relief
As Los Angeles rebuilds from a devastating wildfire that destroyed swaths of Pacific Palisades, the city’s access to federal money could be imperiled by one of President Trump’s first-day immigration actions targeting “sanctuary cities.”
An executive order that Trump signed Monday, shortly after he was sworn in, directs federal officials to take actions “to ensure that so-called ‘sanctuary’ jurisdictions, which seek to interfere with the lawful exercise of Federal law enforcement operations, do not receive access to Federal funds.”
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Red flag warning extended to Thursday night for L.A., Ventura counties
Although the worst of the Santa Ana winds appear to have passed, Southern California is not out of the woods yet when it comes to fire risk.
On Tuesday, the National Weather Service extended its red flag warning for Los Angeles and Ventura counties until Thursday evening.
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Sheriff’s Department launches Looter Suppression Team in Eaton fire neighborhoods
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has promised to increase patrols in Altadena to combat looting as residents begin to head back to their homes nearly two weeks after the Eaton fire swept through the region.
The newly formed Looter Suppression Team will provide more surveillance and a quicker response time to Altadena neigborhoods evacuated during the fire but potentially left unsecured by residents, the Sheriff’s Department announced Tuesday.
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Judge orders Southern California Edison to preserve evidence and equipment in Eaton fire
A judge on Tuesday ordered Southern California Edison to preserve data, equipment and evidence related to the deadly Eaton fire, a decision praised by attorneys who sued the giant utility company and suspect the fire began at the base of an electrical tower.
Issued by L.A. Superior Court Judge Ashfaq G. Chowdhury Tuesday morning, the ruling approved a temporary restraining order requested by attorneys for an Altadena woman whose home was burned in the fire and is now suing the utility company.
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L.A. County supervisor calls for outside investigation into Altadena evacuations
Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger Tuesday called for an outside investigation into the evacuation process during the Eaton Fire
It comes as The Times reported that it took many hours for residents in western Altadena to get electronic evacuation orders. At least 17 people died in that area.
As the Eaton fire spread, many areas were notified of evacuation warnings and orders well in advance. In the heart of Altadena, where all 17 reported deaths occurred, evacuation orders came hours after fire did.
“I have deep concerns,” said Barger. “There has to be a thorough examination of life-saving emergency notifications that took place on that horrific evening. From what I have been told, it was a night of pure chaos for both fire and first responders.”
“For me, it is important to gather all the facts so that we have a complete picture as to what happened. Such a report, she added, “will answer questions for Altadena but will also benefit the county as a whole moving. forward.”
Residents told The Times they were stunned how long it took to get the evacuation order, and by then many homes in the area were on fire.
Of the 17 deaths confirmed so far in the fire, all of them occurred in the area west of Lake Avenue, records show. More than 7,000 homes were burned overall in the fire.
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With rain possible for the weekend, Bass works to shore up burn areas
Mayor Karen Bass issued an emergency executive order Tuesday morning to shore up Los Angeles burn areas and protect watersheds ahead of potential rain this weekend.
The forecast, which calls for some rain as soon as late Friday or early Saturday, comes as the Los Angeles area continues to battle a catastrophic firestorm that has devastated a wide swath of coastal L.A. and Altadena in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.
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Sen. Amy Klobuchar says she used her access to nudge Trump on L.A. wildfire recovery
WASHINGTON — Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the chief of the inaugural transition, acknowledged the difficulty of overseeing the handoff of power to Donald Trump in the site where his followers rioted in seeking to overturn election results but also said it was important for herself and other Democrats to acknowledge Trump’s 2024 victory.
“We had a job to do,” said Klobuchar, the chairwoman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, which worked for two years on planning the transition, in an interview Monday night. “And that’s why President Obama came and President Clinton, they were well aware of what had happened in that request. But that was our job.”