Hughes fire
- Evacuations: Areas in and around Lake Castaic, extending toward Interstate 5 on the west and south of Sandberg to the north. Evacuation warning: Areas including Bittersweet Canyon, Charlie Canyon, Greenhill and areas north of Castaic. Most updated evacuation instructions can be found here, and here.
Road Closures: Road closures were set up at Ridge Route Road at Lake Hughes Road, Ridge Route Road at Templin Highway, Lake Hughes Road at Pine Canyon Road and Dry Gulch Road at San Francisquito Canyon Road, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The Parker Road and Lake Hughes Road offramps on the 5 Freeway are closed.
Palisades fire
- Containment: The fire was 68% contained as of 7 a.m. Wednesday morning. It has burned more than 23,400 acres.
- Damage: Officials have confirmed, so far, 6,662 structures have been destroyed and 890 damaged.
- Lives lost: Officials have confirmed that 11 people are dead from the Palisades fire.
- Evacuations: Some mandatory evacuation zones have been reopened to residents. Details here. Residents must bring a valid photo ID that shows their name, photo and physical address, such as a driver’s license, according to the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department. But most of Pacific Palisades and parts of communities including Malibu, Brentwood and Topanga remained under evacuation orders Tuesday.
Eaton fire
- Containment: The fire was 91% contained as of 7 a.m. Wednesday morning. It has burned more than 14,000 acres.
- Damage: Officials have so far tallied 9,418 structures destroyed and 1,073 damaged.
- Lives lost: Officials have confirmed 17 are dead from the Eaton fire.
- Evacuations: Evacuation orders have been lifted for some portions of south Altadena. And “soft closures” were in place in other areas within the mandatory evacuation area including south of East Altadena Drive, north of West Harriet Street and East Mendocino Street, west of North Allen Street and east of Lincoln Avenue. Details here from the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department.
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Hughes fire explodes north of Castaic, forcing evacuations
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. The fire exploded to more than 5,000 acres in under two hours, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
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Hughes fire: Evacuations, road closures, shelters
The Hughes fire is burning around Lake Castaic 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 quickly grew to 5,054 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Evacuation order
Areas in and around Lake Castaic, extending toward Interstate 5 on the west and south of Sandberg to the north.
Evacuation warning
Areas including Bittersweet Canyon, Charlie Canyon, Greenhill and areas north of Castaic.
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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 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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Advocates urge evacuation after wildfire breaks out near 5,000-person jail complex
A rapidly growing fire near the Castaic jail complex sparked alarm on Wednesday morning, as attorneys urged the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to evacuate the nearly 5,000 inmates in the county’s northernmost jails.
The Hughes fire broke out a little before 11 a.m., roughly 5 miles north of the Pitchess Detention Center.
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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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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 seven water districts in Los Angeles County — five 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.”