Firefighters made progress on the more than 10,000-acre Hughes Fire Friday, which sent thousands fleeing after sparking near the Los Angeles County community of Castaic a day earlier.
Hughes Fire, Santa Clarita
The Hughes Fire has spread over 8,096 acres after starting just before lunchtime in Los Angeles County's Castaic Lake area on Wednesday.
The 10,396-acre Hughes fire reached 56% containment Friday as first responders made progress controlling multiple blazes burning in Los Angeles County, which is expected to receive rain over the weekend that could be capable of producing floods and mudslides in several burned areas.
The Hughes fire broke out a little before 11 a.m., roughly five miles north of the Pitchess Detention Center. The Sheriff's Department has struggled with a shortage of buses to transport inmates.
Blaze consumes 14 hectares per minute driven by wind gusts, threatening several residential areas of Santa Clarita
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 another 20,000 were in areas where evacuation warnings were issued.
The blazes have grown to more than 37,000 acres, killing at least 25 people and destroying thousands of structures.
The Palisades and Eaton wildfires also continue burning in the Los Angeles area, leaving parts of Southern California with devastating fire damage.
The fire threat remains critical in Southern California, where thousands of residents were under evacuation orders Wednesday as fire crews battled the out-of-control Hughes Fire near Castaic, a suburb in the foothills and mountains of northern Los Angeles County.
According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), wildfires are currently burning in Santa Clarita, Oxnard, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Diego. Most of those ...