Winds and dry conditions across SoCal driving new fires
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Southern California’s fire season refuses to quit, even with rain on the horizon.
In the last day, hundreds of weary firefighters have battled multiple fires in the hills around Los Angeles and Ventura counties, including a massive blaze near Castaic, an early morning fire in the Sepulveda Pass that threatened Brentwood and Bel-Air, and another that pushed into Ventura County farmland Thursday morning.
Damage from the fires has been kept at bay because of aggressive water drops and winds that, although strong, have not matched those seen during the Jan. 7 firestorms that destroyed thousands of structures, including many homes.
Around 9:40 a.m. Thursday, a brush fire broke out in Camarillo, burning 50 acres and temporarily prompting evacuations at Cal State Channel Islands. Firefighters dropped water on the blaze as it charred brush along Round Mountain and quickly stopped the fire’s forward progress.
Hours earlier, before sunrise, firefighters attacked the Sepulveda fire, which broke out on the bone-dry hillsides of the 405 Freeway and was burning toward multimillion-dollar homes. Forward progress on the blaze, which burned 45 acres, was stopped by 2 a.m. and it was 60% contained as of Thursday afternoon, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Shortly after 4 p.m., two new brush fires broke out in Riverside County — the 3-acre Reche fire in Moreno Valley and the 15-acre Gibbel fire in Hemet.
The fires, though quickly controlled, punctuated a nerve-racking week for Southern California as the region endured a fourth consecutive day of red flag fire weather warnings.
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“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, Malibu and Altadena.
The largest of the blazes that started this week was the Hughes fire, which broke out just before 11a.m. Wednesday. It had charred about 10,400 acres in the area north of Castaic by Thursday evening 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 36% contained as of Thursday evening.
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 weather service, which 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 weather service.
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 in Covina; nearly three-quarters of an inch in downtown L.A., Long Beach and Santa Clarita; two-thirds of an inch in 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 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 after 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 the 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.
Across Southern California, at least four wind-driven fires have destroyed homes since November. The Mountain fire razed 243 buildings and damaged dozens more in Camarillo and nearby communities in western Ventura County in November. The Franklin fire in December destroyed at least 20 structures in Malibu, according to Cal Fire.
This month, the Palisades and Eaton fires tore a devastating path through Pacific Palisades, Malibu and the Altadena and Pasadena areas, resulting in at least 28 deaths. The Palisades fire destroyed at least 6,770 structures while the Eaton fire leveled 9,418 buildings, including many homes. Damage assessments are continuing for the Palisades fire zone and have been completed for the Eaton fire. The cause of the fires is still being investigated.
In the meantime, the Hughes fire continued to keep firefighters busy Thursday as they worked to suppress 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 helicopters dropped roughly 113,000 gallons of water on the fire, and 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 Thursday morning for the areas of Fillmore, Piru, Santa Paula, the Conejo Valley, Simi Valley, Moorpark and the coastal plains.
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 expecting 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.
Early Wednesday, the Hughes fire was burning about five miles north of the county’s 2,620-acre Castaic jail complex, leading deputies to move more than 470 inmates from a barracks-style facility to the concrete North County Correctional Facility. Both buildings are part of the same jail complex, which was inside an evacuation zone.
But citing advice from fire officials, the Sheriff’s Department decided to have more than 4,500 inmates and 300 jailers shelter in place, drawing criticism from inmate advocates and families. To protect people from the smoke outside, sheriff’s officials said, they shut down the air circulation inside the jails and offered masks to inmates and staff. By midday Thursday, the evacuation order had been downgraded to a warning.
Although the fire has burned near Castaic Dam, it hasn’t affected the dam or water operations at the facility, said Ryan Endean, a spokesperson for the California Department of Water Resources. The agency operates Castaic Lake as part of the State Water Project, and the facility is powered by Southern California Edison.
“As SCE’s supply to the facility was interrupted, power is currently being supplied by DWR’s backup generators,” Endean said in an email, adding that the agency is monitoring the fires.
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 despite Santa Ana winds gusting 35 to 50 mph overnight. As of Thursday night, containment of the fire had jumped to 75%, according to Cal Fire.
In the Eaton fire area, operations were continuing to wind down. Crews continued their mop-up along 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, was 95% contained as of Thursday.
Times staff writers James Queally, Matt Hamilton and Ian James contributed to this report.
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