A new wildfire that broke out north of Los Angeles on Wednesday rapidly spread to more than 9,400 acres (38 square km), fuelled by strong winds and dry brush, forcing mandatory evacuation orders for more than 31,000 people.
The Hughes fire about 50 miles (80km) north of Los Angeles further taxed firefighters in the region who have managed to bring two major fires in the metropolitan area largely under control.
In just a few hours on Wednesday, the new fire grew to two-thirds the size of the Eaton Fire, one of the two monster conflagrations that have ravaged the Los Angeles area.
Some 31,000 people were under mandatory evacuation orders and another 23,000 faced evacuation warnings, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna told a press conference.
The Angeles National Forest said its entire 700,000-acre (2,800sqkm) park in the San Gabriel Mountains was closed to visitors.
As a result of the red-flag warning, some 1,100 firefighters were deployed around Southern California in anticipation of fast-moving fires, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said. More than 4,000 firefighters were working on the Hughes Fire, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said.
Helicopters scooped water out of a lake to drop on the fire while fixed-wing aircraft dropped fire retardant on the hills, Flames spread to the water’s edge.
The Eaton Fire that scorched 14,021 acres (57sqkm) east of Los Angeles was 91% contained, while the larger Palisades Fire, which has consumed 23,448 acres (95sqkm) on the west side of Los Angeles, stood at 68% contained.
Since the two fires broke out on January 7, they have burned an area nearly the size of Washington, DC, killed 28 people, and damaged or destroyed nearly 16,000 structures, Cal Fire said. At one point, 180,000 people were under evacuation orders, according to Los Angeles County officials.
Private forecaster AccuWeather projects damage and economic losses at more than $250 billion.
