Firefighters battle to keep upper hand on new wildfire north of Los Angeles
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Hughes fire near Castaic Lake broke out on Wednesday and led to evacuation orders or warnings for more than 50,000. Firefighters fought to maintain the upper hand on a huge and rapidly moving wildfire that swept through rugged mountains north of Los Angeles and resulted in more than 50,000 people being put under evacuation orders or warnings.
![[a firefighter standing on a mound overlooking a lake with smoke filling the air]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e349abb37760a498202c8921e1c9e24bab20761d/0_145_8000_4803/master/8000.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The Hughes fire broke out late Wednesday morning and in less than a day had charred nearly 16 sq miles (41 sq km) of trees and brush near Castaic Lake, a popular recreation area about 40 miles (64km) from the devastating Eaton and Palisades fires that are burning for a third week.
Though the region was under a red flag warning for critical fire risk, winds were not as fast as they had been when those fires broke out, allowing for firefighting aircraft to dump tens of thousands of gallons of fire retardant on the latest blaze. By Wednesday night, about 14% of the Hughes Fire had been contained.
Late on Wednesday, a new 40-acre brush blaze, dubbed the Sepulveda fire, started near Interstate 405 – the country’s busiest highway – as well the Getty Museum and the neighborhood of Bel-Air. By early Thursday morning firefighters said they had contained it.
“The situation that we’re in today is very different from the situation we were in 16 days ago,” the Los Angeles county fire chief, Anthony Marrone, said on Wednesday evening. Red flag warnings were extended through 10am on Friday in LA and Ventura counties. Officials remained concerned that the Palisades and Eaton fires could break their containment lines as firefighters continue watching for hot spots.
