Fire crews make progress against blaze that forced thousands to flee north of LA

Powys County Times

4 days ago

Firefighters in a mountainous area north of Los Angeles have made good progress in their battle against a brush fire which has forced thousands of people to evacuate the area, an official said.
The Canyon Fire ignited on Thursday afternoon and spread rapidly in the dry, steep terrain in Ventura and Los Angeles counties to more than 7.6 square miles, with no containment by 11pm, according to Ventura County Fire Department.
At least 400 personnel battled the blaze along with several planes and helicopters. No further growth was reported on Friday morning, though the fire remained uncontained, county fire department public information officer Andrew Dowd said.
The fire is burning just south of Lake Piru, a reservoir in the Los Padres National Forest. It is close by Lake Castaic, a popular recreation area burned by the Hughes Fire in January. That fire burned about 15 square miles in six hours and put 50,000 people under evacuation orders or warnings.
Firefighters battling the Canyon Fire took advantage of lower temperatures overnight to directly attack the fire and made a lot of progress, Mr Dowd said, and by Friday morning, they were seeing subdued fire behaviour.
'They were putting it all on the line to bring this fire under control,' he said.
One firefighter reported a minor injury, but no civilian injuries were reported, Mr Dowd said. No single-family or multi-family residences were destroyed, but two minor structures were lost, he said.
Sunny, hot and dry conditions are expected on Friday in the area where the Canyon Fire was burning, with the daytime high near 38C and minimum humidity in the mid-teens, according to the National Weather Service. Winds are expected to be light and to grow from the south to south west in the afternoon.
In LA County, around 2,700 residents left the area with 700 structures under an evacuation order, officials said late on Thursday. Another 14,000 residents and 5,000 structures were covered by an evacuation warning. Areas within the Val Verde zone had been reduced from an order to a warning.
The evacuation zones in nearby Ventura County were relatively unpopulated, Mr Dowd said. Fifty-six people left the Lake Piru recreation area.
LA County supervisor Kathryn Barger urged residents to leave.
'Extreme heat and low humidity in our north county have created dangerous conditions where flames can spread with alarming speed,' she said in a statement. 'If first responders tell you to leave, go — without hesitation.'
The new blaze comes as a massive wildfire in central California became the state's largest blaze of the year, threatening hundreds of homes and burning out of control in the Los Padres National Forest.
The Gifford Fire had spread to 155 square miles by Thursday night with 15% containment.
It grew out of at least four smaller fires that erupted on August 1 along State Route 166, forcing closures in both directions east of Santa Maria, a city of about 110,000.
It has injured at least four people. The causes of the fires are under investigation.
Wildfire risk will be elevated through the weekend across much of inland California as a heatwave intensifies. August and September are typically the most dangerous months for wildfires in the state.