JC Chancellor was driving south on Interstate 5 in northern Los Angeles County on Wednesday morning when he noticed ominous black smoke billowing in the distance.
On the Grapevine section of the highway, about 25 miles from the prime minister’s location, the Hughes Fire was underway in what witnesses described as an apocalyptic scene in the Castaic neighborhood, about 60 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.
“Unfortunately, it’s a breathtaking sight,” the prime minister said. “It felt like I was being thrown into hell. There was red fire coming up from below. It was pretty scary.
The Hughes Fire started around 10:30 a.m. off Highway 5 at Lake Hughes Road in brush on a hillside, which fire officials said was very dry. The fire grew to more than 100 acres within an hour because there was plenty of vegetation for fuel. The estimated acreage was about 500 before noon and jumped to 3,400 about 30 minutes later. Just after 1 p.m., Cal Fire announced the fire had grown to more than 5,000 acres.
By 5 p.m., it had reached 8,000 acres and was not contained.
“It looks like a smoke bomb went off,” the prime minister said.
A spreading smoke cloud cast a shadow over Highway 5 and nearby residential areas. Before afternoon winds picked up, water cannons were driven towards the fire to slow its spread and evacuations were ordered.
When a red flag warning is in effect, if a fire breaks out, it is likely to spread quickly due to strong winds. Flying embers also speed the spread of brush fires. Powerful wind gusts can scatter hot embers for miles and ignite them before the main fire lines, a nightmare scenario for firefighters.
“The rate of spread of this fire is critical,” said Fred Fielding, public information officer for the Los Angeles County Fire Department. “This vegetation is very dry. We’ve had two years of above-average rainfall (2023 and 2024)…so we’ve gone a lot into these lighter grasses where fires can start,” he said. And when it gets into that old growth vegetation, there’s a lot of energy there, and when you combine that with the wind, you get a very high dispersion rate.”
Premier, a resident of the Lake Maribou area in the Santa Monica Mountains, said his family’s backyard was gutted in the Woolsey Fire in November 2018. The area was also under threat from the 1,000-acre Kenneth Fire, which broke out in parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties earlier this month.
The Prime Minister said of the Hughes fire: “I feel sorry for the people in that area.” “This is a particularly dry period in this region.”
After the dry season turned into the rainy season in Southern California, the region is experiencing a severe drought. After last season’s record rains, months of dry weather left hillsides covered in dry brush, providing fuel for wildfires.
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