Firefighters Friday were trying to make progress after the Canyon fire exploded to nearly 5,000 acres, forcing residents in northern Los Angeles and Ventura counties to evacuate.
“We’re trying to build a box around this fire and put it out before it gets into any of the potential communities that are currently under evacuation orders,” said Ventura County Fire Department spokesperson Andrew Dowd.
The Canyon fire was the largest of several fires sparked by days of intense heat in Southern California. To the north in San Luis Opisbo County, the much larger Gifford fire has burned 100,000 acres.
The Canyon Fire broke out amid 100-degree temperatures.
A slight weakening of the high pressure system and an increase in onshore flow Friday and Saturday are expected to bring temperatures down 1 to 3 degrees. However, warmer valleys are still expected to reach 100 degrees. Current models predict that the weather will warm up again on Monday, probably hitting temperatures similar to Thursday’s.
“Although a few degrees of cooling is expected through the weekend, a very warm air mass will remain in place. An onshore flow regime will keep temperatures from exceeding record levels, but temperatures are expected remain above seasonal normals as high pressure aloft lingers over the Southwestern United States,” the weather service said in its latest update.
The fire broke out around 2 p.m. Thursday near Holser Canyon Road, northeast of Piru — a small, unincorporated town not far from Castaic Junction, according to Ventura County officials.
The fire was initially reported to be about 30 acres, but within about two hours that estimate jumped to over 1,000 acres, according to Ventura County officials. By 10 p.m., the fire had burned 4,856 acres and was spreading east toward Castaic and Interstate 5 in L.A. County.
“Fire conditions are settling down for the night, the air is cooling off, and we continue to have an aggressive fire attack happening, coordinated between ground resources and helicopters,” said Dowd. “So while we certainly have a significant number of people still evacuated and a significant number of residents that are under evacuation orders, we continue to make good progress.”
As midnight approached, 2,500 residents and 700 structures remained under evacuation orders, while an additional 14,000 people and more than 4,700 structures were affected by evacuation warnings, according to Dowd.
Both the Ventura and Los Angeles counties’ fire departments were responding to the scene, where crews were facing temperatures up to 100 degrees with wind gusts up to 25 mph, according to the National Weather Service’s Los Angeles office. Around 250 firefighters, along with 11 fixed-wing aircraft and seven helicopters, were working to battle the fire, according to the Ventura County Fire Department.
L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents the Santa Clarita Valley, urged residents to heed evacuation alerts.
“Extreme heat and low humidity in our north county have created dangerous conditions where flames can spread with alarming speed,” Barger said in a statement. “If first responders tell you to leave, go—without hesitation. The Eaton Fire showed us how quickly devastation can strike.”
An evacuation center was opened in the East Gymnasium of the College of the Canyons, at 26455 Rockwell Canyon Road in Santa Clarita.
Lake Piru Recreation Area is closed until further notice, as is Piru Canyon Road, which connects the town of Piru to the lake.
The American Civil Liberties Union raised concerns about the fire’s proximity to the Pitchess Detention Center, where about 5,000 inmates are housed in four jails. The center is east of the 5 Freeway and fell just outside an evacuation warning zone Thursday evening.
Senior staff attorney Melissa Camacho said she was “gravely concerned” about the growing fire.
“January’s Hughes fire burned within a half-mile of the jails and not a single person incarcerated there was evacuated,” Camacho told The Times. “It’s heartbreaking that, less than eight months later, the 5,000 people in the jails and their loved ones will spend another sleepless night watching a fire and praying that it doesn’t reach them.”
The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, which operates the facility, said it was actively monitoring fire conditions and was in constant communication with fire and county officials.
“Similar to evacuation plans implemented at Pepperdine University in Malibu, the Fire Department has advised that a shelter in place strategy is the safest option for custody staff and inmates, given the building construction type and current fire behavior,” agency spokesperson Nicole Nishida said in a statement. The area around the building has been cleared of brush and has wide defensible space, she said.
