Brush fires – four reported in four hours – erupt across Southern California
As the Kincade Fire raged out of control in California’s wine country, fast-moving brush fires burned across Southern California on Thursday afternoon, destroying homes, closing roads and sending utility crews scrambling to shut off power.
The rapidly growing Tick Fire was roaring in the rugged foothills north of Los Angeles bearing downhill on homes and neighborhoods in the Canyon Country area of Santa Clarita, leaping to 3,700 acres in a matter of hours with no containment.
Los Angeles’ KTLA television showed the flames’ forward march, the fire growing to 200 acres in the 20 minutes since firefighters’ first call at 1:45 p.m. The fire then mushroomed to 850 acres by 3 p.m., as Los Angeles County firefighters called out a third alarm and told residents to move out.
Mandatory evacuations were called for parts of Canyon Country along state Highway 14 as temperatures soared into the mid-90s Thursday.
“There is an immediate need for structure protection,” fire officials called out on Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Twitter feed, asking also for air tankers to battle the flames.
For some homes in the Santa Clarita Valley, it was already too late. The Los Angeles Times reported multiple structures were burning as fire crews tried to defend subdivisions in Agua Dulce.
Northbound Interstate 5 was also closed at Hasley Canyon Road in nearby Castaic as the Old Fire burned, according to the California Highway Patrol’s Newhall station. Around 4 p.m., Los Angeles’ CBS2 showed one home in flames along I-5 in Castaic.
Southland utility Southern California Edison cut power to Agua Dulce before the Tick Fire ignited. Like Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in Northern California, Edison turned off power to thousands of homes to reduce the risk of wildfires.
As of 4 p.m., 26,786 Edison customers were without power – nearly 9,900 in Los Angeles County and another 7,270 in neighboring San Bernanrdino County, where the Old Water Fire had grown to 105 acres and threatened San Bernardino neighborhoods, the San Bernardino Sun reported.
By 4:40 p.m., another brush fire – the fourth in a matter of hours Thursday in the greater Los Angeles area, CBS2 reported – broke out in the Sepulveda Basin near Interstate 405 and Van Nuys near the Van Nuys Airport.
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