A new wildfire broke out north of Los Angeles on Wednesday, prompting authorities to order the emergency evacuation of thousands of residents in an area already hit hard by devastating fires this month.
The front was spreading at an alarming rate on the outskirts of Castaic Lake: it had come to extend over 20,000 acres before two hours had even passed.
The flames are being fueled by warm and dry Santa Ana winds, which continue to blow across the region of the US’s second-largest urban center, pushing a large plume of smoke ahead of the fire front.
Emergency evacuation orders were issued for more than 19,000 people in areas around the lake, about fifty kilometers north of Los Angeles, near the city of Santa Clarita.
“I’m praying my house doesn’t burn down,” the man told KTLA television as he loaded things into his car.
Television footage shows police patrolling and asking residents to leave. Helicopters and aircraft continued to drop water on the flames to contain them, while firefighters on the ground were also working.
A short distance from the lake, four prisons, where a total of 4,700 people are incarcerated, are threatened by the flames.
“We have long opposed the expansion of the prison system, particularly in areas where there is a high risk of fire, and we are very concerned about the safety of the people who are held in these prisons,” said Melissa Camazzo, an attorney for the ACLU, an organization with influence that defends civil and civil rights in the US.
“We are asking the county government to order the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department to immediately organize the movement necessary to expeditiously remove those in jail without delay,” he added.
Los Angeles is struggling to overcome the nightmare of the sweeping fires that broke out on January 7 and disfigured its suburbs, leaving behind nearly thirty dead.
Robert Jensen, of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office, insisted that residents of the area threatened by the new fire should leave.
“We saw the devastating consequences when people refused to obey orders” to evacuate residents in the fires that destroyed more than 15,500 properties in suburban Los Angeles, he said.
“I don’t want to see that here either. If an urgent removal order has been issued that concerns you, leave,” emphasized Mr. Jensen.
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New big fire in Los Angeles – Evacuation orders (Videos)
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