Wildfire burns in Southern California

Traffic on U.S. Highway 101 and the Pacific Coast Highway – which run alongside each other on the West Coast – was closed off in both directions in Ventura County due to what has been labeled the Solimar Fire.

The California Highway Patrol has reopened US 101 northbound, and is attempting to reopen the highway’s southbound route as of Saturday afternoon. A Cal Fire inmate hand crew work to remove brush to prevent a wildfire from spreading a remote oil field access road in Ventura County, Calif., on Saturday, Dec. 26, 2015.

As a effect of the fire mandatory evacuations in the Solmar Beach neighborhoods were carried out.

The blaze broke out Christmas night and was officially reported by Ventura County Fire Department Capt. Mike Lindbery around 12:15 a.m. Saturday.

“Even if we do open up the roadways, it’s still not a contained fire”, Ventura County Fire Department Chief Norm Plott told reporters earlier in the day.

The Orange County Fire Authority sent over a Type 3 Strike Team, consisting of five brush engines with 19 firefighters.

Maks and her family were driving on the highway after attending the National Basketball Association game in Los Angeles between the Lakers and Clippers, and the family was headed to their holiday home in Santa Barbara about 11 p.m. Friday.

The area has been under a high wind warning as gusts in the area reached 55 miles per hour overnight.

About 50 homes in the Solimar Beach community were placed under mandatory evacuation orders and about 30 nearby homes were placed under voluntary evacuation.

Hundreds of firefighters are on the scene battling the blaze with helicopters and air tankers fighting the flames from the air.

Winds should diminish for Sunday after gusty winds blew across the area on Saturday.

Fire investigators say they still don’t know what started this fire, but at this point it’s only 10 percent contained. “We’re not quite out of the woods yet”.

“There was nobody stopping us as we got closer and closer”.