California wildfire spreads to over 11000 acres

Residents evacuate over 300 homes in Santa Clarita due to a brush fire that broke out along the northbound Antelope Valley Freeway in Santa Clarita, California, and continued to burn Saturday morning with no recent containment by firefighters. No structures were immediately threatened.

“We were experiencing 50- to 100-foot flame links running across these ridges and down these slopes and doing the kind of things we normally expect to see at 2 p.m.”, Los Angeles County Fire Department Battalion Chief Dennis Cross said.

About 300 firefighters were battling the flames from the ground and air.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department Air Operations Section shared video of the fire citing high temperatures, low humidity and increased wind for its rapid growth.

The fire was zero percent contained as of about 3:30 p.m. Temperatures in the area are in the triple digits.

Mandatory evacuations were issued for hundreds of people, including 200 to 300 homes in Little Tujunga Canyon.

Authorities earlier said it covered 11,000 acres but on Saturday night the Angeles National Forest tweeted that it had grown to 20,000.

“But if we were to get very extreme fire behaviour, we’re up to 45,000 homes … mainly down in the San Fernando Valley”, Tripp said.

“There will be some gusty winds”, said Robbie Munroe, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District warned that at times air would reach unhealthy levels.

Neighbourhoods within the city of Los Angeles lie along the so-called urban-wildland interface at the northeast edge of the valley.

The Sand Fire has caused much of the Los Angeles region to come under a smoke advisory.

“Our primary concern at the moment is getting the evacuation plan for the exotics at the Wildlife WayStation”, Reyes said, referring to the 160-acre animal sanctuary at 14831 Little Tujunga Canyon Rd.in Sylmar.

The state forestry department says the blaze is a threat to 1,000 homes and the Monterey County community of Palo Colorado has been ordered evacuated. Evacuation sites have been set up at the Lakeview Terrace Recreation Center located at 11075 Foothill Boulevard in Lakeview Terrace and at Golden Valley High School located at 27051 Robert C. Lee Parkway in Santa Clarita.