Southern California is facing another day of dangerous winds and dry conditions that sparked new blazes across a region in a month marked by unprecedented fire losses.

In the last day, hundreds of weary firefighters battled a massive blaze near Castaic and a smaller but unnerving one in the Sepulveda Pass in Brentwood and Bel-Air. Damage from the fires has been kept at bay due to aggressive water drops and winds that while strong did not match those seen during the Jan. 7 firestorm.

The Sepulveda fire was the latest blaze in a nerve-racking week as Southern California headed into a fourth consecutive day of red flag fire weather warnings. The alerts caution that conditions are ripe for fires to ignite and spread rapidly.

There have been red flag warnings in some part of Southern California for 14 of the last 17 days. The stretch started Jan. 7, the day the Palisades and Eaton fires began their devastating spread, leveling swaths of Pacific Palisades and Altadena.

Thursday will be another day of critical fire weather danger.

“Any new fires can grow fast and out of control,” the National Weather Service posted on social media. “Have a plan, especially if you are in a high fire risk area.”

Overnight, officials were dealing with the Sepulveda fire, which broke out off the 405 Freeway.

Shortly before 2 a.m., the Los Angeles Fire Department said the fire, which burned 40 acres, had stopped spreading. Officials lifted an evacuation warning for parts of Bel-Air, including homes along Casiano Road and Chalon Road, as well as Moraga Drive, which is lined by multimillion-dollar homes. Authorities earlier lifted an evacuation warning for a part of Brentwood including the Chalon campus of Mount Saint Mary’s University.

To the north of Castaic, the Hughes fire charred more than 10,000 acres and forced thousands to flee their homes.

The Hughes fire started off Lake Hughes Road just before 11 a.m. Wednesday and quickly prompted evacuation orders in and around Castaic Lake, which by afternoon extended toward Ventura County to the west and near Sandberg to the north. More than 31,000 people were ordered to evacuate, and warnings were issued to 23,000 others.

Crews reached 14% containment on the 10,176-acre blaze shortly before 10 p.m.

Santa Ana winds will strengthen and peak during the day Thursday, weather service meteorologist Ryan Kittell said. The weather service has extended its red flag fire weather warning through Friday at 10 a.m. for much of the counties of Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura.

“We’re still in the middle of this extended period of extreme dryness, and we’re looking at this next wind enhancement picking up,” Kittell said. Humidity has dipped below 10%.

Peak gusts Thursday were forecast to be a bit stronger than anticipated earlier in some locations. Gusts on Thursday could reach 45 mph in the western San Fernando Valley, Oxnard and the Grapevine section of Interstate 5; 53 mph in Ramona; 54 mph in Acton; 55 mph in Fillmore and Idyllwild; 59 mph in Santa Clarita; 62 mph in Thousand Oaks; 68 mph in Beaumont; and 69 mph in Alpine.

With the air so dry — and not moistening up overnight — it is a “really concerning period for humidities,” Kittell said. Plants and other fuels are “ready to burn.”

However, rain is on the horizon for Southern California. Precipitation could start as early as Saturday afternoon and last until Monday night.

Rainfall could total nine-tenths of an inch for Covina; nearly three-quarters of an inch for downtown L.A., Long Beach and Santa Clarita; two-thirds of an inch for Redondo Beach; three-fifths of an inch in Fillmore and Canoga Park; and about half an inch in Thousand Oaks and Oxnard. Eleven inches of snow could fall on Wrightwood, and four inches along the Grapevine section of Interstate 5.

The Hughes fire will continue to consume firefighters on Thursday.

Air quality was in the unhealthy range in the area of the Hughes fire, according to the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District. An alert was issued Wednesday afternoon for Camarillo, Fillmore, Moorpark, Oxnard, Piru, Santa Paula, Simi Valley and Ventura.

A smoke advisory was also issued for a wide swath of northwestern L.A. County from the Santa Monica and Malibu coastline to the south up through the San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita and into the Castaic Lake area.

Moments after the Hughes fire exploded, L.A. County Deputy Dist. Atty. Jonathan Hatami said he raced out of the Michael Antonovich Antelope Valley Courthouse in Lancaster and drove back to Santa Clarita, where hundreds of kids were being evacuated from West Creek Academy as the sky overhead darkened with smoke.

“You had some parents crying. You had younger kids … they were crying. You could see the smoke from the school. Everybody is kind of on edge,” said Hatami, whose children are 8 and 10.

The veteran prosecutor, whose wife is a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who had been dispatched to help with evacuations, said his entire family was experiencing “fire fatigue” after more than two weeks spent waiting for wind-driven flames to threaten their home.

“It’s a lot. I love California. I love Los Angeles, but this is definitely stressful,” he said. “It’s hard to go to work when you’re worried your house could burn down and your kids are at school, and your wife is out there, and you don’t know what’s going to happen with her.”

The fire was burning about five miles north of the county’s Castaic jail complex, forcing deputies to move 476 inmates from the tent-like barracks at Pitchess Detention Center to the concrete North County Correction Facility. Both buildings are part of the same jail complex that is within an evacuation zone.

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The non-injury blaze, called the Scout fire, was reported at 12:03 p.m. in the area of Mission Inn Avenue and Indian Hill Road, adjacent to a homeless encampment,  according to the Riverside Fire Department. Before it was controlled, for safety reasons Mt. Rubidoux was evacuated and Mission Inn Avenue was closed, blocking travel to and from Jurupa Valley.

The agency said multiple city and Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department engine and hand crews were sent to the location and encountered flames moving at a moderate rate to the southeast.

No homes were threatened, and no evacuation warnings for residential areas were issued.

A Cal Fire water-dropping helicopter was summoned to make drops on the brusher.

At 1:06 p.m., firefighters halted the fire’s forward rate of spread and established hose lays on one side of the brusher. The fire was controlled by 5 p.m.

“An arson investigator determined it was intentional,” said Riverside Fire Battalion Chief Bruce Vanderhorst.

The Riverside Fire Department’s arson division is leading the ongoing investigation. No arrests had been made as of Tuesday evening.

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Trump has lashed out at his longtime political foe Gov. Gavin Newsom’s forest management policies and falsely claimed the state’s fish conservation efforts are responsible for fire hydrants running dry in urban areas. Referring to the governor by a derisive nickname, Trump said he should resign.

Meanwhile, more than 180,000 people have been under evacuation orders and the fires have consumed more than 45 square miles (116 square kilometers). One that destroyed the neighborhood of Pacific Palisades became the most destructive blaze in Los Angeles history.

Trump v. Newsom: Round 2 was to be expected — the liberal Democrat has long been one of Trump’s biggest foils. But the Western fires are also a sign of something far more grave than a political spat or a fight over fish. Wildfire season is growing ever longer thanks to increasing drought and heat brought on by climate change.

Trump refuses to recognize the environmental dangers, instead blaming increasing natural disasters on his political opponents or on acts of God. He has promised to drill for more oil and cut back on renewable energy.

On Thursday, Trump said on social media that Newsom should “open up the water main” — an overly simplistic solution to a complex problem. “NO MORE EXCUSES FROM THIS INCOMPETENT GOVERNOR,” Trump said, adding, “IT’S ALREADY FAR TOO LATE!”

Standing on the street in a scorched subdivision as a home behind him was engulfed in flames, Newsom responded to the criticism when asked about it by CNN.

“People are literally fleeing. People have lost their lives. Kids lost their schools. Families completely torn asunder. Churches burned down, and this guy wants to politicize it,” Newsom said. “I have a lot of thoughts and I know what I want to say, but I won’t.”

In a post on his Truth Social media network, Trump tried to connect dry hydrants to criticism of the state’s approach to balancing the distribution of water to farms and cities with the need to protect endangered species including the Delta smelt. Trump has sided with farmers over environmentalists in a long-running dispute over California’s scarce water resources. But that debate has nothing to do with the hydrant issue in Los Angeles, driven by an intense demand on a municipal system not designed to battle such blazes.

About 40% of Los Angeles city water comes from state-controlled projects connected to northern California and the state has limited the water it delivers this year. But the southern California reservoirs these canals help feed are at above-average levels for this time of year.

Roughly 20% of hydrants across the city went dry as crews battled blazes, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said. Firefighters in Southern California are accustomed to dealing with the strong Santa Ana winds that blow in the fall and winter, but the hurricane-force gusts earlier in the week took them by surprise. The winds grounded firefighting aircraft that should have been making critical water drops, straining the hydrant system.

“This is unlike anything I’ve seen in my 25 years on the fire department,” Los Angeles Fire Capt. Adam VanGerpen told CBS This Morning.

Janisse Quiñones, head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said the ferocity of the fire made the demand for water four times greater than “we’ve ever seen in the system.”

Hydrants are designed for fighting fires at one or two houses at a time, not hundreds, Quiñones said, and refilling the tanks also requires asking fire departments to pause firefighting efforts.

President Joe Biden, who was in California for an environmental event that ended up being canceled as the fires raged, appeared with Newsom at a Santa Monica firehouse on Wednesday and quickly issued a major disaster declaration for California, releasing some immediate federal funds.

But any additional federal response will be overseen by Trump, who has a history of withholding or delaying federal aid to punish his political enemies.

In September, during a press conference at his Los Angeles golf course, Trump threatened: “We won’t give him money to put out all his fires. And if we don’t give him the money to put out his fires, he’s got problems.”

Trump’s support in California has increased in recent years, which could further embolden him in his tussles with Democratic leaders there. In 2024, he improved on his vote share in Los Angeles and surrounding areas hit by the fires by 4.68 percentage points. And while he still lost the state overall, he grew his overall margin by 4 points compared to the 2020 election.

As for the impact of the fires on Californians, Trump said areas in Beverly Hills and around it were “being decimated” and that he had “many friends living in those houses.” He framed the losses as a potential hit to the state’s finances.

“The biggest homes, some of the most valuable homes in the world are just destroyed. I don’t even know. You talk about a tax base, if those people leave you’re going to lose half your tax base of California,” Trump said.

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Firefighters Thursday were continuing to fight the Palisades fire, which has burned more than 17,200 acres, and the Eaton fire, that has burned through Pasadena and Altadena areas, charring at least 10,600 acres.

But Los Angeles caught a break Wednesday, with firefighters able to limit the Sunset fire, which broke out near Runyon Canyon above Hollywood on Wednesday, and keep a house fire in Studio City from spreading.

Unlike during the catastrophic conditions on Tuesday night, when wind gusts of up to 100 mph were recorded, on Wednesday night, aircraft were able to make water drops on the Sunset fire, which broke out shortly before 6 p.m. Wednesday. Officials initially ordered a mandatory evacuation of a swath of Hollywood north of Hollywood Boulevard but are expected to lift all evacuation orders Thursday morning. The Sunset fire has burned 60 acres, according to CalFire.

Officials urged people to still be vigilant.

Wind speeds weakened across the Los Angeles region Thursday morning, with isolated gusts reaching 35 mph in the Malibu area and 58 mph in the San Gabriel Mountains, said Mike Wofford, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

But, the reprieve is expected to be brief. Winds are anticipated to strengthen Thursday night.

“We’ll get a little bump up in winds as we get another little push of offshore flow,” Wofford said. “Nothing like we saw [Wednesday] with the gusts of 80 to 100 mph winds, but certainly enough to present some issues for the fires. … It’s kind of like a day on, day off sort of thing. At least until the middle of next week we’re going to be in that pattern.”

Late Wednesday, the National Weather Service downgraded the fire weather outlook for the region from “extremely critical” to “critical.” Wofford said Los Angeles residents should be prepared for a succession of sustained high wind events that could intensify fire risk. Humidity levels remain low and no rain is in the forecast in the coming days.

None of the four fires burning in Los Angeles County have any containment and the cause of each is being investigated.

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As of Wednesday morning, 25,585 SoCal Edison customers were without power due to a Power Safety Shutoff, as were 23,305 San Bernardino County customers, according to SoCal Edison. Another 180,000 SoCal Edison customers across the Inland Empire were under a Power Safety Shutoff consideration.

Fires and spot fires ignited overnight, burning in Anza, Mentone, and Coachella, according to fire officials. Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department personnel stopped the forward progress of a vegetation fire in Anza Wednesday that threatened nearby structures.

The Anza blaze was first reported about 4:45 a.m. as a four-acre fire in the 54000 block of Highway 371, accompanied by strong winds, according to a department statement.

Crews were able to stop the fire’s expansion within three hours, committing to remain on the scene for an additional four hours for mop-up, the department said.

Highway 371 was closed between Bahrman Road and Cahuilla Casino, but no injuries were reported and no evacuations were ordered.

In Mentone, as of 6 a.m., a single-story commercial structure ignited on the 2100 block of Mentone Boulevard, according to a San Bernardino County Fire Department. They said arriving firefighters quickly transitioned from an offensive fire attack to a defensive attack as the roof collapsed.

Firefighters from the Redlands Fire Department are assisting firefighters in watching the surrounding neighborhoods for ember-sparked blazes caused by gusting Santa Ana winds.

As of 10 a.m., the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said there are “no active fires reported in San Bernardino County. High winds can increase fire danger and pose risks such as downed power lines or flying debris. Please remain vigilant.”

Two homes were lost in Coachella early Wednesday, Cal Fire/Riverside County Firefighters said.

The vegetation fire was 50% contained, fire authorities said, and was initially reported to be burning 15 acres around 3:24 a.m. in the 47100 block of Tyler Street.

Deputies from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department evacuated affected residents with threatened structures. In an update at 7:30 a.m., the fire department noted the fire had been reduced to 11 acres and the forward progress had been stopped.

The American Red Cross Southern California region was requested for assistance.
No roads had been reported closed and no injuries were reported, according to the fire department.

Cal Fire released a statement indicating that engine and hand crews are transferring from stations in Northern California to the Inland Empire to help attack and spot fires as they occur. This is a massive task in the face of an intense Santa Ana windstorm.

Additional firefighting resources will be deployed Wednesday throughout Riverside County for the remainder of the week.

“When fire conditions end, restoration is expected to take up to 8 hours but could take longer if we need daylight for safe inspections or if we find damage,” a SoCal Edison spokesperson said. “The shutoff maps will reflect “power off” until all customers on your circuit segment have had their power restored.”

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It’s only mid-December and already California’s weather is putting the state on high alert for winter — and it’s likely far from over.

Just this past week, a major wildfire raced into Malibu, fueled by dangerous Santa Ana winds, and a powerful storm dumped feet of snow in the mountains, caused flooding in the Bay Area and in Santa Cruz County, formed a tornado.

And now, forecasters warn that similar conditions are likely to return this week, with high winds in Southern California prompting further fire concerns, and a series of atmospheric rivers bound for Northern California that could bring more flooding and headaches for travelers.

These diverging winter weather patterns are providing the latest reminder about how much California can differ climatologically, especially when it comes to early-winter precipitation.

“It’s fairly common to have other parts of the West get targeted and we kind of get left out,” Robbie Munroe, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Oxnard, said of Southern California’s relative dryness to up north. He said the sharp contrast often eases by January or February, when the jet stream — which tends to direct moisture-laden storms — shifts further south.

So even as Northern California this weekend dealt with significant rainfall and high winds — closing roads in Sonoma County, downing trees along the North Bay Coast, cutting off power to thousands — firefighters in Southern California continued to work on the bone-dry landscape around the Franklin fire in Malibu, which was just over 50% contained early Monday.

The Southland remains in high fire season, which could last into the New Year without a wetting rainfall, and forecasters say more Santa Ana winds are on the way.

Beginning Tuesday afternoon, much of Ventura County and western Los Angeles County will be under a red flag warning, with northeast winds reaching up to from 40 mph and some isolated gusts hitting 60 mph, especially in the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica Mountains.

Munroe said the winds are not expected to be as strong or dry as the winds that helped fan the Franklin fire last week, but conditions are still delicate with low humidity and dry brush. This “traditional Santa Ana corridor,” which includes the region that saw the Mountain fire explode in November, will again have the potential to see extreme behavior if a fire sparks, Munroe said.

“There is still plenty of shared concern by meteorologists and fire personnel across the area due to the receptive fuels that we have seen recently,” the fire weather warning said early Monday, which was later updated to a red flag warning.

There was some early hope that Southern California could get significant rain by the end of the week, when a string of wet storms are expected to make their way south from the Gulf of Alaska, but those have mostly evaporated.

“The greatest amount of rain impacts will stay to our north, more than likely,” Munroe said.

This next period of wet weather is forecast to kick off in Northern California Friday, bringing more rain, snow and potential flooding to the region as a “series of atmospheric rivers push inland,” according to the weather service’s Weather Prediction Center.

“We’re anticipating a wet week next week,” said Crystal Oudit, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Monterey. “We might stay in a wet pattern for… Christmas week.”

That precipitation will come days after much of Northern California was soaked this past weekend and into Monday. The most significant storm brought drenching rains and high winds Saturday, prompting the first-ever tornado warning in San Francisco, where wind gusts up to 80 mph caused widespread damage.

While a twister didn’t end up touching down in San Francisco, one did just south in Scotts Valley in Santa Cruz County.

The tornado recorded wind speeds up to 90 mph as it tore a path almost 30 yards wide for nearly a third of a mile, according to the National Weather Service. At least three people were injured as the tornado downed trees and power poles, ripped off branches, overturned vehicles and damaged street signs, the weather service reported. It was classified as a weak E-F1, which the National Weather Service considers a moderate tornado on its scale from EF-0 to EF-5.

While tornadoes aren’t regular occurrences in the Bay Area, there have been several recorded in the area, including seven others in Santa Cruz County, the National Weather Service reported.

The storm over the weekend also dumped significant snow across the northern Sierra Nevada, including more than two feet of fresh powder in Lake Tahoe. Quick bouts of rain temporarily flooded some roadways and underpasses in the Bay Area, submerging cars in one low-lying street in Livermore.

It doesn’t appear the next round of storms beginning Friday have any notable winds associated with them, Oudit said, but she noted that some forecasts are still too far out to know for sure.

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Northwest of Los Angeles, the Mountain Fire exploded in size and prompted evacuation orders for more than 10,000 people as it threatened 3,500 structures in suburban communities, ranches and agricultural areas around Camarillo, according to a statement from Gov. Gavin Newsom. He said he has requested federal assistance for the area east of the Pacific coast city of Ventura.

The blaze was burning in a region that has seen some of California’s most destructive fires over the years. A thick plume of smoke rose hundreds of feet into the sky Wednesday, blanketing whole neighborhoods and limiting visibility for firefighters and evacuees. The fire grew from less than half of a square mile to 16 square miles (62 square kilometers) in little more than five hours.

Ventura County Fire Captain Trevor Johnson described crews racing with their engines to homes threatened by the flames to save lives.

“This is as intense as it gets. The hair on the back of the firefighters’ neck I’m sure was standing up,” he said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

Two people suffered apparent smoke inhalation and were taken to hospitals, fire officials said. No firefighters reported significant injuries.

The erratic winds and limited visibility grounded fixed-wing aircraft, and gusts topped 61 mph (98 kph), said weather service meteorologist Bryan Lewis. Water-dropping helicopters were still flying.

First responders pleaded with residents to evacuate. Deputies made contact with 14,000 people to urge them to leave as embers spread up to 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) away and sparked new flames.

“This fire is moving dangerously fast,” Ventura County Fire Chief Dustin Gardner said.

Aerial footage from local television networks showed dozens of homes in flames across several neighborhoods as embers were whipped from home to home. Other footage captured horses trotting alongside evacuating vehicles.

Jade Katz, who said she is disabled and does not drive, waited for a friend to pick her up near her Camarillo Heights home with a suitcase full of medication and Bella, her Great Dane service dog. But the friend couldn’t reach her, so first responders sent a squad car to escort her to safety as she watched the neighborhood burn.

Officials said they were using all resources, including water-dropping helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft dropping fire retardant, but it was still burning out of control Wednesday afternoon. Andrew Dowd, a Ventura County fire spokesperson, said he did not have details of how many structures had been damaged.

Gus Garcia, who owns a ranch south of the fire, said he’s waiting to see whether conditions will change to decide if he should evacuate his horses and cattle. Around 12:30 p.m., his animals were still safe and he was trying to stay out of the way as others got their livestock out.

His ranch is surrounded by others with horses and alpaca, and Garcia said his neighbors in the canyon did not seem panicked.

“The horse community, they prepare for this because it’s always a possibility up here,” he said.

Meanwhile to the south, Los Angeles County Fire Department crews scrambled to contain a wildfire near Malibu’s Broad Beach as authorities briefly shut down the Pacific Coast Highway as flames burned near multimillion-dollar properties. Residents were urged to shelter in place while aircraft dropped water on the 50-acre (20-hectare) Broad Fire. It was 15% contained around 12:30 p.m. with forward progress stopped. Fire officials said two structures burned.

The National Weather Service office for the Los Angeles area amended its red flag warning for increased fire danger with a rare “particularly dangerous situation” label, and officials in several counties urged residents to be on watch for fast-spreading blazes, power outages and downed trees amid the latest round of notorious Santa Ana winds.

With predicted gusts between 50 mph (80 kph) and 100 mph (160 kph) and humidity levels as low as 8%, parts of Southern California could experience conditions ripe for “extreme and life-threatening” fire behavior into Thursday, the weather service said.

Forecasters also issued red flag warnings until Thursday from California’s central coast through the San Francisco Bay Area and into counties to the north, where strong winds were also expected.

Utilities in California began powering down equipment during high winds and extreme fire danger after a series of massive and deadly wildfires in recent years were sparked by electrical lines and other infrastructure. On Wednesday, more than 65,000 customers in Southern California were without power preventatively, and upwards of 20,000 in Northern California.

Wednesday’s fires were burning in the same areas of other recent destructive fires, including the 2018 Woolsey Fire, which killed three people and destroyed 1,600 homes near Los Angeles, and the the 2017 Thomas Fire, which destroyed more than a thousand homes and other structures in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Southern California Edison has paid tens of millions of dollars to settle claims after its equipment was blamed for both blazes.

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