Fanned by hot, dry winds, the flames spread quickly in the area around Castaic Lake, north of the city, leading to new evacuations.
A new fire broke out on Wednesday, January 22 north of Los Angeles and is spreading at a worrying speed, causing thousands of evacuation orders in a region already shaken by devastating fires. In just a few hours, the flames have already ravaged more than 3,800 hectares in the surroundings of Lake Castaic. They are fanned by the hot, dry Santa Ana winds which continue to blow across the region, pushing a large cloud of smoke above the blaze.
Evacuation orders were issued to more than 50,000 people living in areas around the lake, located about 50 kilometers north of Los Angeles and near the city of Santa Clarita. “I pray our house doesn’t burn”a man told television station KTLA, loading his car. Television images show police circulating in the neighborhood to encourage residents to evacuate. Helicopters and planes dropped water on the flames to try to smother them, while firefighters tried to fight them on the ground. Near the lake, four prisons housing a total of 4,700 people are threatened by the fire.
Evacuation of several prisons requested
“We have long opposed the expansion of the prison system, particularly in fire hazardous areas, and are very concerned for the safety of those incarcerated in these prisons”said Melissa Camacho, lawyer for the ACLU, a major civil rights association. “We are calling on county leaders to direct the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department to immediately arrange transportation necessary to evacuate the jails without delay”she added. Los Angeles is barely recovering from fires that broke out on January 7 and disfigured part of the city, killing nearly thirty people.
-Robert Jensen, who works for the Los Angeles County sheriff, asked anyone in the area of the new fire to leave the area immediately. “We saw the devastating causes for people who refused to follow (evacuation) orders” during the recent fires, which destroyed more than 15,500 buildings in and around the second largest city in the United States, he said. “I don’t want to see that here. If you have received an evacuation order, evacuate”added Robert Jensen.
