Another massive wildfire has broken out in the LA area. The Hughes Fire has already burned 9000 acres.

 

A view of the fire with Six Flags Magic Mountain in the foreground, CBS LA/Getty. 

Another massive wildfire, the Hughes fire, has broken out near Los Angeles, and has already burned 9000 acres. CBS LA. The fire broke out near Castaic Lake in a rural area north of Los Angeles. The fire started at 10:45 local time and in an hour the fire had grown to 500 acres in size. The fire has increased dramatically since then, growing to 9000 acres and is still growing. Evacuation orders and warnings have been issued to more than 50,000 people that live in the area. The fire could end up threatening many of the small towns around Santa Clarita, including the town of Castaic itself. 

My Comment:

This fire is already comparable to the Eaton and Palisades fire that devastated Los Angeles and is still burning as of this writing. And here are no signs of the fire slowing down anytime soon. The fire is already at 9000 acres while the Palisades burned 24000 while the Eaton fire burned 14,000. But that happened over weeks and this is one day. 

The weather is a major issue. Though the winds aren't as bad as they were during the earlier fires, they are still really bad. This has whipped the fires into a frenzy. The complete lack of rain this year and the heavy rains last year have also left a lot of wood around to burn as well, and that is fueling this fire. Not to mention the non-existent forest management in the state of California. 

The good news is that most of what has burned is wilderness. The area that is burning right now is the Castaic Lake State Recreation area, which is basically unpopulated. It's hiking trails and fishing spots, not exactly the population density we saw in the Pacific Palisades. 

The problem is that the storm is moving to populated areas. The town of Castaic itself appears to be threatened by the firestorm and the fires may have already reached the town. About 20,000 people live in the town and most of them will have to evacuate. Santa Clarita itself could be threatened eventually, as the storm appears to be moving south. That is a much larger city of 200,000 people and the damage that could be done there would be much larger. 

The one thing I haven't seen the media mention is that there are several hydroelectric dams in the area. Though I doubt anything this fire could do could actually damage the dams, it could indeed disrupt power generation in the region. The Foothill Power plant off of Castaic Lake is already in the burn area and both the Castaic Hydroelectric Plant in the north and the tiny Power Plant #2 to the east could eventually be as well, depending on where the fire goes. Should one or more of these plants be damaged or destroyed it would be a major problem for power generation in California. 

I don't know if this fire will be contained. There are a lot of firefighters and assets in the area and the good thing is that unlike the earlier fires, it's mostly the only game in town. The Eaton and Palisades fire are still going but aren't anywhere near the threat they used to be, so most assets should be able to be used in this fire. 

There will be questions on what caused the fire. It's too early to rule anything out but I suspect arson or accident, largely because we know it isn't lightning. There also doesn't seem to be many major powerlines on google maps in the area set on fire. If I had to guess I am guessing it was either a firebug or some kind of accident, like an out of control campfire or a carelessly thrown away cigarette. 

Either way, this is the last thing that California needs right now. They have been devastated by earlier wildfires and California Governor Gavin Newsom has proven himself incapable of dealing with it. And we will probably see more wildfires until we either see some rain or some reduced winds...