The Route Fire, which started near Castaic Lake at noon on Wednesday, spread so fast that a portion of Interstate 5 was closed in both directions.
“The fire behavior and what you saw yesterday should be a wake-up call to all of us that we’re going into fire conditions in the next few days, very rapid fire growth, and very, very explosive fire behavior,” Los Angeles National Forest Service chief said. Robert Garcia said.
Several evacuation orders were issued on Wednesday, but they were all lifted by Thursday night.
“This will be the longest and most intense heat so far this calendar year,” Alexis Crowther of the National Weather Service in San Francisco told CNN.
Staff prepare for more heat-related health emergencies
In the sweltering heat, with the afternoon heat, firefighters were focused on “controlling the fire, strengthening our fire lines, and then predicting some Fire Development”.
Stifling temperatures are a top concern for officials as they work to contain the blaze while also keeping firefighters safe.
Officials have not disclosed the cause of the fire, which is still under investigation.
According to the fire department, more than 500 firefighters, 58 fire trucks, eight helicopters and two fixed-wing aircraft have been deployed to control the blaze.
But Ewald said fires elsewhere in the state are forcing officials to allocate resources.
“There’s a fire on the border in San Diego County, so those (fixed-wing) planes are getting out of those fires,” he said. “Houses in the area are disappearing, so priorities are shifting throughout the day. … We have more fixed-wing aircraft on order, but some of them are being diverted to that fire.”