Story at a glance
- California is battling multiple wildfires as dry conditions and high temperatures continue.
- Other fires that sprung up are mostly contained.
Weeks after the Apple Fire devastated more than 20,000 acres in California, firefighters are battling a new blaze amid dry temperatures and a heat wave.
The Lake Fire, a blaze tearing through rural Southern California, has spread since Wednesday, with officials describing its movements as “hard to predict,” according to USA Today.
The Lake Fire is currently burning between Lake Hughes and Castaic, located about 65 miles north of Los Angeles. So far, the fire has grown to about 18 square miles, or more than 11,000 acres, with firefighters reporting it is 12 percent contained as of 8 a.m. Friday PST.
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The Los Angeles County Fire Department reported that the cause remains unknown, per a statement on Twitter.
“The primary driver of this fire has been heavy, thick, dense and dried out vegetation and steep terrain,” Seneca Smith, a public information officer with the Angeles National Forest said in a separate statement.
While weather conditions improved on Thursday with Tropical Storm Elida bringing moisture and lower temperatures, arid conditions and deadly heat returned on Friday. The blaze is reportedly feeding chaparral and other brush flora.
“This will be a major fire for several days,” Chief Robert Garcia with the U.S. Forest Service is quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, two other wildfires broke out in different parts of California. The Los Angeles suburb Azusa was briefly ordered to evacuate when the fire grew to about 4 square miles, but was permitted to remain home when the fire began moving away from residences. A separate fire grew close to the city of Corona in East L.A. before firefighters eventually contained it.
In Northern California, a fire burned about 500 acres of land, less than 1 square mile, in the community of Sloughhouse near Sacramento before it was stopped.
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