A new wildfire has broken out in the Los Angeles area, and firefighters are also bracing for strong winds that are forecast to create critical conditions as the fires enter their second week.
Since the fires first broke out on January 7, firefighters have contained several smaller blazes in Los Angeles County, but the three largest — the Palisades, Eaton, and Hurst fires — spanned a combined 38,629 acres as of late Monday, with limited containment.
Meanwhile, a new fire near Auto Center Drive in Ventura County, named the Auto fire, had grown to 56 acres as of early Tuesday and was 0% contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire.
Winds pose ‘extreme fire danger’
Early Tuesday, the National Weather Service of Los Angeles said it would issue red flag warnings for two zones within hours, saying that dry, windy conditions were due to raise the danger of “extreme fire behavior.”
The areas cover two massive swaths of Ventura and LA counties.
It said that these warnings are only used in “the extreme of the extreme fire weather scenarios,” adding that “this setup is about as bad as it gets.”
Dry, fast winds over open brushland fueled the growth of the Palisades, Eaton, and Hurst fires, which continue to burn.
More than 8,500 firefighters have been marshaled to fight the fires, which have so far killed at least 24 people and destroyed more than 12,000 homes and other buildings.
A new fire
At 56 acres, the Auto fire is much smaller than the other fires.
The Palisades fire covered about 23,713 acres and was 14% contained as of late Monday, with the Eaton fire spanning 14,117 acres and one-third contained, and the smaller 799-acre Hurst fire 97% contained, Cal Fire said.
Early Tuesday, officials at Ventura County Fire Department posted video from the Auto fire, saying that its forward progress had been stopped.
This means that the fire has been stopped in its direction of travel, even if it has not been contained.
#autofire; Forward progress on the Auto fire has been stopped. The fire has been mapped at 55.7 acres with 0% containment. Firefighters from #VCFD, Ventura City Fire, Oxnard Fire and Federal Fire Ventura County remain on scene mopping up hotspots and working to increase… pic.twitter.com/S3foYVhu9A
— VCFD PIO (@VCFD_PIO) January 14, 2025
Much of the fire is on a golf course, spread over a dry river bed.
“These zones with lower flammability will make containment efforts easier than in other areas,” Stefan Doerr, a professor of wildland fire science at the UK’s Swansea University, told Business Insider.
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