Bel-Air fire strains nerves as red flag lingers in Los Angeles

A fire broke out Wednesday evening in Bel-Air on the east side of Highway 405 in Sepulveda Pass and burned into the early morning hours Thursday.

The fire, across the highway and a mile north of the Getty Center, moved upward amid wind gusts in the area that at one point reached 25 mph, according to Todd Hall, National Weather Service meteorologist. Extremely dry air contributed to the fire conditions; relative humidity was 3-8%.

Several fire trucks were on site. Firefighting helicopters dropped water overnight and refilled at the nearby Stone Canyon Reservoir.

News of the fire broke shortly after 11 p.m. Wednesday and the fire appeared to spread quickly. Around 1 a.m., television images appeared to show the fire slowing, its glow fading, amid relatively calm winds.

Shortly before 2 a.m., Los Angeles firefighters said the fire, which had burned 40 acres, had stopped spreading. Officials lifted the evacuation warning for parts of Bel-Air, including homes along Casiano Road and Chalon Road, as well as Moraga Drive, lined with multimillion-dollar homes. Authorities had previously lifted an evacuation warning for part of Brentwood, including the Chalon campus of Mount Saint Mary’s University.

“No structures were damaged and no injuries were reported. Firefighters will remain on scene throughout the night conducting mop-up operations to ensure no hot spots remain,” the LAFD said. Traffic on the 405 will likely be slowed “as crews and devices work along the highway.

Moraga Bel Air Vineyards, owned by Rupert Murdoch, was among the properties that received an evacuation warning during the fire. Murdoch, 93, reportedly paid $30 million for the 16-acre site in 2013.

Murdoch is known to spend time at the estate, parts of which were burned during the Skirball fire in 2017. He married his fifth wife, Elena Zhukova, a former Russian molecular biologist, in Moraga last June.

The Getty Center art museum “has activated fire protection measures” due to the threat of fire, Alexandria Sivak, a spokeswoman for the J. Paul Getty Trust, said in an email Thursday Morning.

When the firefight began, the Angeleno Hotel was in the process of evacuating 121 people due to the fire, according to a front desk employee. The hotel was less than three kilometers from the scene of the fire, on the other side of the 405.

Some UCLA students expressed concern on social media at news of the fire, even though the university was not in an evacuation zone.

“I don’t even know how I’m supposed to sleep…I HAVE A QUIZ TOMORROW,” one Reddit user said.

The Sepulveda Fire was the latest blaze in a nerve-wracking week as Southern California headed into a fourth straight day of red flag fire weather warnings. Alerts warn that conditions are ripe for fires to start and spread quickly. There have been red flag warnings in parts of Southern California for 14 of the last 17 days. The stretch began on Jan. 7, the day the Palisades and Eaton fires began to spread devastatingly, leveling swaths of Pacific Palisades and Altadena.

Thursday will continue to be a critical fire danger day.

“Any new fires can grow quickly and get out of control,” the National Weather Service posted on social media. “Have a plan, especially if you are in a high fire risk area. »

Santa Ana winds will strengthen and peak during the day Thursday, weather service meteorologist Ryan Kittell said. The weather service extended its red flag fire weather warning until 10 a.m. Friday for much of Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.

“We’re still in the middle of this long period of extreme drought, and we’re looking at increased wind coming soon,” Kittell said. Humidity has dropped below 10%.

Peak gusts on Thursday are expected to be a bit stronger than expected earlier in some areas. Thursday’s gusts could reach 45 mph in the western San Fernando Valley, Oxnard and the Grapevine section of Interstate 5; 53 mph in Ramona; 54 mph in Acton; 55 mph in Fillmore and Idyllwild; 59 mph in Santa Clarita; 62 mph in Thousand Oaks; 108 km/h in Beaumont; and 69 mph in Alpine.

With the air so dry — and not getting humid overnight — it’s a “really concerning time in terms of humidity,” Kittell said. Plants and other fuels are “ready to burn.”

Rain is forecast for Southern California. Precipitation could begin as early as Saturday afternoon and last until Monday evening.

Precipitation could total nine-tenths of an inch for Covina; nearly three-quarters of an inch for downtown Los Angeles, Long Beach and Santa Clarita; two-thirds of an inch for Redondo Beach; three-fifths of an inch in Fillmore and Canoga Park; and about half an inch in Thousand Oaks and Oxnard. Eleven inches of snow could fall in Wrightwood and four inches along the Grapevine section of Interstate 5.

There is a 10 to 20 percent chance of thunderstorms in the region, which, if they materialize over recently burned areas, could bring periods of heavy rain, potentially leading to debris flows and other landslide risks. ground. It’s a low risk but something to consider, Kittell said.

The storm “will most likely bring us some beneficial rain” and dampen the fires currently burning, Kittell said. But, he added, “it won’t kill the fire season.” …That won’t be enough to crush him.

Firefighters continued their fight against the Hughes fire in northern Los Angeles County on Thursday.

The fire broke out on Lake Hughes Road just before 11 a.m. Wednesday and quickly prompted evacuation orders in and around Castaic Lake, which expanded into Ventura County in the afternoon. west and near Sandberg to the north. More than 31,000 people were ordered to evacuate and warnings were issued to 23,000 others.

The fire exploded near Castaic Lake on Wednesday, and although Santa Ana winds quickly fanned the 10,000-acre fire, crews began to gain control by the evening with a massive deployment of ground resources and aerial.

The fire was 14% contained as of 10 p.m. Wednesday. More than 4,000 firefighters and more than a dozen water jets and retardants responded to the incident.

“We were able to add tens of thousands of gallons of retardant to the south side of the fire because the fire was moving southwest,” Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said during a press conference on Wednesday. “It was really the plane, in addition to all these resources on the ground, that allowed us to gain the upper hand.”

Around 31,000 residents were under evacuation orders and 23,000 under evacuation warnings. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department sent its new Looting Enforcement Team to the area to protect evacuated homes.

The weather service said winds in the Hughes Fire area are expected to increase further Thursday, peaking in the morning and afternoon.

Marrone noted that the Hughes Fire broke out under very different conditions than previous fires.

Although the winds were strong Wednesday, “it wasn’t those 70, 80, 90 mph winds that we experienced” on Jan. 7, when the Palisades and Eaton fires ignited.

In addition, there are now many more firefighting resources available in the region.

“We have so many resources from Northern California, the Western United States and international resources,” he said. “The number of helicopters and planes we have really allows us to fight a fire like this.”

Times Staff Writer Amy Kaufman contributed to this report.