Brush Fire Burns Nearly 90 Acres In Castaic; No Damage Reported
CASTAIC (CBSLA) – A wind-driven brush fire erupted in Castaic early Monday morning.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department reports that the Equestrian Fire broke out before 3:43 a.m. in the area of Halsey Canyon Road, off the east side of the 5 Freeway, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
"We received a phone call for a hill that people saw smoke and fire from the freeway," L.A. County Fire Inspector Sky Cornell told CBSLA.
The fire quickly raced down hillsides, and at one point the blaze was threatening the Peter J. Pitchess Detention Center, a men's county jail facility, and a nearby equestrian center.
More than 200 LACFD firefighters were deployed, and with the help of three water-dropping helicopters equipped with night vision, crews were able to stop the forward spread of the blaze within three hours. Throughout the morning, crews were digging containment lines and lighting back fires to burn away remaining fuel.
The fire burned more than 86 acres and was about 70% contained by late Monday afternoon.
Prison work crews that would normally help fight a fire like this were missing due to coronavirus concerns, Cornell said, but the department still had enough resources to fully deploy.
"We had resources in the area, thankfully, because we had redeployed to those strategic locations last night," Cornell said.
No evacuations were issued and there were no reports of damage or injury. There was no word on a cause.
L.A. Department of Water and Power were also on scene investigating whether any power lines were damaged in the fire.
Most of L.A. County is under a red flag warning through Monday night due to gusty winds and low humidity. Gusts were blowing 30 to 40 miles per hour at the ridges, Cornell said.
The Equestrian Fire was one of several which broke out Monday morning, including a four-acre fire which broke out in the Sepulveda Basin area of Van Nuys and a second fire in Eagle Rock.
Thousands of LADWP customers were without power throughout the region due to the winds. Early Monday morning more than 5,200 residents in Venice were without power. As of 10:15 a.m. more than 1,600 customers were without electricity in South L.A. and another 200 in Woodland Hills, with scattered outages across the region.
