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Brush fires prompt mandatory evacuations near LA

By Adriana Navarro, AccuWeather staff writer

Published Aug 13, 2020 11:49 PM EDT

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The Lake Fire has scorched over 17,800 acres of Southern California land as of early Sunday morning, prompting over 100 homes in northern Los Angeles County under evacuation orders.

The fire exploded to 10,000 acres within a matter of hours after igniting on Wednesday afternoon around 3:40 p.m. PDT. During Wednesday night, it spread across another 500 acres, the Los Angeles County Fire Department announced Thursday morning. The fire has scorched over 17,800 acres and has since reached 12% containment as of early Sunday morning.

The cause of the fire is not yet known, and no injuries have been reported as of Friday afternoon. According to CalFire, five structures have been destroyed so far.

The Lake Fire had grown to 6,000 acres by Wednesday afternoon on Aug. 12. (Twitter/@Angeles_NF)

Mandatory evacuations were put in place at Lake Hughes Road west of Pine Canyon and north of Dry Gulch Road, east of Ridge Route Road, west of Lake Hughes Road and Fire Station 78, north of Pine Canyon and Lake Hughes Road and south of SR-138, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Additional evacuations were put into place Friday after extreme heat caused an increase in fire activity during the afternoon, according to Inciweb. The areas under evacuation include North of Ave. D and Highway 138, West of 150th St. West, South of Ave. A and East of 200th St. West.

David Richardson, Jr., chief deputy of emergency operations with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, told reporters that at least 100 structures were within the evacuation zone. However, there was no confirmation that any residents were affected by the Lake Fire, according to UPI.

The Los Angeles branch of the Red Cross opened two temporary evacuation points for people affected by the Lake Fire on Thursday, one at the Castaic Sports Complex and the second at Highland High School in Palmdale.

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The county fire department noted 5,420 structures are threatened by the fire. Over 1,000 personnel are assigned to the fire with three helicopters and 173 engines.

However, fire officials are expecting to be in for the long fight.

"This will be a major fire for several days," Angeles National Forest Fire Chief Robert Garcia told reporters during a Thursday morning briefing.

Some of the areas the Lake Fire has overtaken are catching fire for the first time since 1968, according to CBS News.

"It's pretty explosive fire behavior," Garcia said. "It's typically what we see a little bit later in the season and often driven by wind. The fuel, moisture conditions and the fire at this particular location with the slope, it really created a recipe for rapid fire growth."

The wind and humidity level will also be aiding the fire in putting up a fight this week.

Smoke from the Lake Fire near Lake Hughes was visible in Santa Clarita, California, on Wednesday, Aug. 12. The first started the same day just before 4 p.m. PDT. (Twitter/@santaclarita)

"Current modeling suggests the wind in the vicinity of the fire each of the next couple of afternoons will be out of the southwest in the 10-20 mph range and taking the smoke into the Antelope Valley," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist John Feerick said. "At night, the wind switches more out of the northwesterly direction off the Tehachapi Mountains, and that switch in wind direction could cause major problems in fighting this fire. We also know that in the vicinity of fires the wind can be much stronger and switch on a dime to begin with."

Humidity levels are also expected to drop this week, Feerick said, adding to the challenges to contain the erratic blaze.

Southeast of the Lake Fire, residents of Mt. Cove were under mandatory evacuation due to the Ranch Fire near Azusa, California, according to the Azusa Police.

Farther upstate, a wildfire in Lassen County is igniting some serious concerns as it prepares for a potential fire tornado. The Loyalton fire, which is responsible for the potential tornado, currently incapsulates 2,300 acres and is only 5% contained as of Saturday afternoon. The cause of the fire remains unclear.

Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for parts of Lassen County and Plumas County, and a pending evacuation has been announced for Sierra County. Long Valley in Sierra County will be included in the mandatory evacuations soon, according to the Sierra County Sheriff's Office.

While by 4 p.m. PDT on Saturday the immediate threat for tornado activity decreased, the National Weather Service Reno warned that throughout the evening "extreme fire behavior" will continue in Loyalton in the form of new fire tornadoes and 60 mph gusts. They alerted individuals to stay away from the area.

AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist and western U.S. blogger Brian Thompson said small whirls of fire are common in wildfires, but vortices as large as fire tornadoes are very rare. The most recent fire tornado to cause massive damage in the U.S. was in Redding, California, in 2018. It was equivalent to an EF3 tornado with winds reaching 143 mph and killed five people.

"A fire tornado looks somewhat like a fire whirl, which is a rotating column of flames," he said. "However, in these larger fire tornadoes, the stronger circulation draws in more smoke from the surrounding areas, so it can appear to look more like a tornado associated with severe weather, with the smoke mimicking what an actual tornado looks like."

In addition, the presence of a fire tornado can help the wildfire to spread faster.

"Whether the whirl of flames moves out of the burn area, or the embers from the fire get pulled into the fire whirl and then dispersed outside of the fire, both can help a wildfire spread quickly," he said.

Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.

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