California’s Santa Ana winds continue to fuel wildfires in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area, with a new conflagration breaking out just 45 miles from downtown. Named the Hughes Fire, the wildfire spread quickly, consuming 10,000 acres in just a few hours on Wednesday.
While the Hughes Fire has forced the evacuation of around 30,000 residents, officials believe they can contain the blaze relatively quickly. The Santa Ana winds, which are critical to the wildfires’ growth into uncontrollable blazes, are not as strong as they have been in recent weeks. However, the persistence of the winds—which reached 70-90 miles per hour during the previous fires—is keeping local residents and officials on edge.
Earlier this month, massive wildfires caused billions of dollars in damage and killed at least 28 people as they raged through the Los Angeles suburbs. The Palisades Fire has so far burned around 24,000 acres and is now nearly 70 percent contained after first igniting over two weeks ago. Meanwhile, the Eaton Fire—which burned a large part of Altadena, scorching around 15,000 acres total—is nearly 100 percent contained.
Victims of the fires have been highly critical of state and local officials over their handling of the wildfires. Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and Los Angeles’s Democratic Party Mayor, Karen Bass, have been especially the targets of ire.
Some residents are furious that Newsom’s Democratic administration sent resources—including “surplus” fire equipment, trucks, and water tankers—to Ukraine, while wasting money on DEI at home. These moves likely deprived local fire departments of additional tools that could have aided containment efforts.
HUGHES FIRE burning towards Castaic, fire being pushed by winds gusting to 40mph, humidity at 6%…sometimes you recognize that it is time to leave an area, this is one of those times. @knxnews pic.twitter.com/plZKEqtBI2
— Pete Demetriou (@knxpete) January 22, 2025
