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Thousands evacuate Hughes Fire near LA as California faces fresh threats
A fresh California wildfire ignited north of Los Angeles Wednesday during "critical" fire weather and triggered evacuations as it quickly exploded in size across two counties on Wednesday — and forecasters warned conditions would worsen overnight.
The big picture: The Hughes Fire ignited north of Santa Clarita just before 11am Wednesday local time and grew across 5,000 acres in LA and Ventura counties in just over two hours — making it the biggest and fastest-spreading wildfire since the still-burning Eaton and Palisades fires erupted on Jan. 7.
- The fire that's near the popular water reservoir Castaic Lake some 40 miles from those blazes had grown to an estimated 10,176 acres at 14% containment just before 10pm.
- Southern California faced more Santa Ana winds and red flag warnings were in effect through Friday morning.
- The blaze in the San Gabriel Mountains prompted authorities to close all northbound lanes on Interstate 5 from just north of State Route 126 and issue smoke, windblown dust and ash advisories Wednesday evening.