The National Weather Service has extended its “extremely critical fire weather” for Los Angeles and Ventura counties through Thursday.
While these red flag warnings have ended in Northern California, the southern part of the state is still on high alert due to Santa Ana winds especially near the mountains. However, with forecasters hinting at no Santa Ana winds next week, firefighters battling the blazes will have favorable conditions to prevent fires from spreading.
First, the Getty Fire, which began on Monday morning has burned 745 acres and is 39% contained as of Thursday morning. Officials believe they have determined the cause of the fire through witness reports, burn patterns and physical evidence. With all the information they have determined that it was “caused by a tree branch that broke off and subsequently landed in nearby power lines during high wind conditions. This errant tree branch caused the sparking and arcing of power lines, igniting nearby brush. All power lines on the pole remained intact.”
The second blaze, the Easy Fire, has been going since Wednesday morning and is currently only 10% contained while burning 1,723 acres. More than 700 firefighters are battling the fire as its began in Simi Valley and has moved towards Moorpark. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but officials say that the fight is going well and will have more updates this afternoon. Updates can be found via the Ventura County Fire Department’s twitter page.
The third major fire, the Hill Fire, so far has had the most success by firefighters. Currently the fire has only burned 625 acres and is 30% contained, which has led to all evacuations lifted for the Jurupa Valley area.
Other major population centers in the area remain under extreme fire danger including: Thousand Oaks, Inglewood, Oxnard, Santa Clarita and Simi Valley. Other cities in southern California are listed at critical risk, including: Los Angeles, Santa Ana, Riverside, Anaheim and Chula Vista.
