Photo: Michael Owen Baker/AP/Shutterstock
The Saddleridge Brush Fire, which started in Sylmar along the 210 Freeway around 9 p.m., tore through the area overnight, and as of 4 a.m. Friday was zero percent contained, the Los Angeles Fire Departmentsaid.
No injuries have been reported so far, though the LAFD said at least one commercial building has been destroyed, as well as multiple homes, the number of which officials have yet to release an estimate.
Saddleridge fire.Michael Owen Baker/AP/Shutterstock
The 210 Freeway has been shut down in both directions between the 5 and 118 freeways, according to theLos Angeles Times.
“The wind got behind it. It’s a wind-driven fire,” Al Poirier, chief deputy of emergency operations for the LAFD, said at a press conference Thursday night. “We added a bunch of resources to it to try and get a hold of it, but obviously the weather and the fuels have allowed it to expand.”
TheLos Angeles Timesreports that winds in the area reached up to 60 miles per hour at the time the blaze broke out.
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“Because of the wind-driven factor, it creates a more defensive posture for firefighters,” Los Angeles firefighter John Ferrer told the outlet. “We wait until the wind dies down and can deploy adequate resources to contain the flanks of the fire and an early morning attack on the fire. But at this time we’re in flux.”
At least 10 schools were closed on Friday as multiple agencies tended to the blaze,NBC Newsreports.
The Saddleridge fire comes nearly one year after the devastatingWoolsey Fire, which broke out in Malibu on Nov. 8 and burned through 96,949 acres before it was contained on Nov. 22.
That blaze came the same time as the Camp Fire in Butte County, California, which went on to become the deadliest and most destructive fire in the state’s history.
At least 88 people were killed and 18,000 structures destroyed in the Camp Fire flames, according to theInsurance Information Institute, citing Cal Fire statistics.
source: people.com
