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CASTAIC, United States: A new wildfire erupted north of Los Angeles on Wednesday, exploding in size and sparking orders for tens of thousands of people to evacuate in a region already staggering from the effects of huge blazes.
Ferocious flames were devouring hillsides near Castaic Lake, spreading rapidly to cover more than 5,000 acres (2,000 hectares) in just a few hours.
The fire was being fanned by strong, dry Santa Ana winds that were racing through the area, pushing a vast pall of smoke and dangerous embers ahead of the flames.
Evacuations were ordered for 31,000 people around the lake, which sits around 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Los Angeles, and close to the city of Santa Clarita.
“I’m just praying that our house doesn’t burn down,” one man told broadcaster KTLA as he packed his car.
The fire came with the greater Los Angeles area still suffering after two enormous fires that killed more than two dozen people and destroyed thousands of structures.
Robert Jensen, of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, urged everyone in the impacted area of the new blaze — dubbed the Hughes Fire — to leave immediately.
“We’ve seen the devastation caused by people failing to follow those orders in the Palisades and Eaton fires,” he said.
“I don’t want to see that here in our community as well. If you’ve been issued an evacuation order, please get out.”
Television footage showed police driving around neighborhoods urging people to leave.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic was under an evacuation order, and around 500 inmates were being moved to a neighboring facility.
He told broadcaster KCAL9 that around 4,600 inmates being held at other jails in the area were sheltering in place, but buses were on hand in case conditions changed and they needed to be moved.
Melissa Camacho, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, noted the rights group’s opposition to “the expansion of the jail system especially in dangerous fire zones,” adding that “we are gravely concerned for the safety of people incarcerated in those jails.”
California Highway Patrol said the fire was impacting traffic on the I5 freeway, with a section of the road — which runs the length of the US West Coast — shuttered.
Helicopters and planes were on the scene dropping water and retardant on the blaze.
That fleet included two Super Scoopers, enormous amphibious planes that can carry hundreds of gallons (liters) of water.
Crews from Los Angeles County Fire Department and Angeles National Forest were also attacking the blaze from the ground.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has been the target of criticism by President Donald Trump over his handling of the Los Angeles fires, said he had ordered officials into action.
“State resources have been deployed to the Hughes Fire in the Angeles National Forest to assist in the federal response,” he said.
“We will continue to monitor the situation closely and provide the federal government with whatever it needs to extinguish this fire.”
It was not immediately clear what sparked the fire, but it occurred during red flag fire conditions — when meteorologists say strong winds and low humidity create conditions ripe for rapid fire spread.
Human activity, including the unchecked burning of fossil fuels, is changing Earth’s climate, increasing average global temperatures and altering weather patterns.
Even though January is the middle of the region’s rainy season, Southern California has not seen any significant precipitation in around eight months, leaving the countryside tinder dry.

A record 47 percent of the European Union’s electricity now comes from solar and other renewables, a report Thursday said, in yet another sign of the growing gap between the bloc’s push for clean energy and the new US administration’s pursuit of more fossil fuels.
Nearly three-quarters of the EU’s electricity doesn’t emit planet-warming gases into the air — with another 24 percent of electricity in the bloc coming from nuclear power, a report released by the climate energy think tank Ember found. This is far higher than in countries like the United States and China, where nearly two-thirds of their energy is still produced from carbon-polluting fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas. Around 21 percent of the US’s electricity comes from renewable sources.
Experts say they’re encouraged by Europe’s fossil fuel reductions, particularly as the US looks set to increase its emissions as its new president pledges cheaper gas prices, has halted leases for wind projects and pledged to revoke Biden-era incentives for electric vehicles.
“Fossil fuels are losing their grip on EU energy,” said Chris Rosslowe, an energy expert at Ember. In 2024, solar power generated 11 percent of EU electricity, overtaking coal which fell below 10 percent for the first time. Clean wind power generated more electricity than gas for the second year in a row.
Green policies and war drive clean energy growth

One reason for Europe’s clean power transition moving at pace is the European Green Deal, an ambitious policy passed in 2019 that paved the way for climate laws to be updated. As a result of the deal, the EU made their targets more ambitious, aiming to cut 55 percent of the region’s emissions by the end of the decade. The policy also aims to make Europe climate neutral — reducing the amount of additional emissions in the air to practically zero — by 2050.
Hundreds of regulations and directives in European countries to incentivize investment in clean energy and reduce carbon pollution have been passed or are in the process of being ratified across Europe.
“At the start of the Deal, renewables were a third and fossil fuels accounted for 39 percent of Europe’s electricity,” Rosslowe said. “Now fossils generate only 29 percent and wind and solar have been driving the clean energy transition.” The amount of electricity generated by nuclear energy has remained relatively stable in the bloc.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has also spurred the move to clean energy in Europe. Gas prices skyrocketed — with much of Europe’s gas coming from Russia becoming unviable — forcing countries to look for cheaper, cleaner alternatives. Portugal, Netherlands and Estonia witnessed the highest increase in clean power in the last five years.
Europe cements its place as a clean energy leader
The transition to clean power helped Europe avoid more than $61 billion worth of fossil fuel imports for generating electricity since 2019.
“This is sending a clear message that their energy needs are going to be met through clean power, not gas imports,” said Pieter de Pous, a Brussels-based energy analyst at European think tank E3G. De Pous said the EU’s origins were “as a community of coal and steel because those industries were so important,” but it is now rapidly becoming a “community of solar and wind power, batteries and smart technologies.”
Nuclear growth in the bloc, meanwhile, has slowed. Across the European Union, retirements of nuclear plants have outpaced new construction since around the mid-2000s, according to Global Energy Monitor.
As President Trump has pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement aimed at curbing warming and is pursuing a “drill, baby, drill” energy policy, Rosslowe said the EU’s leadership in clean power becomes all the more important. “It’s about increasing European energy independence, and it’s about showing this climate leadership,” he said.
On Tuesday, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said: “Europe will stay the course, and keep working with all nations that want to protect nature and stop global warming.”