A fire broke out north of Los Angeles, 50,000 people were ordered to evacuate.
In California, 50,000 people received an evacuation order after the outbreak of a new fire about fifty kilometers north of Los Angeles.
Hot, dry winds strengthened the blaze and the flames devastated nearly 4,000 hectares in a few hours.
Thousands of firefighters, planes and helicopters are deployed to the Castaic Lake region.
The city of Santa Clarita is close to the fire and authorities have closed a portion of highway in the area.
Prison services evacuated 500 inmates from a prison threatened by flames and three other prisons could do the same.
Weather services are forecasting rain this weekend.
Precipitation would help firefighters and, at the same time, could cause toxic runoff: the fires of early January destroyed thousands of buildings and left behind charred and harmful debris.
Karen Bass, Mayor of Los Angeles: “We are starting to proactively anticipate rain to ensure that if rain comes, it does not worsen the crisis we find ourselves in. There were a lot of dangerous materials, toxic products that could flow into the ocean. We want to prevent this.”
The mayor of Los Angeles also fears landslides and asks road services to protect the roads to reduce the risk of collapse.
At the beginning of January, fires in Los Angeles killed around thirty people.
