Our live coverage of the California wildfires has ended. Go here or scroll through the posts below to read more about the fires.
Actress Sandra Bullock has made a $100,000 donation to The Humane Society of Ventura County, which is on the ground helping the non-human victims of the wildfires in Southern California.
“Our efforts for rescuing and caring for evacuated animals from the Hill and Woolsey fires had caught her attention and her team reached out to the shelter to show their support,” the organization wrote on Facebook.
The group said the donation will help provide care for animals — from horses and bulls to donkeys and ducks — evacuated from the fires.
“The HSVC pledges to care for these animals for as long as is needed or until their owners feel comfortable in safely reuniting their families,” the organization wrote.
Wildfires are ravaging through northern and southern California and as powerful winds sweep through the state.
Northern California’s Camp Fire and the Woolsey and Hill fires in Southern California have led officials to issue unhealthy air quality warnings throughout the San Francisco Bay area and affected populations in and around Los Angeles.
Here’s what you need to do to reduce your exposure risk:
Marco Gonzalez didn’t even think about shutting down his restaurant when the Agoura Hills community, near Los Angeles, was ordered to evacuate Friday morning.
The neighborhood began to evacuate as the Woolsey Fire approached, but Gonzalez stayed behind with a handful of staff at?Tavern 101 Grill & Tap House, cooking meals for firefighters and first responders.
“What they’re doing is putting themselves in harm’s way and we have to do whatever we can to help,” he added.
He started preparing meals with a team of four on Friday, which has since grown. Now, Gonzalez said he even has customers coming in volunteering to help.
Gonzalez’s sister-in-law, Lyndsay McDougal Cannon, began a?Venmo page?for donations that raised more than $45,000 in less than three days.
“Marco is a good man, he has a fabulous family and the fact is he is teaching his kids in times of tragedy, you think about others. It’s amazing,” Cannon said.
Money the restaurant doesn’t use will go toward police departments and fire stations and a Woolsey Fire relief fund.
Nichole Jolly spent her 34th birthday evacuating and treating patients as the Camp Fire consumed Paradise, California.
Jolly, a nurse who worked in Paradise, barely escaped her burning car.
“I called him (her husband) and I said, ‘Nick, I’m going to die.?I’m not going to make it out of?here, there’s just flames?everywhere, and I don’t know?what to do.’ And he said, ‘Don’t?die,?run.?If you’re going to die, die?fighting.?You have to run.’”
Jolly did run, and eventually made her way to a firetruck. The respite was short-lived; the firefighters called for air support, but were told it couldn’t reach them. Smoke was filling the air, and they were running out of oxygen.
Finally, a bulldozer cleared the path, allowing the firetruck and other vehicles a straight path to the hospital.
“This dozer just came out of nowhere and cleared a path and he saved all of us. He saved everybody’s lives. Those dozer operators are incredible. They deserve to be the heroes in this story,” Jolly told CNN.
She spent her birthday on Friday helping others at the hospital.
Watch it here:
The part of Butte County devastated by the Camp Fire hasn’t gotten a half-inch of rain on any calendar day for 210 days, Jonathan Pangburn, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The area is full of “critically dry fuel available for burning,” Pangburn said.
Here are some other statistics from CNN Weather:
A group of five private boats traveled 25 miles?from Marina del Rey to Pirate’s Cove beach in Malibu carrying food, water, fuel, diapers and other supplies for residents who did not evacuate during the Woolsey Fire.
About 30 people met the boats at the beach and transferred supplies to jet skis, dinghies and surfboards.
Residents refused to leave because they were afraid they wouldn’t be able to re-enter to defend their property. They haven’t had access to supplies since the roads closed.
Several firefighters who responded to last week’s bar shooting in Thousand Oaks, California, went straight to fight the wildfires ripping through the state, said Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Frank Lima.
“They’ve been?48 to 72 hours on shift, doing?what we do.?We go there, we risk our lives.?Our firefighters are out there. ?Meanwhile many of them have lost?their own homes and have been?displaced, but they’re still?serving the community,” Lima told CNN on Monday.
Many of the firefighters carry an “anvil of worry?on their backs” with their own families in danger, he said. Whenever natural disasters happen – hurricanes, earthquakes and fires – firefighters “stay there all the way to the end even?though their wives and kids – the?only things on their backs that they own are their clothes,” Lima said.
Watch it here:
Paradise Mayor Jody Jones lost her home when the Camp Fire swept through her town last week.
Jones was running an errand when the fire broke out.
“It took a long time to get out,?and there was fire on both sides?of the car.?You could feel the heat coming?in through the car.?You could see the telephone poles burning and trees and?structures and flames 30 feet in?the air.?It was scary.”
Jones is now living in her motor home.
“That is fine for now.?We have a bed and we have a roof.?We’re good, but that’s not good?for the long term.?So yes, we’ve started looking for a?more permanent place to live,” she said.
Watch more:
At least 370 structures were destroyed in the massive Woolsey Fire, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl Osby said Monday.
“I’d like to emphasize the estimated 57,000 structures are still here,” he said.?
Asked about President Trump’s tweet blaming “gross mismanagement” for the?devastating wildfires, Osby said he doesn’t want to “politicize our efforts right now.”
“I can just tell you that we are in extreme climate change right now. We don’t control the climate, we’re doing all we can to prevent incidents?and mitigate incidents and save lives,” the fire chief said.
“I personally find that statement unsatisfactory and it’s very hurtful for all first responders who are putting their lives on the line to protect lives and property.”?
Watch:
As firefighters continued to tackle the Woolsey Fire, two small fires broke out Monday in Southern California.
The first blaze, Lynn Fire, scorched 15 acres near the 101 Freeway and threatened structures, according to Ventura County Fire Chief Mark Lorenzen. Firefighters were expected to contain the fire shortly, he said.?
A second blaze, the Rocky Peak Fire, broke out around 10:05 a.m. ET near the 118 Freeway. The fire burned 20 acres.
Susan Miller and her daughter, Amber Toney, recorded a video of their harrowing escape as flames from the destructive Camp Fire tore through the town of Paradise.
“I’ll have nightmares for the rest of my life,” Miller, 59, told CNN. “This was a bucket list I never wanted.”
They feared their car windows would shatter and the tires would melt from the intense heat. The mother and daughter barely made it out of the inferno.
Now the family is reeling from the loss of their home and beloved community.
“How can God take a town away that’s called Paradise,” Toney said.
Watch more:
CNN’s photo team has been collecting the most compelling photos of the fires tearing through California. Take a look:
President Trump is tweeting again about the California wildfires, and thanking the “very brave” firefighters.
Here’s what he tweeted Monday:
Why this matters: The President’s latest message comes days after his tweet blaming “gross mismanagement” for the?devastating wildfires?sparked backlash from top firefighters’ associations, politicians and celebrities.
In a series of tweets Saturday, Trump said the state’s deadly wildfires are a result of poor forest management and threatened to cut federal aid.
Trump’s first tweet drew the ire of the leaders of firefighters’ organizations, who accused the President of bringing politics into a devastating disaster.
The president of the California Professional Firefighters said the message is an attack on some of the people fighting the devastating fires.
“The President’s message attacking California and threatening to withhold aid to the victims of the cataclysmic fires is ill-informed, ill-timed and demeaning to those who are suffering as well as the men and women on the front lines,” Brian K. Rice said.
Malibu Mayor Rick Mullen has been in the thick of the firefight since Thursday.
As the Woolsey Fire swept through parts of Malibu, Mullen, an 18-year veteran of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, worked alongside fellow firefighters to tackle the flames.
The initial firefight, he said, was intense.
“It’s calmer now all over than it?was when the fire came through,” he told CNN on Monday. “So everyone is getting a little?bit of a breather, but still a?lot of people have been on the?job for quite a while.”
Mullen described the Woolsey Fire as the largest fire he had ever?seen in his life.
“There are people who are going?to feel very relieved that their?house made it and people who are?devastated that their house?didn’t make it.?We’re all going to come together?because Malibu is a team, and?team Malibu will ride again,” he said.
Watch more:
Here are some of the latest statistics from the California fires:
In the last four days, more than 200,000 acres (or more than 310 square miles) have burned in California.?That is?slightly larger than all 5 boroughs of New York City.
Here are some of the latest statistics from the California fires:
Firefighters continue to tackle the destructive Camp Fire in Butte County, which has scorched 113,000 acres, according to California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The blaze, which is 25% contained, has destroyed 6,453 homes and 260 commercial buildings ?
At least 29 people were killed in the blaze. If the death toll gets any worse, it will be the deadliest wildfire in California history.?
The Woolsey Fire in Southern California has charred 91,572 acres and is 20% contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The area is under a red flag warning until Tuesday afternoon, and gusty winds and low humidity will persist.
Here’s what we know about the fire so far:
Malibu resident Ari Soffer took this video of some of the damage:
At least 31 people were killed and more than 300,000 people have evacuated as three massive wildfires burn?across California.
Below are ways you can assist those affected or get help if you’re in need.
Camp Fire: The largest of the three major blazes, the Camp Fire has scorched 111,000 acres across Northern California and is about 25% contained, according to the state firefighting agency Cal Fire. It has destroyed an estimated 6,700 buildings, most of which were homes.
Woolsey and Hill fires: In Southern California, the Woolsey Fire had spread to 85,500 acres and is about 15% contained. The nearby Hill Fire covered 4,531 acres and was 75% contained. Together, the fires are responsible for the destruction of 179 structures, but another 57,000 are threatened, fire officials said.
Mass evacuations: More than 300,000 people have been forced from their homes statewide. The majority of those residents are in Los Angeles County, where 170,000 were evacuated.
The map below shows these and the other active fires burning in California.
The three wildfires?are moving across land with a terrifying speed.
At its fastest, the Camp Fire in Northern California?spread at more than a football field a second, or around 80 football fields per minute.
There are four main reasons why the fires are moving so fast:
What about President Trump’s assertion that the fires were because “forest management is so poor”? Not accurate, meteorologists said.
Watch more:
The Woolsey Fire, which has burned 85,500 acres and is just 15 percent contained, has already destroyed 177 structures and threatens 57,000 structures more.
Neil Young,?Robin Thicke, Gerard Butler and Miley Cyrus are among those whose houses were hit by the fire raging north of Los Angeles.
See their posts about the fire below:
In a?post?on his official website decrying the impact of climate change, Neil Young said “I have lost my home before to a California wildfire, now another.”
The Mayor Pro Tem of Malibu was hospitalized over the weekend while trying to save his home from burning in the Woolsey Fire, according to the city.
“The City extends its support and best wishes for a complete recovery and quick return to the community that he loves,” the city added.
According to his bio page, Wagner is a special effects artist, runs Zuma Jay’s Surf Shop, and was elected to a second term this month.
The Camp Fire has destroyed an estimated 2,000 structures, “threatened” 15,000, and left three firefighters injured, according to the latest incident report by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).?
“The fire burned through the Town of Paradise and Concow Thursday, these areas will continue to experience active burning throughout the day,” the report says.
“The fire continues to burn to the Northwest into Magalia and toward Stirling City. Extremely dry fuels and heavy fuel loads in combination with low relative humidity will continue to active fire and control efforts.”??
On Friday afternoon, five bodies were found in a vehicle that was caught in the flames.
By the numbers – the Camp Fire:
Calfire is currently estimating that 2,000 structures have burned in the Camp Fire. If that holds true it would be the 4th most destructive wildfire in California history.
It would also mean that five of the top ten most destructive California fires have happened in the past two years.
Last year’s Tubbs fire is the most destructive with 5,636 structures burned.
Early Friday morning, Facebook activated its Safety Check feature for the Woolsey Fire, allowing people in the area to mark themselves as “safe.”
It also allowed those in the affected area to create fundraisers and ask for or offer help.
According to Facebook, more than 150 people requested help as of 1 p.m. ET this afternoon, asking for information, transportation and water.
Visit?the Crisis Response page here.
The fire at Griffith Park in Los Angeles is 30 acres and 15% contained according to the Los Angeles Fire Dept. One firefighter was transported to the hospital with “non-life threatening lower extremity injury,” according to LAFD.
The LA Zoo, which is located inside the park, tweeted it has evacuated “bird show animals & some smaller primates.” The zoo also turned on sprinklers and began hosing the hillside as a precaution.
So far, the zoo says, the smoke does not appear to be causing issues for its animals – but staff there are monitoring conditions.
A Smokey Bear sign warns visitors outside the park that fire danger there remains “very high.”
Malibu-based journalist Julie Ellerton was up all night.
She covered the procession of a Ventura County Sheriff’s sergeant who was killed in Wednesday’s mass shooting in Thousand Oaks. Now she is preparing to evacuate her home because the massive Woolsey Fire is inching toward her community.
Ellerton said she is “calmly organizing, packing” this morning. She is also making sure her elderly neighbors got the evacuation notice and are getting out.
“It’s so strange to go from covering the procession for sheriff in Thousand Oaks, where one of our Pepperdine students were lost, too many young people at the Borderline Bar …?to looking up in the afternoon and seeing plumes of smoke,” Ellerton told CNN in an email.
As the fast-moving Camp Fire tore through parts of Butte County, a CNN affiliate KGO captured what appears to be a fire whirl churning amid the flames.
ABC7’s Laura Anthony said she took this video from a safe distance near the town of Paradise.
So what is a fire whirl? When fires begin to get large enough to create their own weather patterns, it can interact with the topography of the area and create fire whirls like what is seen here.
“The video shows how extreme heat leads to quickly rising air that can create its own violent weather conditions. These happen all the time and they are proof of extreme fire development,” CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said.
As the Camp Fire rapidly advanced, NASA’s Landsat 8 satellite captured this image of the fire on Thursday.
The image captures the natural color of the wildfire but is also blended with a shortwave infrared light to highlight the area of the active fire.?
Colton Percifield was evacuating Concow, California, on Thursday when he captured stunning video of the Camp Fire.
Everything was shrouded in orange and yellow haze. Sparks jumped through the air, and the camera caught leaping flames off the side of the road. At one point, a tree branch broke and fell onto the car.
Percifield could be heard saying “Come on!” towards the end. He is now evacuated and safe.
Watch the video here.
Though an alert earlier Friday had placed only parts of Malibu under mandatory evacuation and the rest under voluntary evacuation, the entire city is now under an evacuation order. Areas south of the 101 Freeway from the Ventura County line to Las Virgenes southward toward the ocean area also ordered to evacuate.
They are advising evacuees to use Pacific Coast Highway and avoid the much-used canyon roads.
CNN journalists drove through Paradise, California, on Friday, capturing the eerie aftermath of the Camp Fire.
Yesterday there were reports that motorists in Paradise were abandoning their cars to flee flames on foot. They left behind destroyed cars littering the side of the road, with melted and charred exteriors. There was even an abandoned school bus, its tires entirely melted away.
Many trees along the road were stripped bare or blackened, and gray smoke hung in the air. The roads are empty except for firefighters and emergency personnel.
On Friday afternoon, five bodies were found in a vehicle that was caught in the flames.
Watch it here:
The Butte County Sheriff has located five fatalities in a vehicle that was overcome by flames in Paradise, California, according to the Butte County Sheriff’s Department.?
“The preliminary investigation revealed that the victims were located in vehicles that were overcome by the Camp Fire. Due to the burn injuries, identification could not be immediately made. Autopsies will be conducted to determine the circumstances of the deaths and to begin the identification process,?” said Sheriff-Coroner Kory L. Honea in a statement.
Joe and Whitney Allen had to leave the Paradise, California, along with their daughters Olivia, who turned 3 yesterday, and Jordan, only 8 months old, as the Camp Fire threatened their neighborhood.?
As they were driving through the flames to safety in two separate cars, a nervous Olivia kept asking her father about the flames surrounding them.
Here’s how the exchange went:
Once the family arrived safely at Whitney’s sister’s home, they all celebrated Olivia’s birthday.
“She’s pretty much oblivious to the whole thing,” Whitney told CNN.?“We didn’t think we were gonna make it out of town. Our car doors were hot we could feel the heat from the flames, embers were flying all around us.”
Watch it here (warning, this includes some profanity):
“Heavenly Father, please help us. Please help us to be safe. I am thankful for Jeremy and his willingness to be brave,” Brynn Parrott Chatfield said in a video while evacuating her hometown of Paradise, California, on Thursday.
“I feel very vulnerable posting this, but I feel I should,” Chatfield wrote on Facebook on Thursday. “My hometown of Paradise is on fire. My family is evacuated and safe. Not all my friends are safe. It’s very surreal. Things always work out, but the unknown is a little scary.”
The family evacuated Thursday, and Friday is a special day for the family. “Today is my daughter’s birthday and I’m trying to make it a wonderful day for her,” Chatfield told CNN.
Watch:
The three main wildfires in California have exploded with rapid growth — at times burning a football field a second Thursday into Friday due to intense winds, low humidity and very dry vegetation.
Much of California has seen less than?5% of their normal rainfall over the last month.
Here’s what we know about the fast-moving fires:?
CAMP FIRE
WOOLSEY FIRE
HILL FIRE
California governor-elect Gavin Newsom?issued an emergency proclamation for LA and Ventura counties on Friday after the Hill and Woolsey fires destroyed homes and forced about 105,000 people to evacuate.
He had issued an?emergency proclamation?for Butte County yesterday, which has been devastated by the Camp Fire.
He has also requested federal funding and firefighting assistance from neighboring states.
Read it here:
There is a 30 acre fire burning in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park located “in heavy brush with steep and very difficult terrain to navigate,” according to LA City Fire.
The LA Zoo, which is located there, is closed while zoo staff are preparing some of the animals to be evacuated and “hosing down the most vulnerable hillside areas,” the zoo tweeted.
Update Friday, 1:30 p.m. ET:
Officials from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection emphasized the ongoing battle against a series of fast-moving wildfires and urged the public to remain vigilant.
“We’ve got six major fires burning but the three are critical: the Camp Fire in Butte County, and the two in Ventura County: the Hill Fire and the Woolsey Fire,” Cal Fire Director Ken Pimlott said in a press conference on Friday.
The fire agency has requested more than 100 additional fire engines from outside California, and they have every available aircraft responding to the fires, but “we are a long ways from being out of the firefight,” he said.
Ongoing challenges include warm temperatures and high winds, which can hamper aircraft and stoke rapidly-spreading fires.
More than 150,000 people were forced to flee their homes because of wildfires in California, according to Mark Ghilarducci, director of California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
Approximately 105,000 people have been evacuated in Southern California due to the Hill and Woolsey fires, he said at a news conference Friday.
About 52,000 people in Northern California have been evacuated as a result of the Camp Fire.
Fatalities have been reported in the California wildfires, Mark Ghilarducci, director of California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, announced in a news conference Friday.
Officials will provide numbers and details as they become available, he added. It is unclear at this time which fires have claimed lives.
More than 150,000 people have been forced from their homes, and California has requested firefighting assistance from the neighboring states of Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Washington, Ghilarducci said.
The Camp Fire in northern California has now grown to around 70,000 acres with 5% containment, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.?
That is roughly the size of Charleston, South Carolina, or five times the size of Manhattan.
The fire burning in Butte County has damaged and destroyed structures, but there is no way to tell how many at this point.
As the flames encroach on the city of Chico, Carhart said their priority remains “the safety of people, then structures, then the land.”
As long as we are sure that everyone is safe, then we’ll do everything we can to help the structures,” he said.
A red flag warning will remain in effect throughout the morning in Northern California. Firefighters expect the winds to calm down later today, Carhart said.
Santa Ana winds are peaking this morning with winds gusts up to 70 mph in the mountains.
Malibu Hills, where the blaze is burning, has winds Friday morning of 38 mph and gusting to 52 mph.
The heavy winds aren’t just a fluke — there’s actually a regular weather phenomenon in this area of California called a Santa Ana wind event. The Santa Ana winds happen because high pressure builds over the western US, forcing air over the California deserts. As the air pushes over, down and through the coastal mountains, it dries, warms up, and picks up speed. That’s why the area can see such strong winds.
Early Friday morning, the fire doubled in size from 4,000 acres to 8,000 acres in 90 minutes. That is 44 acres a minute or?around a football field every two seconds.
The area’s geography is fueling the spread.
Celebrities were among the thousands of residents fleeing their homes as wildfires raged through California. As of Friday morning, more than 20 million people were under red flag warnings across the state.
Kim Kardashian West was forced to evacuate her Calabasas, California, home due to the looming threat the fires posed.
“Pray for Calabasas,” Kardashian West wrote on an Instagram story. “Just landed back home and had 1 hour to pack up & evacuate our home. I pray everyone is safe.”
Kardashian West’s sisters, Kourtney Kardashian and Khloe Kardashian, also had to leave their homes.
Actor and activist Alyssa Milano wrote on Twitter that she also had to evacuate her California home.
“I just had to evacuate my home from the fires,” Milano tweeted. “I took my kids, dogs, computer and my Doc Marten boots. (Husband is in NY. Horses are being evacuated by my trainer.)”
After alerting a mandatory evacuation for the entire city of Malibu earlier Friday morning, the city has adjusted their emergency alert to only evacuate parts of the city.
The mandatory evacuation is in effect for the area south of the 101 Freeway from the Ventura County line to Las Virgenes, southward to the ocean, the new alert said. The area east of Malibu Canyon is under voluntary evacuation.
The fast-moving and unpredictable Woolsey Fire prompted Pepperdine University to close both its Malibu and Calabasas campuses on Friday.
“This situation is fluid and developing rapidly with changing fire conditions,” the university said in a statement.
Here’s a portion of the university’s statement:
Whitney Vaughan, a resident of Paradise, California, had gone to work Thursday morning not realizing how close the Camp Fire was. Upon arrival, she was told Paradise was under immediate evacuation.
After rushing home, she and her husband joined the chaotic evacuation.
Traffic was at a standstill, and as she and her husband waited, she filmed the line of cars stuck beside burning trees.
“We barely stayed ahead of it and multiple times, as we followed the flow of cars, we thought the fire was going to kill us. It was everywhere. After 3 and a half hours we finally made it through the gridlock,” Vaughan said.
Watch it here.
Malibu has ordered a mandatory evacuation due to the fast-moving Woolsey Fire that has charred parts of Ventura and Los Angeles counties.
Residents were advised to evacuate through the Pacific Coast Highway, and avoid canyon roads.
According to the emergency alerts, the nearest evacuation center for Malibu residents is at Palisades High School, and large animal evacuation centers have also been established at the Zuma Beach parking lot and the Hansen Dam Equestrian Center in Lake View Terrace.?
The Los Angeles County Fire Department also tweeted that residents faced “imminent threat” and should “leave area immediately.”
The Woolsey Fire, straddling Ventura and Los Angeles Counties, jumped the 101 Freeway and triggered road closures.
The fire forced ramp closures near Cheseboro Road, Valley Circle and Reyes Adobe.
Ventura County Fire Capt. Scott Dettorre told CNN affiliate KTLA the area of Liberty Canyon and Cheseboro at the 101 Freeway is a major focus of the firefight.
“Please, please, please if you are asked to voluntarily leave the area, please do. If/when that mandatory comes, don’t hesitate, go. Make sure your stuff is packed and ready. Please leave the area,” he told KTLA.
Dettorre said many structures were lost in the fire. The winds, he said, were going to pick up and firefighters were gearing “for a few more hours of strenuous battle.”
Jason Bauer helped his parents evacuate from Bell Canyon in Ventura County, California, as the Woolsey Fire was approaching their home.
Bauer and his father were on the street when “the flames just came out of nowhere.”
“There was no fire department around. It just sorts of blew up quickly,” Bauer added.
He took this video of the fire from the street:
Flames from the Camp Fire damaged Adventist Health Feather River Medical Center in Butte County, but the extent is unknown, according to a statement on their website.
Patients were forced to evacuate to?Enloe Medical Center and Oroville Hospital for their safety, their website said. Photographers at the scene shot a series of images showing search and rescue teams scrambling to evacuate the patients.
“While we did sustain damage to some parts of our property, we are unable to confirm the full extent of that damage at this time. Until it is safe for our team to return to the site, we are unable to confirm any reports,” the hospital said in a statement.
Adventist Health clinics in Paradise and Chico will remain closed Friday, the hospital said.?
Just down the road from the Thousand Oaks bar where?12 people were killed in a mass shooting, residents were also grappling with?the Hill Fire, which quickly spread to cover 10,000 acres, Ventura County Fire Department officials said.
Just 12 minutes after it started Thursday afternoon, the flames spread across the 101 Freeway, leaving several drivers temporarily stranded. The highway is expected to remain closed Friday morning, Ventura County Fire Chief Mark Lorenzen said.
Residents took to social media to share their views of the flames nearly consuming the hillside in Newbury Park, which borders Thousands Oaks to the west.
While no homes or businesses have been lost due to the fast-moving fire, a number of RVs and outbuildings have been burned and a firefighter suffered a minor injury, authorities said.
Fire officials anticipate the fire will reach the Pacific Ocean.
A series of fast-moving wildfires are racing up and down California early Friday, destroying thousands of structures in their paths and forcing thousands of residents to evacuate through flame-lined streets.
Here’s a breakdown of the fires:
And here’s where they are located on a map:
