As the first Santa Ana wind event of the season has descended upon Southern California, bringing with it incredibly high wind gusts of 60 miles per hour, with isolated gusts as high as 70 miles per hour, firefighters are battling several vegetation fires, two in the San Fernando Valley and another in L.A.’s Harbor region.
In West Hills, firefighters were battling an approximately 5-acre vegetation blaze in 20 mile per hour winds in the 8900 block of Moorcroft Avenue, the Los Angeles Fire Department said in a news release. As of 3:42 p.m., authorities said no structures were threatened and that firefighters from Ventura and L.A. counties were both sending crews to assist.
By 5:11 p.m., authorities said it took firefighters an hour and a half to extinguish the brush fire burning near the west end of Nordhoff, west of Topanga. No injuries were reported and no structures were damaged. Crews will remain on scene for several hours. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
In Wilmington, an approximately half-acre brush fire broke out at around 3:15 p.m. on the northbound 110 Freeway at Anaheim Street. Authorities said the blaze was burning at a slow rate of speed and no structures were threatened.
In North Hollywood, firefighters responded to a quarter-acre brush fire near the 170 Freeway at Victory Boulevard at around 2:15 p.m., LAFD said. With winds of 15 miles per hour, crews were fighting the flames from both the ground and air as there were multiple spot fires on either side of the busy freeway.
The fire prompted the closure of Victory Boulevard near the freeway in both directions with the 170 closed in both directions from Magnolia Boulevard to Sherman way.
As of 4:08 p.m., LAFD said the fire had been contained with no injuries or structures damaged and that lanes of the 170 Freeway and Victory Boulevard would slowly reopen to traffic. The cause of the fire is under investigation.