View of smoke from Santa Clarita
Photo: Lizzie Sears

Road Closure Update, Friday 8pm (L.A. County Public Works):

Location: Castaic/Lake Hughes,Agua Dulce: San Francisquito Cyn Rd @ Lowridge Place

Status: Road Closed. Only Open To Residents & Emergency Vehicles

Road Closure Update, Friday 4pm (L.A. County Public Works):

Road closures have been initiated due to the Powerhouse Brush Fire.

Only Santa Clarita Valley residents and Emergency Personnel will be allowed to enter San Francisquito Canyon Road from Copper Hill.

Only emergency personnel will be able to enter the areas between Calle Daggett and the Department of Water and Power Village on San Francisquito Canyon Road.

The 1,500-acre Powerhouse Fire is now 15 percent contained as more than 600 firefighters make their way north to begin more evacuations as the fire singes more brush in Lake Hughes, Calif.

The fire began Thursday as temperatures climbed into the upper 90s and near the century mark in some parts of the Santa Clarita Valley’s northern edge.

Now new evacuation orders have been ordered. Camp Mendenhall, a probation facility, is in the process of vacating their campus on Lake Hughes Road.

Authorities have ordered additional areas to leave as the fire moves swiftly through the mountains north of Santa Clarita, according to a press release from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Areas north of South Portal Road and West of San Francisquito Canyon Road are in the net of the evacuation zone.

A Red Cross Center has been set up at Marie Kerr Park in Palmdale and is accepting displaced families. Authorities are asking that large animals are brought to the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds.