Firefighters battled a brushfire in La Salle and Wiley canyons in the Calgrove Boulevard area Saturday that grew to 175 acres by early evening.
Two hundred structures were threatened at one point, but none was in danger by 8 p.m. when containment was reported at 30 percent.
Dubbed the South Fire, it was reported at 2:44 p.m., about the time fire crews were mopping up a freeway fire on the west side of I-5 at Roxford in the San Fernando Valley.
By 4 p.m., sheriff officials announced evacuations for White Oak Court, Valley Oak Court and La Salle Canyon Drive on the east side of I-5 in the La Salle Canyon development.
They were followed at 5 p.m. with additional mandatory evacuations of all streets south of Maple Street up to Wildwood Canyon Road, including Calgrove and Valley; Alamos Lane, Champagne Lane, Agramonte Drive, Haskell Vista Lane, Cross Street, Wildwood Road, Oakbridge Lane and Green Crest Drive.
The SCV Sheriff’s Station activated its Search and Rescue Team to assist with evacuations.
Evacuation centers:
RESIDENTS – College of the Canyon Physical Education Center (primary center) & Hilton Garden Inn (27710 The Old Road, Valencia).
FAMILY ANIMALS (pets) – Castaic Animal Shelter (no horses)
LARGE ANIMALS (horses) – Pierce College off of De Soto, 7100 El Rancho Drive in Woodland Hills
Evacuations were lifted at 8:24 p.m. The affected area was open only to residents.
Crews worked to hold the fire at Briardale Way so it didn’t extend into Wildwood Canyon.
Sun and wind conditions started to improve around 5 p.m., aiding the effort.
Three L.A. County water-dropping helicopters were joined by four fixed-wing air tankers from CAL FIRE and the U.S. Forest Service, plus aerial assistance from L.A. City Fire.
Northbound I-5 was reduced to 2 lanes of traffic.
Photo: L.A. County Fire Dept.
Los Angeles County Fire Department
(From earlier versions of this story:)
Fixed-wing aircraft were called in to assist.
Active flames were burning under Edison power lines.
Officials are preparing for the possible need for structure protection. The staging area for emergency crew is at Calgrove and The Old Road.
Across town, firefighters were handling a crash and car fire on the 14 Freeway at Sand Canyon Road that apparently resulted from a driver talking on a cell phone.
Map: Caltrans District 7
Photo by Cindy Hoffmann-Domaradzki
Photo by Cindy Hoffmann-Domaradzki
Photo: Judith Pena
Photo: L.A. County Fire Dept.
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13 Comments
Its the east side of the freeway, if its under the edison lines, burning towards hidden valley in Newhall.
Alyssa Tepesano
Uh oh
Kimberly Oxford-Hall,this is the latest info. I could find.
??
http://abc7.com/brush-fire-forcing-evacuations-along-5-freeway-near-santa-clarita-/3583646/
Why didn’t they stop it at 2 acres? This always happens. Can’t control fire in these winds.
Suzy Babikan are you safe
Is the 5 closed
Crystal
Gotta live living out in the middle of the desert
Its odd that this story doesn’t mention that evacuations were lifted by the City at 8:24PM last night.
The fire fighting crews did a fantastic job on this, stopping the fire even as it moved into the hidden valley neighborhood. It was really incredible that they didn’t lose a signle home.
But the reporting was not so good, from the fire chief not knowing that 35 percent containment had already been called and reporting no containment to people reporting high winds when there were none.
As a resident in the second evacuation area where we were watching from a hill, it was obvious that the wind direction had pushed the fire past us and that it was mostly contained by the time they called the evacuation. So what was that about? Very strange. Then first they told people with large animals to shelter in place – well hey, if there is really a danger, you need to get the horses out. So was there really no danger? Why were they telling the residents to evacuate?
Anyway, many thanks to the great folks that saved the Hidden Valley homes. Good work.
Actually, at 8:25pm, the story was updated to say evacuations were lifted at 8:24pm. It was even in bold typeface. You’re right about containment — there were conflicting reports from fire officials. We went with the “official” official figures.