A fast-moving fire in California has forced authorities to evacuate part of a 5,000-person prison. Los Angeles County.
The Hughes Fire, The fire, which broke out in Castaic on Wednesday afternoon, is 0 percent contained and has already burned nearly 9,300 acres, according to Cal Fire.
Despite 4,000 firefighters battling the inferno, the rapidly advancing flames forced more than 50,000 people to leave the area, including nearly 500 Pitchess Detention center inmates, according to LA County Sheriff Robert Luna.
A sheriff watches the flames race up the hill as the plume of smoke from the Hughes Fire fills the air in Castaic, a northwest neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, on January 22, 2025. (FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
CALIFORNIA FIRES: ESSENTIAL TELEPHONE NUMBERS FOR LOS ANGELES RESIDENTS AND HOW TO HELP THEM
The Pitches Detention Center has three different facilities, one of which has already been evacuated fire brigade officials‘ recommendation, according to Luna.
The inmates were transferred to another facility on the prison campus. If these facilities are deemed unsafe, the department will be tasked with relocating more than 4,500 inmates.
“The other two campuses are much better structured than the one we evacuated from,” Luna said. “We have a plan in place to evacuate the remainder of the inmates throughout the prison if absolutely necessary.”
According to FOX 11 LA, inmates were among those on the front lines preparing to help firefighters battle the flames.
The volunteers lined up to fight the fires in a coordinated manner.
“It’s been quite a ride, that’s for sure,” Damien Brown, an inmate who also helped battle the Palisades Fire, told FOX 11. “(The most heartbreaking part) is seeing all the people’s houses burning down , all the unrest, just thinking about their displacement.”
LA FIRES DESTROYED RYAN O’NEAL’S MALIBU HOME THAT HE ONCE SHARED WITH FARRAH FAWCETT
The LA County Union of Public DefendersLos Angeles People’s City Council and Justice LA have posted on social media calling for the evacuation of Pitchess prisoners.
“We demand that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the Sheriff’s Department take swift action to protect the lives of the thousands of incarcerated individuals in their care,” the public defender’s union wrote in a statement. X.
“We are deeply concerned by the imminent risk this disaster poses to the health and safety of our clients,” the union wrote. “They should not be neglected or abandoned during this critical moment.”
A vehicle drives past a hillside engulfed in flames caused by the Hughes Fire in Castaic, Calf., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
The Volksraad publicly accused officials of “waiting until the last minute,” claiming authorities would not have enough buses to evacuate prisoners at the same time.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
The California National Guard announced that all eight U.S. MAFFS (Modular Aerial Firefighting System) aircraft, including two from the State Guard, had been launched to combat the Hughes Fire.
The California Guard MAFFS are based at the 146th Airlift Wing, Channel Islands Air National Guard Station in Port Hueneme, while the other six aircraft were pre-positioned there in response to the Palisades and Eaton Fires.
“We will continue to monitor the situation closely and provide the federal government with everything it needs to extinguish this fire,” Governor Gavin Newsom wrote in a post on X.
