LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Firefighters in a mountainous area north of Los Angeles made good progress overnight in their battle against a brush fire that has forced thousands of people to evacuate, an official said Friday.
The Canyon Fire ignited Thursday afternoon and spread rapidly in the dry, steep terrain in Ventura and Los Angeles counties to more than 7.6 square miles (19.7 square kilometers) with no containment by 11 p.m., according to the Ventura County Fire Department. At least 400 personnel battled the blaze along with several planes and helicopters. No further growth was reported Friday morning, though the fire remained uncontained, county fire department public information officer Andrew Dowd said by telephone.
The fire is burning just south of Lake Piru, a reservoir located in the Los Padres National Forest. It’s close to Lake Castaic, a popular recreation area burned by the Hughes Fire in January. That fire burned about 15 square miles (39 square kilometers) in six hours and put 50,000 people under evacuation orders or warnings.
Firefighters battling the Canyon Fire took advantage of lower temperatures overnight to directly attack the fire and made lots of progress, Dowd said. By Friday morning, they were seeing subdued fire behavior, he said.
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