By Christopher Sullivan
CASTAIC, Calif. (mocsnews.com) – California was faced with a large wildfire Saturday evening that broke out near Los Angeles. The fire was pushed through dry brush and across Interstate 5 by 15mph winds.
The fire ended up burning nearly 400 acres by the time the Los Angeles County Fire Department tried to get it under their control. Two county firefighters ended up in the hospital due to burns from the fire. During the fight with the fire, they ended up closing a section of the freeway so they could try and take control of the fire. They had air tankers releasing retardant on the flames from above.
Sunday morning, it was reported that the fire at stretched just over 450 acres at 0% contained. They ended up re-opening two lanes in both directions around 9 p.m to help un-jam some traffic on the interstate.
The neighborhood that sits just below Interstate 5, Paradise Ranch Estates, was under evacuation watch as the fire continued to spread. The residents ended up not being asked to leave as the fire raged close by, just enough for them to stay home. “The thing that was really challenging was that the fire immediately spotted across the freeway… we were basically fighting two different fires on two different sides of the interstate,” US Forest Service spokesman John Miller said.
Besides the two firefighters that got injured during the battle, nobody else ended up retaining any injuries during the fire.