Wildfire threatens homes in Santa Clarita as dangerous SoCal heat wave worsens
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- A heat wave peaking Wednesday across Southern California sent L.A. valleys into triple-digit territory.
- The heat and dry vegetation are elevating wildfire danger, with forecasters warning that any spark could spread quickly.
With a heat wave expected to peak in Southern California on Wednesday, firefighters were battling a brush fire in Santa Clarita that was threatening homes.
The Pointe fire started just after 1:40 p.m. near the 21300 block of Centre Pointe Parkway. A second-alarm response was requested by the Los Angeles County Fire Department about 2:08 p.m., the department said on X.
Some areas near the fire were under evacuation warnings. The fire was burning on a hillside near homes and some businesses.
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Meanwhile, the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for L.A. County’s Interstate 5 corridor and the Ventura County mountains into Thursday morning, warning that strong winds and hot temperatures would combine to create the potential for critical fire weather conditions.
Heat advisories were issued for most of the L.A. region, outside of coastal areas, with temperatures as much as 15 degrees above normal, according to NWS meterologists. The temperature in downtown L.A. reached a scorching 94 degrees, 4 degrees shy of the 1886 record, according to the service.
Triple-digit heat hit L.A.’s valleys on Wednesday — above normal but just shy of record-breaking. In Woodland Hills, temperatures maxed out at 107 degrees, 5 degrees below the record from 1978, weather service data show
The heat combined with a surge of monsoonal moisture to create sticky conditions, with humidity levels of 50% to 55% in downtown Los Angeles, Wofford said.
“We’ve had quite a few readings of 100, 105, 106 across the San Fernando Valley, kind of in the foothills, even near Monrovia. ... Downtown we were in the 90s, and along the coast we were a bit cooler, in the high 70s,” said Kristan Lund, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. “These temperatures were anywhere from 8 to 15 degrees above normal for this time of year, and we’ve also been having warm overnight lows.”
“That’s definitely one of the factors with the heat risk, is the warmer overnight temperatures,” said meterologist Bryan Sinclair of the weather service.
The humidity typically means that conditions don’t cool as much at night, with many areas reporting nighttime lows in the high 60s to around 70 degrees, he said. That can prolong the stress that heat places on the human body, depriving people of a chance to recover.
Amid the heat wave, people should try to remain hydrated and stay indoors in air conditioning and out of direct sunlight during the warmest parts of the day, he said.
Despite the humidity in valley areas, vegetation is relatively dry as the region heads into its peak fire season, and any ignition could quickly take off, especially in areas experiencing gusty, drying winds, Wofford said.
Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and other Orange County towns are cracking down on elaborate shade coverings, citing safety issues.
An extreme heat warning was in effect until 8 p.m. Thursday for the Santa Barbara south coast and mountains, where sundowner winds could gust to 35 to 50 mph in the evening and bring temperatures into the 90s along the coast and the triple digits in the foothills, according to the weather service.
The winds blow down the southern slopes of the Santa Ynez Mountains, rapidly warming and drying the air. As a result, temperatures along the southern coast of Santa Barbara were expected to reach 15 to 20 degrees above normal Wednesday evening, Sinclair said. By Thursday evening, coastal temperatures were expected to cool into the 60s.
Amid concerns about fire risk, the Los Angeles County Fire Department pre-deployed 15 fire engines, four water tenders, four hand crews, two bulldozers and additional dispatch personnel, according to a news release from county Supervisor Kathryn Barger.
The Santa Barbara County Fire Department also stepped up staffing, adding a hand crew, strike team, water tender, helicopter, bulldozer and an extra dispatcher in its dispatch center, said Mike Gray, a public information officer. The extra resources were placed throughout the county at 8 a.m. Wednesday and will be available through 8 a.m. Friday, he said.
Amid such a widespread red flag warning, Gray said, “we always try to get additional resources upstaffed and staged and ready to respond in case something does happen.”
Temperatures are expected to return to nearly normal by Friday, Wofford said.
Although it’s unclear to what extent climate change is influencing this particular heat wave, scientists have found that global warming from the burning of fossil fuels is making Western heat waves more frequent, persistent, humid and lethal.
Times staff writer Seamus Bozeman contributed to this report.
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