A fast-moving California fire has forced authorities to evacuate part of a 5,000-person jail in Los Angeles County.
The Hughes Fire, which broke out Wednesday afternoon in Castaic, is 0 percent contained and has already burned nearly 9,300 acres, according to Cal Fire.
Despite the 4,000 firefighters battling the inferno, swiftly advancing flames forced more than 50,000 out of the area, including nearly 500 Pitchess Detention Center inmates, according to L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna.
A sheriff watches flames race up the hill as the plume of smoke from the Hughes Fire fills the sky in Castaic, a northwestern neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, on January 22, 2025. (FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
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The Pitches Detention Center has three different facilities, one of which was already evacuated at fire officials’ recommendation, according to Luna.
The inmates were moved to another facility on the jail’s campus. If those facilities are deemed unsafe, the department will be tasked with moving more than 4,500 inmates.
“The other two campuses are structured much better than the one that we evacuated from,” Luna said. “We do have a plan in place to evacuate the rest of the inmates in the entire facility, if we absolutely had to.”
A vehicle rides past a hillside engulfed in flames caused by the Hughes Fire in Castaic, Calf., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
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The L.A. County Public Defender’s Union, Los Angeles People’s City Council and Justice LA posted to social media advocating for the evacuation of Pitchess inmates.
“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 entrusted to their care,” the public defender’s union wrote in a statement posted on X.
“We are deeply alarmed by the imminent risk this disaster poses to the health and safety of our clients,” the union wrote. “They must not be neglected or abandoned during this critical moment.”
The people’s council publicly accused officials of “waiting until the last minute,” claiming authorities would not have enough buses to evacuate inmates concurrently.
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The California National Guard announced all eight MAFFS (Modular Aerial Firefighting System) aircraft in the U.S., including two from the state guard, were launched to fight the Hughes Fire.
The California Guard’s 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 whatever it needs to extinguish this fire,” Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote in a post on X.
