A new wildfire that broke out north of Los Angeles rapidly spread to more than 38 square km, fueled by strong winds and dry brush, forcing mandatory evacuation orders for more than 31,000 people.
The Hughes fire about 80 km north of Los Angeles further taxed firefighters in the region who have managed to bring two major fires in the metropolitan area largely under control.
In just a few hours on Wednesday the new fire grew to two-thirds the size of the Eaton Fire, one of the two monster conflagrations that have ravaged the Los Angeles area.
Some 31,000 people were under mandatory evacuation orders and another 23,000 face evacuation warnings, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said.
Since the two fires broke out on January 7, they have burned an area nearly the size of Washington, D.C., killed 28 people and damaged or destroyed nearly 16,000 structures.
