Wildfires sweep across homes north of Los Angeles forcing 50,000 evacuations – as firefighters battle a blaze in California’s wine region where an electrical fault may have started the inferno

Daily Mail

Los Angeles area residents ran for their lives on Thursday evening as wildfires, whipped up by strong winds,  reached residential neighborhoods, forcing 50,000 evacuations.

Two blazes are threatening LA, while another has taken hold in Sonoma County in California’s wine country, where 16,000 acres are burning. Two other fires are moving across the center of the state. 

Pacific Gas & Electric said it has discovered a problem with a transmission tower in Sonoma – but that it was too early to say if it was the cause of the blaze. The company had cut power in anticipation of high winds, but left live sections of high-voltage transmission lines, which were blamed for a series of deadly blazes that tore through the same area two years ago, killing 44 people.

This morning, as fire crew battled to contain the fires, it was revealed that six homes had burned down in Los Angeles and 49 buildings had been ravaged by the flames near the wine country town of Geyserville in northern California.

The threat of hot, dry, winds driving flames far and wide was met with fleets of aircraft and hundreds of firefighters on the ground, who tried to protect homes where backyards were surrounded by trees and brush.

Until now, the focus of California’s wildfire season had been on power outages that utilities said were necessary to stop high winds over the coming days from toppling power lines and starting fires. But the season kicked into higher gear Thursday with the arrival of the new raging fires on the back of 70mph gusts.

The Los Angeles canyon communities are facing two fires, including the Tick fire, named after Tick Canyon Road where the fire started north of the state’s largest city, forcing the evacuations.

The fires swept through dry brush to the edge of communities in the Santa Clarita area on Thursday, and the Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl Osby said there is currently no containment of either blaze.

The flames are fed by dry winds that are predicted to strengthen across the region.

The threat of hot, dry, winds driving flames far and wide was met with fleets of aircraft and hundreds of firefighters on the ground, who tried to protect homes where backyards were surrounded by trees and brush.

Until now, the focus of California’s wildfire season had been on power outages that utilities said were necessary to stop high winds over the coming days from toppling power lines and starting fires. But the season kicked into higher gear Thursday with the arrival of the new raging fires on the back of 70mph gusts.

The Los Angeles canyon communities are facing two fires, including the Tick fire, named after Tick Canyon Road where the fire started north of the state’s largest city, forcing the evacuations.

The fires swept through dry brush to the edge of communities in the Santa Clarita area on Thursday, and the Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl Osby said there is currently no containment of either blaze.

The flames are fed by dry winds that are predicted to strengthen across the region.

Read the rest and see the pics here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7609231/Hundreds-evacuated-massive-wildfire-spreads-rapidly-Northern-California-70mph-winds.html