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A fast-moving fire in California forced authorities to evacuate part of a 5,000-person prison in Los Angeles County.
The Hughes Fire, that broke out Wednesday afternoon in Castaic, is 0 percent contained and has already burned nearly 9,300 acres, according to Cal Fire.
Despite 4,000 firefighters battling the inferno, the fast-spreading blaze forced more than 50,000 people from the area, including nearly 500 Pitchess Detention Center inmate, according to LA County Sheriff Robert Luna.
A sheriff watches flames race up a hill as a plume of smoke from the Hughes Fire fills the sky in Castaic, northwest Los Angeles, California, on January 22, 2025. (FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
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Pitches Detention Center has three different facilities, one of which has already been evacuated fire officials‘ recommendation, says Luna.
The prisoners were moved to another facility on the prison campus. If those facilities are deemed unsafe, the department will be tasked with relocating more than 4,500 inmates.
“The other two campuses are structured much better than the one we evacuated from,” Luna said. “We have a plan to evacuate other inmates throughout the facility, if we have to.”
Inmates were among those on the front lines, preparing to help firefighters battle the blaze, according to FOX 11 LA affiliate.
Volunteers lined up to fight the fire in a coordinated manner.
“It’s been a ride, that’s for sure,” Damien Brown, an inmate who also helped fight the Palisades Fire, told FOX 11.[The most heartbreaking part] is to see all the people’s houses burning, all the unrest, just thinking about their displacement.”
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LA County Union of Public DefendersThe Los Angeles People’s City Council and Justice LA posted on social media advocating the evacuation of the Pitchess inmate.
“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 defenders union wrote in a statement released on X.
“We are deeply concerned about the immediate danger this disaster poses to the health and safety of our customers,” the union wrote. “They must not be neglected or abandoned at this critical time.”
A vehicle drives past a hill engulfed in flames from the Hughes Fire in Castaic, Calf., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
The People’s Council publicly accused officials of “waiting until the last minute,” claiming that authorities would not have enough buses to evacuate prisoners at the same time.
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The California National Guard announced that all eight MAFFS (Modular Aerial Firefighting System) aircraft in the US, including two from the state guard, have been launched to fight the Hughes Fire.
The California Guard MAFFS are based at the 146th Airlift Wing, Channel Islands Air National Guard Station in Port Hueneme, while the other six aircraft are pre-positioned there in response to the Palisades and Eaton fires.
“We will continue to closely monitor the situation and provide the federal government with everything necessary to fight this fire,” Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote in a post on X.
