Fire rages near north LA New wildfire near north LA —AP

Agencies CASTAIC (California)

A new wildfire that broke out north of Los Angeles on Wednesday rapidly spread to more than 9,400 acres (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, sent huge flames and plumes of smoke over a hilly area and further taxed firefighters 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.

The affected area was not as populated as those blazes, said a spokesperson for the firefighters, Matthew Van Hagen. "It's more sparsely populated. However, out here, we are dealing with high winds, which we also saw with the other fires, along with ... a very receptive fuel bed and steep topography again," he said, as firefighters battled the fire into the night.

Officials warned people in the Castaic Lake area of Los Angeles County that they faced "immediate threat to life”, while much of Southern California remained under a red-flag warning for extreme fire risk due to strong, dry winds.