Photo: Charles O ' Rear / Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Multiple brush fires broke out across Southern California on Thursday as powerful Santa Ana winds and hot, dry weather pushed fire danger to critical levels, prompting evacuation orders in Malibu and Azusa and precautionary power shutoffs that left tens of thousands of customers without electricity.
Bryson Fire races through Malibu hills
The Bryson Fire ignited around 4:40 p.m. near Mulholland Highway and Encinal Canyon Road in Malibu and grew rapidly. Local fire and news reports said it had exceeded 100 acres within a few hours and later put the burn area near 200 acres overnight, with zero containment reported as strong northeast winds continued.
Evacuation orders covered designated zones in the Santa Monica Mountains, and warnings were issued for a wider ring of neighbourhoods. Officials said the blaze threatened a Los Angeles County juvenile detention and rehabilitation facility near Encinal Canyon; detainees and staff were told to shelter in place while crews worked the fire line.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass directed the city fire department to pre-position personnel and equipment ahead of the winds, and the department requested help from the state’s Office of Emergency Services.
Azusa, Camp Pendleton and other blazes
Separately, the Peak Fire in Azusa, north of Los Angeles, burned more than 40 acres in the San Gabriel Mountains foothills and triggered door-to-door evacuations in the Mountain Cove community before orders were later downgraded to warnings and then lifted as firefighters stopped the fire’s forward progress. An evacuation centre was opened at Memorial Park Recreation Center in Azusa, and Highway 39 was closed at Sierra Madre during the response.
At Camp Pendleton near San Diego, another wind-driven fire grew into the hundreds of acres, prompting temporary evacuations in the Las Flores area and a partial closure of Interstate 5. A smaller brush fire in Tujunga burned about an acre without threatening structures, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Utilities cut power as Red Flag warnings hold
Pacific Gas and Electric reported that nearly 62,000 customers across 26 counties in Northern and Central California lost power after precautionary shutoffs began Wednesday night, with later updates putting the outage tally near 80,000. The utility said roughly 90,000 customers across 29 counties had been notified they could lose service through Saturday afternoon as hot, dry and windy conditions persisted from the Central Coast to the Sierra Nevada foothills.
In Southern California, Edison said about 65,000 customers in Los Angeles, Kern and Ventura counties were without power on Thursday and that further public-safety shutoffs could affect more than 200,000 customers, including about 105,000 in Ventura County. The City of Malibu warned residents that Southern California Edison circuits in central and western Malibu were among those considered for shutoffs.
Why it matters
The National Weather Service issued Red Flag Warnings through Saturday evening in parts of Southern California, forecasting wind speeds of 20 to 40 mph with mountain gusts of 50 to 70 mph or higher and humidity falling into the single digits. Meteorologist Rose Schoenfeld said the elevated fire weather was “pretty widespread” across the region.
The outbreak comes less than two years after the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, when the Palisades and Eaton fires killed dozens of people and destroyed thousands of homes. Forecasters said the current Santa Ana event is not expected to match that intensity, but warned that any new ignition could still spread rapidly under hot, dry winds. Residents have been told to know their evacuation zones, keep vehicles fuelled and follow local alerts through the weekend.
