A fast-moving fire in California has forced officials to evacuate part of a 5,000-person prison. Los Angeles County.
The Hughes Fire in Castaic Wednesday afternoon is 0 percent contained and has already burned about 9,300 acres, according to Cal Fire.
Despite 4,000 firefighters battling the blaze, the fast-growing flames forced the evacuation of more than 50,000 people, including about 500 inmates at the Twenty-Five Detention Center, according to LA County Sheriff Robert Luna. are
A sheriff watches flames race up a hillside as plumes of smoke fill the sky from the Hughes Fire in the Castaic neighborhood northwest of Los Angeles, California, on January 22, 2025. (FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
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According to Luna, Pitches Detention Center has three different facilities, one of which had already been evacuated at the recommendation of fire officials.
The inmates were moved to another facility on the prison campus. If those facilities are deemed unsafe, the department will be tasked with moving more than 4,500 inmates.
“The other two campuses are much better than what we pulled out of,” Luna said. “We have plans to evacuate the remaining inmates throughout the facility, if we have to at all.”
According to affiliate FOX 11 LA, the inmates were among those on the front lines, ready to help firefighters battle the blaze.
Volunteers lined up to put out the fire at the battle site in a coordinated fashion.
“It’s been a ride, that’s for sure,” Damian Brown, an inmate who also helped fight the Palisades Fire, told Fox 11.[The most heartbreaking part] Seeing all the people’s houses burning, all the commotion, just thinking about their displacement.”
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The LA County Public Defenders Union, the Los Angeles People’s City Council and Justice LA posted on social media advocating for the evacuation of twenty-five inmates.
“We demand that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the Sheriff’s Department take immediate action to protect the lives of the thousands of inmates in their care,” the Public Defenders Union wrote in a statement posted on X. .
“We are deeply concerned about the risk this disaster poses to the health and safety of our clients,” the union wrote. “They should not be neglected or abandoned during this critical moment.”
A vehicle engulfed in flames from the Hughes Fire drives over a hillside in Castaic, Calif., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swiep)
The People’s Council publicly accused officials of “waiting until the last minute” and claimed that authorities would not have enough buses to evacuate prisoners at once.
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The California National Guard announced that all eight MAFFS (Modular Aerial Firefighting System) aircraft in the U.S., including two from the State Guard, have been deployed to fight the Hughes fire.
The California Guard’s MAFFS 146th Airlift Wing is based at the Channel Islands Air National Guard Station in Port Hueneme, while six other aircraft were already there responding to the Palisades and Eaton Fires.
“We will continue to monitor the situation closely and provide whatever resources the federal government needs to fight this fire,” Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote in a post on X.
