Woolsey Fire Grows, Two Reported Dead
The Woolsey Fire has forced the mandatory evacuation of more than 200,000 people in Los Angeles County. In Ventura County, another 95,000 were out of their homes Saturday morning from the Hill Fire and the Woolsey Fire, both brush fires that broke out on Thursday around 2 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., respectively. Highway 101 remained closed to both north and south from Reyes Adobe Road in Agoura Hills to Valley Circle Boulevard in Westlake Village, Caltrans District 7 reported on Saturday morning. See the Caltrans Quick Map for up-to-date closure information, which included Highway 1 at Pt. Mugu this morning.
L.A. County Sheriffs stated two bodies discovered in the Mulholland area of the Woolsey Fire were being investigated, but the cause of death had not been determined. As of Friday, the fire had reached homes by the sea; altogether 150 homes were reported destroyed in L.A. and Ventura counties. Woolsey’s acreage total has reached 70,000, CalFire reported.
The acreage on the Hill Fire was backed off from 10,000 acres to 4,500 by Ventura County Fire on Friday, with 25 percent containment. No fatalities or injuries have been reported in the Hill Fire, but the community of Thousand Oaks, near where the Hill Fire broke out, remains in shock and mourning over the mass shooting deaths of 12 people Wednesday night at the Borderline Bar & Grill.
Lighter winds were forecast for the burn zone, which has reached the Pacific Coast Highway after 50 mile-an-hour winds pushed the Woolsey across the 101 on Thursday to race through the Santa Monica Mountains to the sea. From Malibu to Simi Valley, communities are under mandatory evacuation orders. Santa Ana winds are forecast to return Sunday morning through Tuesday morning.
A fire briefing is scheduled for Saturday morning to transition Woolsey to CalFire as a Type 1 incident. The Hill Fire remains under joint Ventura County Fire and CalFire command.
