This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand on the iHeartRadio ANPP.
We have another fast moving fire that is expanding pretty quickly. This is up in the Castaic Lake area, right off of Lake Hughes Road. There have already been a couple of evacuation warnings that have been sent out.
If funer.
Castake Lake is right alongside I five as it heads north up towards the Grapevine. The fire itself is said to be on both sides of Lake Hughes Road, and as of right now, the evacuation warning areas are basically the entire perimeter of Castaic Lake over towards I five down into the four Bay area. So there's a bunch of homes, some of the businesses right there in Castaic on the right side the east side of the freeway
that are under evacuation warnings as of now. They said that there is considered to be a pretty rapid rate of spread. It's simply fifty to one hundred acres as of a few minutes ago, and they are requesting at least four air tankers. Again, the Hughes fire burning on both sides of Lake Hughes Road, just to the northeast of Castaic Lake. If you're on I five, you're headed north or you're coming into La headed south, you're going to see this smoke.
It is pretty significant and will cover I five.
The smoke will cover I five over the course of the next couple of hours.
Probably, would you like your Jeopardy question before we dive into the flurry of activity going on in Washington? Winners for one thousand dollars. In nineteen ninety three, she became the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature.
Uh what year?
Ninety three?
Maya Angelou?
Yeah, Tony Morrison.
There were three may Angelou, Alice Walker, Tony Moore, and we're going to be the three that I was gonna choose.
Well, okay, next time you can just we can do multiple choice.
If you'd like. Okay, that would be great. Again.
We will keep an eye on the hues fire burning up northern La County right alongside a Casteak Lake. Looks like they've updated one of those evacuation warnings into an evacuation order. This will be a BA on the northern sections of Casteak Lake. There's not a lot out there, so there's not a lot of people to evacuate. But if you're in that Casteak Lake State Recreation Area north of the lake, they are. They have upgraded that to an evacuation order, which means you.
Got to get out, all right.
Well, the president's decision to pardon just f and part on them all is still getting a lot of reaction, shall we say, on Capitol Hill in the lake is where we kick off swamp.
Watch politician, which means I'm a cheat and a liar. And when I'm not kissing babies, I'm still in their lollipops.
Yeah, we got The real problem is that our leaders are done.
The other side never quits what.
I'm not going anywhere.
So that is how you train the swat.
I can imagine what can be and be unburdened by what has been. You know, Americans have always been gone at present.
They're not stupid.
A political flunder is when a politician actually tells the truth.
Whether people voted for you werena swap watch, They're all counted on.
I said this earlier and I stand by it. I do believe that there was too much too many details going on to take all of these January sixth rioters or protesters, whatever you want to call them, on a case by case basis. I think that everyone kind of comes down on the idea that if you attacked police officers that day, you should not be pardoned, especially violent attacks. But that was not the case. There was just too
much to go through. I think for a president who has no tension span to take things case by case, it's onerous. It takes a long time. But anyway, you meant at the time when we were talking about this earlier that now all the people who have been pardoned, especially the people who carried out violence on police officers, kind of have a giant arrow pointing to their head as they move forward in their lives by media outlets
or what have you. Let's not forget law enforcement. In fact, the first person has already been a victim of this, shall we say, I don't like to call them victims, but has fallen to this way of thinking. This was a defendant from January sixth, whose felony assault charges were dismissed yesterday. He has now been arrested on federal gun charges today. They have been pending for nearly two years
in Florida. His name is Danielle or Daniel Ball, excuse me, one of the hundreds charged with violence aimed at police, and he was pardoned. His charges were dismissed because of President Trump. More than a thousand people were pardoned well. He was being held in preach trial detention in DC because of what a magistrate judge described as some of the most violent and serious offenses of any of the
charges being brought against people there. January sixth, He's charged with hurling an explosive device into the Lower West Terrace, which was packed in that tunnel of the capital. The explosion, the magistrate judge says, allegedly disoriented officers caused hearing loss. Some of the officers had this hearing loss for months. He threw a large piece of wood into the line of officers protecting the capital. He was a felon in possession of a firearm.
And by the way, this is whether the President decided to do this at last minute or not. He's going to get heat from his own party. He doesn't care. Clearly he doesn't care. But there are Republican lawmakers who have come out. Jerry Moran Republican senator out of Kansas. It's wrong to pardon individuals convicted of violent crime, especially if many of the victims were law enforcement officers. Bill Cassidy, Republican Louisiana. It's not right people who assault police officers.
If they do the crime, they should do the time. Lisa Murkowski, SU's in Collins. More moderate members of the Republican Party said that they do not support pardons for people convicted of violent crimes. Tom Tillis out of North Carolina. These are some of the more conservative though. He had concerns with any pardon for people who do harm to a police officer full stop, and said the pardon of anybody committed who committed violence against an officer is a
bad idea. Mitch McConnell, no one should excuse violence, and particularly violence against police officers.
He's going to have to answer.
I think the President is going to be asked about some of these specific offenders and the violence that they are accused of and in many places, many times convicted of perpetrating against police officers, the specifics, and I don't know how he gets away from these.
Listen.
I know the January sixth Committee did away with the evidence. And but we're talking about people who are convicted in courts of law, not in Congress. Some of them may have been brought up and testified before Congress, but we're talking about people who who were convicted in courts of law, and in many cases simply admitted to their behavior, admitted to what they did, and they were still pardoned. This Hue fire, by the way, burning near Castaic is now
up over five hundred acres. That was quick and it's not going to be out anytime soon. This Hughes fire is burning at Lake Hughes Road and Dry Gulch Road.
It is sort of just north east of Castaic Lake.
The smoke plume from this thing is making its way all the way out to the coast. It is over I five as you head north up towards the Grapevine. It's going to be visible very very for a very large distance. We know that they have already asked for at least four Now they're saying an additional eight helicopters have been asked for fires about five hundred acres with a continued rapid rate of spread, burning to the west
with strong winds. Incident Command says that there is one evacuation order area and that is right around Casteak Lake, basically the borders of Casteak Lake. If you're in that area, you know what's going on. This is Lake Hughes area. That is that it's encroaching upon cast Diak. It's Lake Hughes Road, right.
Because Lake Hughes is right underneath or Casteak Lake is right underneath Lake Hughes, right, correct.
But Hughes is up.
Isn't it farther up into the mountains, right? But isn't it it's coming towards Castile. Oh, it's coming towards Castagk I got it.
Okay, Yeah, And that is I mean, like I said, there's not a lot of homes on the north and east side of Casteak Lake, but there are a bunch along the west side between the lake and I five, and those those areas between the lake and I five for the most part, that's evacuation warned.
Tailor place Martens.
Yeah, some of those, some of those homes that are in that area, you might want to be paying a time to what's going on. Maybe get ready, But the evacuation order is only for the northern side for the most part. Those two arms, the northern arms of Castaic Lake. But it's getting bigger and there are a handful of things that could burn pretty significantly. So anyway, Hughes fire five hundred plus acres north of Casteak Reservoir Casteak Lake and moving to the west, is.
What they're saying right now. So we'll keep an eye on this.
It has taken off. Evacuation warnings have been issued Bitter Canyon, Charlie Canyon, Castaic Lake as well.
Just about every area immediately bordering Castaic Lake is now under an evacuation order, and that includes the area between the lake and I five, so the Martins Naylor Place area, and as you get closer down towards the dam and the Castake Lagoon. There is at least one elementary school that is in that area, the North Lake Hills Elementary School, and there's a series of neighborhoods that are down there also that are likely going to be under evacuation orders.
This smoke is clearly visible. If you're in the Santa Clarita Valley, you can see it. We've also gotten some calls from people who said they can see it as far away as the four or five one eighteen intersection on the of San Fernando Valley side of the hills.
Rapid rate of spread. There are what's being described as heavy spotting. You know what that means, a number of spot fires aside from the major ignition point there. This thing has taken off. I mean it was fifty acres and then it was five hundred.
Yeah, very very quick. We first got word of it just a short time ago. It was fifty to one hundred. It's gone up to five hundred plus. That number is going to likely it will likely expand pretty significantly. They said that the fire has reportedly spotted a cross castagg light to the west side of the l which is right near the Old Ridge Route road, will likely impact I five at some point. The smoke is clearly impacting I five, and you could see from some of the
from the firewatch cameras it that it has covered. It's not down to the level of the freeway. So traffic is still running right now on I five, but again, evacuation orders and warnings issued right around Castaic Lake. Everywhere immediately bordering the lake is currently under an evacuation order as of right now, and then several areas nearby are also under evacuation warnings. If you've gotten the alert, we've done this role. We've done this before, even people in
that area have done this before. Where if you are under the evacuation warning, the expectation is that you're going to be packed and ready to go. You do not have to wait for that order. Now you feel like you need to get out, you can absolutely get out.
Man.
If I learned anything from these fires, it's just don't even wait.
They had requested originally four helicopters. That request was bumped by eight more, so they're expecting a lot of air fight on this I guess. One of the positives is that it's pretty close to Lancaster, which is where they do run a lot of the larger air tankers out of.
It's a quick turnaround for them to get there and back.
Incident Command one minute ago requested evacuation orders from Lake Hughes Road to Templan Highway as well, so.
That's up farther to the north r SB cast Dick.
But again, this thing is pretty huge and is getting quicker as rapidly expanding. You mentioned Incident command and the evacuation zones. There are a couple of different ways that you can follow along, and we've talked about them before. At the beginning of the fires, we talked about the watch Duty app, which has been an invaluable resource not just for people who have been impacted by the fires,
but people looking for information about the fires. The other one is the Genesis app with an A, G, E, N A s YS Genesis that will help you figure out which evacuation zone you are in.
I mean they're names.
There's letters in the cas Bitter Canyon and Lace zero one six. I mean, it doesn't mean anything if I tell you that zone because very few people know what they're in. But you can find out very quickly which zone you're in. That will then alert you immediately if you're in a zone that needs to get out as
quickly as possible. The Hughes Fire burning on Lake Hughes Road near Castaic Lake and is burning towards the west towards the lake again some reports that there may be some spotting on the west side of the lake.
Already.
There's some neighborhoods along the west side of Castaic Lake before it gets to I five and those places are all under evacuation orders as of right now we.
Will stay on top of this fast moving fire. There. They're calling at the hues fire evacuations ordered, and this thing does not show any signs of slowing down anytime soon. We'll stay on top of it right here.
There were some other stories that were going on today, specifically one out of Nashville. A couple students were killed another student injured after a shooting inside a high school. There in one of the suburbs of Nashville, a couple students shot by another in the cafeteria.
It was a seventeen year old shooter that killed himself after shooting and killing a female student. Two others were injured there at Antioch High School. They're being treated at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. They say there were two school resource officers in the building when the shooting happened, but they were not in the immediate vicinity of the cafeteria where this all went down. By the time they got there, all the shooting had been stopped.
I'm counting about a dozen fixed wing and as many as seven helicopters over This fire that is burning near Castaic Lake is a pretty large fire, somewhere between five hundred and one thousand acres have burned in what they're calling the Hughes Fire. Fire itself started near Lake Hughes Road, which is just sorry, yeah, north and east of Castaic Lake.
The evacuation order area is the entire lake itself, the areas that immediately border the shoreline of the lake, and then an area just north of it as well that have been ordered evacuated. It goes basically from one side of Castaic Lake all the way to the west towards I five under evacuation orders right now, those.
Warnings are in place for like you were saying, a circular area. Basically every place in the media vicinity of Castaic Lake under mandatory evacuation orders, so Sloane Canyon, Charlie Canyon, Bitter Canyon, stretching nearly to Samberg if you know, the area on the north and as far east as far east of Green Valley.
So if you go up five and you get past sort of where the Hungry Valley off road area is. One thirty eight is the road that splits off to the east and goes out towards Lancaster, et cetera. The evacuation orders don't go all the way that far, but the warnings do go up to the one thirty eight, So this whole thing, the expectation is that it's going to get much larger before they have a chance to put this thing under control. The fire, the smoke itself.
We've been getting calls from people who have seen it way out the one twenty six. There's a couple shots on social media on Twitter already of buildings in downtown LA that they can see the smoke plume from this fire. It's that large, which on the one hand, is an indicator of how big the fire is, but on the other it means perhaps that the wind is not as dangerous as it could be.
Still blowing.
We're still under our red flag warning obviously, but compare that to what we saw in the Palisades fire when it started. That fire didn't rise very high because the wind was blowing its so quickly. Once it would get into the into the sky.
This thing went from fifty acres to five hundred like that. It's got quite the rum way, a lot of area to chow through there for this fire.
But yeah, like you.
Said, the winds are not what we saw. Just a lot of fuel up there as well.
To give you an idea. Again.
The evacuation orders are all around Castac Lake if you are anywhere close to the lake itself. Those neighborhoods that are kind of wedged between I five and the Castak Lagoon just below the dam, those are all under evacuation orders as of right now. Several businesses that are right there Alongstak Castak Road, the Old Ridge Route as it winds its way through Castak before going up the hill, all of those areas under evacuation order right now.
You see some DC tens up there, which is nice to see. You've also got a lot of lower flying aircraft dropping water on this as well that you're not going to see from the overhead pictures.
The winds in the area right now, they said current wind gusts right around thirty miles an hour in Castak Junction, but also in the Santa Clarita, the Greater Santa Clarita area. So they have not yet said that they are going to be closing I five, but it is going to be impacted clearly by the smoke from this fire. They just also expanded the evacuation warning areas to the west side.
Of I five.
Yeah, I see Gorman Well five Golden State. Gorman area has been issued a warning there. They're now saying that this thing is estimated about one thousand acres. So this is how quick it's moving.
Hughes Fire.
It's burning in Castaic Lake area along Lake Hughes Road, which goes from Castak up over the hill towards Lancaster. About halfway up that road is where this fire is believed to have started more than an hour ago. The evacuation orders exist around the entire lake of Castaic Lake
and then an outer perimeter there of evacuation warning. So basically from where this fire started on the east side of Castaic Lake all the way over to I five, even if you're on the west side of I five, you're currently under an evacuation warning.
Yeah, it would make sense since they were worried about that Sandberg area right there in the Lake Hughes templan Highway portion right there north of Castaic Lake, it would make sense that Gorman would be under a warning. I mean that's pretty close to the I five right there, Samberg area, it's close.
Enough, and there's one thirty eight nothing there to slow it down, right, So from Castaic Lake all the way to Pyramid Lake, our evacuation orders or warnings. Lake Hughes Road itself is closed in both directions. Hey, if you're up there, give us a shout.
Yeah, let us know.
In fact, if you can see this, why not give us a call at eight hundred five two zero one five three four eight hundred five to two oh one KFI. Keeping an eye on the Hughes fire burning near Casteak Lake, north of the Casteak Reservoir. That's their evacuation orders and
warnings have been issued again. We have advised many times to download that watch Duty app let let you know if you are in one of those evacuation warning or order areas, or even the Genesis app g e NA SYS, because those are two great apps that will keep you updated. We are keeping an eye on the Hughes fire. This is burning up in the Casteak Lake area. And as
we mentioned, the evacuation orders have expanded once again. And this is significant because the new evacuation orders are for the west side of I five along the Parker Road area Sloane Canyon Road. That's going to include a couple of schools, including Casteak High School. Also along the Hillcrest Parkway. If you know all those neighborhoods that are there just off of I five and the Old Road, the Cambridge area, in the Hasley Canyon Road area. That's a few thousand
people probably that that effects. So again, the evacuation orders because of this fire near Castagg Lake have expanded to the west side of I five. We've seen a bunch of people say that they can see the fire itself.
In fact, Matt is in Santa Clarita. He joins us. Now, Matt, what do you see?
Yeah, I see the mainly the planning front burning towards probably like northeast. I would say, you can see four six wing aircraft making Pauschek drops. Now, winds blowing mainly to the west southwest.
Do you get the idea that that's the direction the fire itself is going is to the west.
No, I think it's burning more towards the northeast. The winds are blowing the smoke.
To the south.
US They've shifted a little bit, you know, over the past ten or fifteen minutes, but predominantly they're going southwest.
Yeah, all right, yeah, go ahead.
No, I'm saying that the flames, just the flaming front seems to be moving more towards the northeast, and I count for fixed wing aircraft they can flash check drops right now on the flaming front. I can see flames from where I am, but the firefighters seem to be getting a pretty good hold hold on it. I mean, I'm not a firefighter, but I can I can see progress being made.
Yeah, they were quick to jump on that air attack there with several different of the smaller firefighting aircraft of flying lower to the ground there. The spot fires, while problematic, are not as problematic as when we saw the spot at least at this point when we saw the spot fires and the palisades, because every spot fire you saw when you're not in wild land is I don't know, a neighborhood, and so this is definitely steep and rocky
terrain they're dealing with. But for right now they've been able to contain this thing to that wild land area as they fight this thing from the sky. But yeah, five hundred acres presently they say, some estimates are up to one thousand. No containment obviously whatsoever. And they do have the big DC tens out there spreading that retardant trying to stop the spread of what seems to be a fire that just took off with a vengeance.
Eight hundred five to zero one five three four. Eric is in Santa Clarita as well. Eric, What do you have going on?
Yeah, we just pushed out from work where up by the one twenty six and Commerce Center Drive or what twenty sixth and Commerce Center Drive we left. The smoke was starting to head towards our building. So it's coming towards coming towards the one twenty sixth a little bit. The smoke was really bad. I saw the smoke started the change directing a little bit and exactly what map that I see the DC tents pulling off right now. I'm headed into I'm headed into San Franciscito right now.
It looks like it's still open. Some lust for that, Yeah, but there is a lot of white smoke to the other side, and so the that's right, they're attacking it really really well, a lot of white.
Smoke on that side that San Franciscito the other direction, yeap, Eric.
That San Franciscito that you're talking about it but does border one of the evacuation warning areas. As you get deeper up into the Bitter Canyon area out towards the old Saint Francis Dam, so just be aware of that. Again, the evacuation orders have expanded to the west side of I five, So if you are if you're along that's Sloan Canyon Road or the Hillcrest Drive. Chance this is our Hillcrest Parkway. I should say you are likely in
an evacuation order area. There's an elementary school and a middle school, Castak Elementary, Castaic Middle School, Castaic High School are all under those evacuation order areas. So those kids, I mean, listen, teachers, administrators, they know what they're doing because they have They've lived in fire country for a while. I do believe this is the first evacuation that Castaic High School has headed, because it's a newer multiple.
Schools right now as we speak, being evacuated. As you mentioned with those latest orders.
Candy is calling from Valencia. Candy, what do you see?
Well, I was at the pharmacy. Valencia is also on fire and nobody I can't find any reports. I'm in my car driving to work, but.
It's all black. To sack is not black.
It's white smoke. But it's supposed to be by Valencia High School.
Are you saying there is a fire near Valencia High School?
Yeah, and it's all black.
I think you may be seeing what we're talking about, this Hues fire.
There is no fire near Valencia right now. There's definitely a black sky near Valencia Industrial Center there, but yeah, no, this is the active fire that we're dealing with. The Hues fire there north and moving towards the east. It seems like of Castaic Lake. There several different communities along Eye five under warnings or mandatory evacuation orders as well.
They've got strike teams in these rural neighborhoods there. They were quick to order at least ten strike teams, ten task force units, a dozen of those water tenders that you're probably not going to see if you're watching aerial coverage because the smoke is so thick and so high up in the air and these fly relatively low to the ground. The water tenders, they are there, they are on the scene. They were ordered more than an hour ago.
You will see the DC tens, however, that keep a higher elevation as they try to blanket the unburned areas with retardant to kind of force this thing back onto itself.
Antonio is calling from Santa Clarita. Antonio, what do you see?
Uh? Yeah, I was coming into work and I gotta get off of McBean, like two exits before Magic Mountain and there's the hills like maybe half an hour a mile if that. They're starting to small puckets of fires or white smoke that I don't know if it's part of the bigger I could see the bigger fire beyond the ridge, but there's a it's definitely coming this way. The wind is blowing up McBean towards the I five, so it's bringing the smoke kind of this way towards
Santa Clarita area. So I don't know if the fire is traveling this way or that. It's like I would say half a mile if that from the Henry Mell Hospital.
Awesome, all right, Antonio, thanks for your report.
Awesome.
Well, I mean, well, I don't know how you even they have He mentioned one of the guys mentioned that he was at that industrial center that is along the one twenty six and I five and that is now under an evacuation warning, as is that whole Live Oak area of Valverde that's deeper into the Canyon there on the west side. All of those areas now under evacuation warnings or orders.
There is from the National Weather Service a high wind warning for the Santa Clarita Valley in effect from two this afternoon to ten pm this evening. They say a high wind warning in effect from ten this evening to two pm tomorrow. They say northeast winds and that's what we're seeing right fifteen to thirty miles per hour with GUS of forty five this evening GUS to fifty five for the high wind warning. After ten northeast winds thirty
five to fifty miles per hour GUS to sixty five. Again, this is for the Santa Clarida Valley and western Santa Monica Mountains wreck area.
As of right now, it still appears that I five, both directions through Castaic and points north, are open, but that could change because on both sides of the freeway right there in Castaic, especially right at the Parker Road exit, both sides of I five are under evacuation orders at Castaic, Parker Road, Lake Hughes Road. And again, I don't know how long I five is going to be open, but as of right now, it is open, so we will keep an eye on this again. The Hughes fire burning
up in the Castake Lake area. Several areas and several hundred homes and a few schools under evacuation orders.
Bridge Route Road now looks like it has spread to the west side of Ridge Route Road. This is definitely a fire to be concerned about, and we will stay on top of it bring you all the latest as it happens right here on Gary and Shannon.
You've been listening to the Gary and Shannon Show, you can always hear us live on kf I Am six forty nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.