Thousands of Southern California residents fled their homes on Monday night after wildfires engulfed Ventura County and the northern edge of Los Angeles.
The Santa Ana winds pushed toward the city of Santa Paula, threatening the community that is about 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles, too. Residents in Ventura, Santa Paula and Ojai have all been evacuated as well, according to The Associated Press.
Videos and photos of the devastating blaze quickly made their way to social media. Hashtags #ThomasFire, #CreekFire and #Venture trended nationally on Tuesday morning.
No deaths have been reported yet. According to The Associated Press, "after initial reports of a fatality, county fire Capt. Steve Kaufmann said a dead dog but no person was found in an overturned car."
Thousands of families left their homes, and many left in the dark.
The Thomas fire flames burned through 31,000 acres, which is about 48.4 miles, according to USA Today. Close to 150 structures were destroyed in the blaze.
The fire spread quickly, pushed by heavy east winds toward the west," Chief Mark Lorenzen of Ventura County Fire Department told USA Today. Were basically leapfrogging our engines doing structure defense as the fire proceeds."
Ventura County Sheriff Jeff Dean said on Monday that he hopes more people will listen to emergency warnings to leave their homes.
"We urge you, you must abide by these evacuation notices," he said, according to NPR. "We saw the disasters and the losses that happened up north in Sonoma and this is a fast, very dangerous moving fire."
The Santa Ana winds pushed toward the city of Santa Paula, threatening the community that is about 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles, too. Residents in Ventura, Santa Paula and Ojai have all been evacuated as well, according to The Associated Press.
Videos and photos of the devastating blaze quickly made their way to social media. Hashtags #ThomasFire, #CreekFire and #Venture trended nationally on Tuesday morning.
No deaths have been reported yet. According to The Associated Press, "after initial reports of a fatality, county fire Capt. Steve Kaufmann said a dead dog but no person was found in an overturned car."
Thousands of families left their homes, and many left in the dark.
The Thomas fire flames burned through 31,000 acres, which is about 48.4 miles, according to USA Today. Close to 150 structures were destroyed in the blaze.
The fire spread quickly, pushed by heavy east winds toward the west," Chief Mark Lorenzen of Ventura County Fire Department told USA Today. Were basically leapfrogging our engines doing structure defense as the fire proceeds."
Ventura County Sheriff Jeff Dean said on Monday that he hopes more people will listen to emergency warnings to leave their homes.
"We urge you, you must abide by these evacuation notices," he said, according to NPR. "We saw the disasters and the losses that happened up north in Sonoma and this is a fast, very dangerous moving fire."
