{"id":324112,"date":"2026-05-20T05:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T05:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/324112\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T05:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T05:46:08","slug":"raging-wildfires-churn-through-dry-brush-in-southern-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/324112\/","title":{"rendered":"Raging wildfires churn through dry brush in Southern California"},"content":{"rendered":"

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (AP) \u2014 More than 17,000 people were under evacuation orders in Southern California on Tuesday as a wildfire threatened suburban homes.<\/p>\n

The wind-driven Sandy Fire<\/a> was reported Monday in the hills above Simi Valley, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles. <\/p>\n

By Tuesday morning, it had consumed more than two square miles (five square kilometers) of dry brush and destroyed at least one home<\/a>, according to the Ventura County Fire Department.<\/p>\n

The flames were initially pushed by gusts that topped 30 mph (48 kph), but firefighters were aided by calmer winds overnight, said department spokesperson Andrew Dowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve made a lot of progress against this fire with those improved weather conditions,\u201d Dowd said. Crews hoped to make further progress before winds increased again, he said.<\/p>\n

The fire was 5% contained. The cause is under investigation. <\/p>\n

Evacuation orders and warnings were still in place for several neighborhoods in Simi Valley, a city of more than 125,000 people that was shrouded in smoke as aircraft made water drops. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, firefighters were battling a 23-square-mile (59-square-kilometer) blaze on Santa Rosa Island, off the Southern California coast. The fire destroyed a cabin and an equipment shed and forced the evacuation of 11 National Park Service employees. <\/p>\n

There was no containment as of Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

Santa Rosa, a popular destination for camping and hiking, is home to island foxes, spotted skunks and elephant seals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (AP) \u2014 More than 17,000 people were under evacuation orders in Southern California on Tuesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[105160,565,7,9,8,20,5881,175,18,47,17,535],"class_list":["post-324112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-andrew-dowd","tag-ap-top-news","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-climate","tag-climate-and-environment","tag-fires","tag-general-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-u-s-news","tag-wildfires"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}