While the crews beat King’s fire near Lake Pyramid, the Falcon fire with the wind wins in force

After Flames spread spectacularly around Highway 5 near Gorman early Thursday – forcing brief interstate closures near the vine and destroying two unoccupied VRs – the firefighters began to understand the King’s fire in the afternoon.

Evacuation warnings and shelter orders on Tejon pass have remained in force, but fire managers reported that 20% of the 577 acres fire confinement at 1 p.m. with minimum fire growth, according to officials. Two lanes north of Highway 5 remained closed between the Smokey Bear and Vista Del Lago roads for the emergency response, and motorists have been warned to expect delays.

The King Fire, which started just after 1 a.m. in the east of Highway 5 near Smokey Bear Road and north of Pyramid Lake, reached nearly 500 acres in a few hours, according to an US Forest Service update. The officials said that the fire was dangerously fast early Thursday, when the winds were blowing almost 30 mi / h, pushing the fire south towards the Vista del Lago road, according to the update. Flames threatened to jump several times Highway 5, which prompted the managers to temporarily close all the roads of the highway at least twice.

Evacuation warnings have been issued for areas around Hungry Valley, Paradise Ranch and Gorman. A shelter prescription on site was made for the Pyramid Lake RV Park.

The fire triggered in the middle of the raised fire conditions, the afternoon winds which should strike up to 20 mi / h through the hills covered by Chaparral already dried up, according to the National Weather Service.

Temperatures around the fire had to reach the 90s on Thursday, and relative humidity was to fall below 20%, said a meteorologist in the meteorological service based in Oxnard.

The firefighters bordered the closed tracks of the highway north while the helicopters above the head continued with water and delaying drops.

A second fire, nicknamed the Hawk Fire, broke out in the north of the County of Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon, with flames near Acton passing rapidly to around 50 acres in a few minutes, according to the National Forest of Angeles. It was not immediately clear the extent of the danger of the new fire, but officials of the national forest said that there was an “threat of immediate structure”.

The officials said that the crews “fought aggressively against fire” from the ground and the air, with additional support on the way, said an update.

The staff editor, Joseph Serna, contributed to this report.