Creek fire near Sylmar expected to be fully contained by midnight
Fire officials said they expect full containment of the Creek fire, which has scorched more than 15,000 acres east of Sylmar, by the end of the day Saturday.
The blaze has been 98% contained since Thursday, with 37 firefighters still working on suppression repair on Saturday morning, officials with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. Around 1,700 firefighters were involved at the peak of the battle.
Bonnie Barling, a weather specialist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard, said wind speeds in the San Fernando Valley are expected to remain under 8 mph Saturday and Sunday. Humidity in the region is expected to hover between 10 and 15% in the hills, she said.
The wind-whipped fire, which started Dec. 5, destroyed more than 60 homes and burned 15,619 acres. Three firefighters sustained minor injuries.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Just after the blaze started, witnesses reported seeing a snapped steel power pylon on a high-voltage transmission tower in Little Tujunga Canyon that sent sparks flying.
A spokesman for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which owns the pylon, said that there was no break in the line and that fire investigators had not said any of the utility’s equipment was suspected in the fire.
The blaze killed 29 horses in padlocked stalls at Rancho Padilla in Sylmar. The family said they awoke to flames and were instructed by a fire crew to leave. The Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control is investigating the deaths.
Meanwhile, the Thomas fire, which has burned 273,400 acres across Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, was 65% contained Saturday morning. More than 2,500 firefighters remain on the scene of the blaze, which has destroyed more than 1,000 structures and on Friday became California’s largest wildfire on record.
UPDATES:
3:35 p.m.: This article was updated with new information from the National Weather Service.
This article was originally posted at 1 p.m.
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