LOS ANGELES (AP) — Fierce winds stoked several small fires across Southern California on Saturday, forcing 260 residents and hospital patients to evacuate at a military base, causing a key freeway junction to shut down and damaging cars and homes.
A fire at the Marine Corps’ Camp Pendleton forced 230 residents to evacuate from a housing unit near Lake O’Neil and caused minor damage to four buildings, base officials said. Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton was not threatened, but a power outage prompted officials to evacuate about 30 patients to nearby hospitals and stop accepting patients.
The blaze charred about 1,000 acres.
The powerful Santa Ana winds kicked up late Friday; a National Weather Service red flag warning of extreme fire danger for the entire region says they will continue through this evening.
The weather service called the situation the region’s “most significant fire weather threat in the past five years.”
Temperatures were unseasonably high, reaching in the 90s in many coastal communities, with humidity levels in the single digits.
