The fire broke out around noon on Friday, local time, in dry, scorching conditions in a sparsely populated area 70 kilometers northeast of Los Angeles. The temperature in the area is around 38 degrees.
By evening, the flames had already consumed more than 1,000 hectares of land, according to representatives of the protected wilderness area, Angeles National Forest. Several buildings and properties are threatened.
A heat wave is raging across much of the United States. The heat is caused by an unusually strong and long-lasting heat dome - a weather phenomenon where a “lid” in the atmosphere traps and presses down warm air - which increases the risk of wildfires.
This weekend, temperatures are expected to be up to 14 degrees above normal in some places.
