As a devastating fire rages out of control in Ventura County, Southern California faces another day of high winds and dry conditions.

That is why firefighters throughout the region are on alert.

As of Thursday morning, the fire had burned 14,500 acres with no containment. Countless houses were lost.

Conditions

• The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning for an “extremely hazardous situation” through Thursday morning, warning of “widespread, extreme fire conditions.” That heightened warning had not been issued in the Los Angeles area since 2020.
• Forecasters predict slightly better conditions around the Mountain Fire on Thursday, with wind speeds decreasing in the afternoon, weather service officials said.
• In Ventura County, wind gusts were so strong that some firefighting planes were unable to operate at times on Wednesday.
• Large parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, as well as the Inland Empire, parts of Orange County and mountains in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, were expected to forgo high wind warnings or standard red flag warnings late Thursday.
• Blowing dust warnings and air quality warnings due to smoke and ash are also in effect on Thursday.

Prediction

• Red flag warnings remain in effect across the region until 6pm on Thursday. The warnings have been extended through Friday morning in the Ventura County mountains, the Interstate 5 corridor and the San Gabriel and Santa Monica mountains.
• Thursday’s winds, while not as strong as Wednesday’s, will still be dangerous, the weather service said.
• Winds pushing the fire southwest could sustain speeds of 50 to 90 mph with gusts as high as 100 mph in wind-prone mountainous locations, Ventura County emergency officials warned Thursday.
• The wind is decreasing, but is still a problem on Friday.

Fire behavior

• The high winds caused several fires on Wednesday, the largest of which was the Ventura County Mountain Fire.
• Firefighters reported seeing embers starting new fires 2 miles ahead of the main fire line during Wednesday’s battle.
• Nearly 70,000 utility customers across the Southland lost power as of Thursday morning “due to an increased risk of wildfires,” Southern California Edison said. About a third of the shutoffs occurred in Ventura County, but power was also cut in areas in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura and Orange counties. On Thursday, another 257,000 people were considered eligible for safety closures in those areas, as were customers in Santa Barbara and Tulare counties, SCE reported.