Advocates urge evacuation after Southern California wildfire breaks out near 5,000-person jail complex

Keri Blakinger, Los Angeles Times on Jan 22, 2025

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LOS ANGELES — A rapidly growing fire near the Castaic jail complex sparked alarm on Wednesday morning, as attorneys urged the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to evacuate the nearly 5,000 inmates in the county's northernmost jails.

The Hughes fire broke out a little before 11 a.m., roughly 5 miles north of the Pitchess Detention Center.

"No evacuations have been ordered yet," the department said at 10:58 a.m., minutes after the blaze began. "The facilities are aware and will take appropriate action as necessary."

But the blaze soon ballooned to more than 3,000 acres, and by noon, lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California — which represents inmates in two class-action lawsuits against the jails — began reaching out to county officials to urge action.

At 11:53 a.m., Melissa Camacho, an ACLU Southern California senior staff attorney, emailed Supervisor Kathryn Barger's justice deputy, Sandra Croxton with her concerns.

"I hope that you and Supervisor Barger can put immediate pressure on LASD to start evacuating the four jails immediately," Camacho wrote. "I would imagine that there are about 1,000 LASD staff up there too, though that's only a guess. But you're definitely looking at well over 5,000 people to evacuate. It's simply too many people to evacuate to wait for an evacuation order or even a warning, especially with only about 20 buses available that are likely spread around the county right now."

For years, the Sheriff's Department has struggled with a shortage of inmate transport buses, due to an aging fleet that has become increasingly difficult to repair. By late last year, officials told The Times that only 20 of its 82 buses were operational.

Though the county approved funding for 20 new buses in September 2023, the first did not arrive until December. Officials say the remaining buses are slated to arrive every few weeks until the order is expected to be complete in August.

It's not clear how an evacuation would work, but department officials said they could potentially use state and other local resources.

By 12:20 p.m. Wednesday, the department said it was not yet evacuating the complex, but that day shift deputies and jailers had been asked to stay late — both to help in the event of an evacuation at the jails, and to assist with evacuations in parts of Santa Clarita affected by the blaze.

As of late last year, department data shows the Castaic jail complex housed roughly 4,700 people, including at least 1,200 with diagnosed mental health issues.

"It's the highest concentration of people in the area," Camacho told The Times. "They don't have enough buses to take people to court — they certainly don't have enough buses to move them all at once for an evacuation."