Firefighters made progress on the more than 10,000-acre Hughes Fire Friday, which sent thousands fleeing after sparking near the Los Angeles County community of Castaic a day earlier.

The Hughes Fire sent thick grey smoke billowing over homes in Santa Clarita, California. At least 31,000 residents were ordered to evacuate due to the rapid spread of the blaze on Wednesday afternoon,

Firefighters worked into the night to contain a blaze that sparked and quickly spread in northern Los Angeles County, prompting renewed fears of death and destruction in a region already decimated by historic wildfires this month.

The Hughes Fire has spread over 8,096 acres after starting just before lunchtime in Los Angeles County's Castaic Lake area on Wednesday.

The Hughes Fire burned some 10,176 acres but that figure held steady throughout the day as 4,000 firefighters dropped water and retardant from the air and used hand tools and hoses on the ground.

At the time of publication, the Laguna fire had burned approximately 50 acres and was still listed at 0 percent containment, according to Cal Fire. Evacuation warnings, which indicate a "potential threat to life and/or property," were in effect for "Laguna Zone 1" and "Laguna Zone 2."

Local leaders are upset about the potential dangers posed to residents by the EPA's plan to open a site to process Eaton fire debris near Lario Park.

According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), wildfires are currently burning in Santa Clarita, Oxnard, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Diego. Most of those ...

The Hughes fire started off Lake Hughes Road just before 11 a.m. and quickly prompted evacuations orders in and around Castaic Lake, which by afternoon extended toward Ventura County to the west and near Sandberg to the north. More than 31,000 people were ordered to evacuate and another 20,000 were in areas where evacuation warnings were issued.

The fire threat remains critical in Southern California, where thousands of residents were under evacuation orders Wednesday as fire crews battled the out-of-control Hughes Fire near Castaic, a suburb in the foothills and mountains of northern Los Angeles County.

Over 1,100 firefighters were “strategically pre-positioned” across Southern California to address "ongoing critical fire weather," Cal Fire said.

The Hughes fire broke out a little before 11 a.m., roughly five miles north of the Pitchess Detention Center. The Sheriff's Department has struggled with a shortage of buses to transport inmates.