![Wildfires spread across Southern California [Image of a campfire by snty-tact via Wikimedia]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2017/12/5/660x290/b_502x220x82/image-of-a-campfire-by-snty-tact-via-wikimedia_1721439.jpg "Wildfires spread across Southern California [Image of a campfire by snty-tact via Wikimedia]")
This Tuesday, December 5, four fast-growing uncontained wildfires have popped up across the Southern California area.
There have been four wildfires either in or near Los Angeles County
The first fire, the Thomas fire, actually began at 6:24 pm Monday, in the foothills near the Thomas Aquinas College of Santa Paula. It has since then grown more 50,000 acres and reached Ventura County, an area in Simi Valley. So far 27,000 people have been forced to evacuate and a voluntary evacuation order has been issued for all parts of Ojai Valley. Firefighters attempts to fight the blaze have been challenged by power outages, damage to a pumping system that stopped all water in Ojai Valley, and strong winds.
The fire has not died down by Tuesday night and authorities believe the fire will continue to grow.
About an hours drive away, in Los Angeles County, the Creek fire has entered the Shadow Hills. It broke out at 4 a.m. Tuesday morning, and since then it has grown to 11,000 acres and burned 30 homes. So far this fire is 0 percent contained and has moved into Shadow Hills. Many people in Shadow Hills own large animals like horses that are hard to evacuate. Somewhere between 110,000 and 150,000 people in the area have been evacuated already.
In San Bernardino, a 100-acre fire suddenly started spreading out of control at 12:30 pm. Evacuations were ordered, but they were lifted at 7:00 pm. There is no news so far on how much the fire has been contained.
This is a relatively minor fire, but the high wind earlier today meant that it spread unusually quickly.
The Rye fire, in Santa Clarita, has spread across 5,000 acres as of 6 pm on Tuesday. Two hours earlier authorities announced that it was only 5 percent contained. So far 1,300 homes in the Westridge area have been evacuated.
The fires have been caused by the unusually high temperatures and the lack of rain
This is not the first time that California has had unusually destructive fires. 2017 has already broken records for California wildfires, including the La Tuna fire, which was the largest the city had seen in 50 years. This record-breaking year and the speed of the fires today share a root cause.
Dry conditions, caused by the drought and by the record-breaking heat, and high winds, which are also caused by the temperature changes. If the Southern California area does not experience some rain soon then the fires will probably only get worse.
