UPDATE: Agua Dulce Fire gobbles up 815 acres before getting extinguished

 

At around 6:00pm Sunday evening, firefighters finally called knockdown on a massive blaze that tortured Agua Dulce residents over the course of the weekend.

 

Nearly 40 homes were evacuated along Agua Dulce Canyon Road, as well as Vasquez Rocks Park.  The evacuations lasted only a few hours, and no structures were lost to this fire.

 

400 firefighters fought the blaze, which was first reported at 2:30pm Saturday afternoon. 

 

One of the biggest problems caused by the blaze was the closure of the 14 freeway in both directions. The fire initially shut down only the south bound lanes at Escondido Canyon Road, however, when the fire jumped the freeway, both directions were closed. the south bound closure was pushed back to Red Rover Mine road, and the northbound closure was at Soledad Canyon Road. 

 

By 9:00pm, two northbound lanes had been opened, however it was not until the wee hours of the morning when the southbound lanes were re-opened.

 

[view:node_ad=5]For the Saturday evening traffic, it was a nightmare scenario. KHTS was broadcasting wall to wall coverage of the fire, and received many calls from passengers who were sitting in the freeway, or on congested Sierra Highway for as many as four hours.

 

The Fire Department set up their command post at the Agua Dulce Airport, and reported after the fire the the owners of that airport were very gracious to the department, pumping up to 1000 gallons of water per minute from their own well to arm the fire trucks and helicopters, as well as making coffee, and allowing for full use of all buildings.

 

During the fire fight, three firefighters sustained minor injuries and one civilian was transported to the hospital.

 

KHTS reminds its listeners that this summer is prime time for fires. The brush surrounding Santa Clarita is extremely dry, and red flag warnings are frequent. Please be very careful whenever dealing with open flames.