Jurupa Valley fire crews battled a brush fire in the Santa Ana River bottom Tuesday evening after having extinguished a blaze in a similar location last week.

The fire was reported at 2 acres at 5 p.m. Tuesday and grew to 38 acres by 7 p.m., according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the Riverside County Fire Department.

A total of 165 personnel from multiple agencies and a firefighting helicopter responded to the blaze and were able to halt its forward progress around 9 p.m., according to Cal Fire and Riverside fire officials.

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“Air resources have been released, and crews will remain on scene throughout the night and into the morning to conduct extensive mop-up operations,” the city of Riverside Fire Department said in an update.

Hand crews worked to contain the fire by removing dense vegetation and trees around its perimeter and dousing the area in water, said Maggie Cline De La Rosa, a spokesperson for the county Fire Department.

Earlier in the evening, an evacuation warning was issued for residents south of Limonite Avenue between Van Buren Boulevard and Beach Street, she said.

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On Jan. 13, crews responded to a similar brush fire in the Santa Ana River bottom, an area where there are homeless encampments. That fire broke out around 5 p.m., burned 2 acres and was contained by 7 p.m.

The fires, each dubbed the Clay fire, were reported at Van Buren Avenue and Clay Street. Cline De La Rosa said this is the address often used to report fires in the riverbed but does not mean they are in the same location.

In addition, a third riverbed fire was reported about six miles downriver on Jan. 14. That incident, dubbed the Scout fire, burned 2.6 acres near 4785 Scout Lane and was determined to be a result of arson.

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“The City of Riverside Fire Department’s arson investigator conducted an inquiry and determined the fire was deliberately set, originating near a homeless encampment,” the department said in a report on the blaze.

The cause of Tuesday evening’s fire is currently unknown.

Both Clay fires ignited while the region was under a red flag warning due to gusty Santa Ana winds and critically low humidity levels.

Photo credit: David Swanson via Getty Images

After almost two weeks of nonstop wildfires in California, officials in Los Angeles have recently reported that there is finally a sign of progress with the Palisades fire now at 52% percent containment, and the Eaton fire at 82% percent containment. After two weeks of devastation, this news brings subtle relief to the surrounding communities.

The initial flames were reported by the residents of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, near the Skull Rock Trailhead in Topanga State Park, located in the cliffs and canyons of the Santa Monica Mountains early on January 7th.

According to officials with California State Parks, the fires in the Santa Monica Mountains had a high chance of spreading through steep mountain canyons due to the Santa Ana winds. These hot and dry winds move through the region every fall and winter and are caused by high pressure that grows warmer, dryer, and stronger. When Santa Ana winds occur, fires can spread rapidly and widely across the Santa Monica Mountains, reaching nearby neighborhoods and destroying homes.

According to the New York Times, “There had been no serious precipitation in months, and forecasters cautioned [beforehand] that the Santa Ana winds coming in off the desert could reach an astonishing 100 miles per hour as they blew through the dry, brushy hills.”

Both fires occurred due to these winds within hours apart on the same day.

Max Belin, a nearby resident, claimed to have noticed an “explosion of bright light” at the base of an electrical tower up in the dry slopes of Eaton Canyon.

Several other people within the neighborhood had also claimed to see a fire near the power structures, stirring the question of whether or not the electrical base had any direct role in sparking the fire.

However, wildfire and arson experts reported to CNN this past Thursday, that it could take several months to determine the origin of precisely where and how both fires started.

Although the exact cause of the fires remains unclear, the traumatic impact on California residents is not short of a secret. During the fight, firefighters ran into issues with their water supply. Authorities noticed that the water pressure was faltering due to the massive amount of water being pulled out of the systems leaving hydrants running dry. This left residents who did not evacuate hopeless against the flames.

Camille Bragg, a California resident who lost her home in the fires, stated in a FOX interview, “The moment we realized that everything was potentially on fire was that morning around 6:30 a.m., and everything was on fire. My neighbors’ homes were on fire.”

At least 27 people have been reported dead. Those deceased consist of residents who fought desperately to protect their homes and residents who were not able to evacuate in time. However, since the fires continue to destroy neighborhoods, the death toll is steadily rising as first responders and authorities continue to search and rescue.

Approximately 200,000 California residents have been forced to evacuate their homes while evacuation mandates are still in effect as firefighters continue to contain the deadly wildfires. NBC reports that an estimated 13,600 structures, including homes, businesses, and personal properties, have been destroyed over this period.

As the winds have settled down in California, firefighters will continue to progress towards containment. It is predicted that Los Angeles residents will have to remain out of the affected areas for another week for authorities to declare that it is safe for damage inspections.

Officials are staying aware as more heavy Santa Ana winds come in within the next week.

Southern California will continue to face "dangerous fire weather conditions" including strong Santa Ana winds and extremely low humidity through later this week, forecasters said Tuesday.

By 10 a.m. Tuesday, a relatively rare weather advisory known as a "Particularly Dangerous Situation" (PDS) Red Flag Warning had ended, an advisory typically issued just once every few years by the National Weather Service — when the risk of wildfires sparking and spreading is especially high. While that warning is over, forecasters say fire risks remain in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

"The Particularly Dangerous Situation (PDS) Red Flag Warning has ended, but dangerous fire weather conditions will persist through Thursday or Friday," the National Weather Service (NWS) said just before 10 a.m., adding that "moderate to locally strong Santa Ana winds" are expected over much of LA and Ventura counties Tuesday.

Those winds — the dry seasonal gusts of Southern California that usually come in the fall and can fuel destructive wildfires — are expected to weaken Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, according to forecasters. However, forecasters say they will stay strong and gusty over the mountains and hills before another round of widespread gusty winds later this week.

A regular Red Flag Warning is in effect through 10 p.m. Tuesday while a Fire Weather Watch — which forecasters can issue further in advance than Red Flag Warnings — is expected to stay in effect through Thursday evening.

Much of the San Fernando Valley, Ventura County beaches and valleys, the Malibu coast, Calabasas, Santa Clarita Valley, western Santa Monica Mountains, Santa Susana Mountains and western San Gabriel Mountains are among the areas affected.

According to NWS Los Angeles, the second cycle of Santa Ana winds this week is forecasted to pick up as early as Wednesday afternoon before peaking Wednesday night into Thursday. Forecasters are also predicting extremely low humidity, with minimum levels of under 10% over much of the area. According to NWS, the risk of wildfires comes with humidity levels of 15% and below.

The PDS warning that expired Tuesday morning is the same dire weather advisory that was in effect when the deadly, devastating Palisades and Eaton fires sparked on opposite sides of Los Angeles County earlier this month. Gusts reached up to 100 mph in some parts of Southern California at the time, powerful winds fueling the spread of the wildfires as they quickly exploded in size.

Last November, the National Weather Service announced its first PDS Red Flag warning since 2020, just before the nearly 20,000-acre Mountain Fire broke out in Ventura County, destroying neighborhoods of homes and and injuring at least six people.

While this week's PDS warning for LA and Ventura counties is now expired, weather conditions bringing wildfire risks are still firmly in the forecast. However, the National Weather Service has not yet released another advisory for later in the week.

"High confidence in widespread Red Flag Warning conditions Wednesday afternoon through Thursday evening, but still deciding how to handle the lull for many areas tonight into Wednesday morning," NWS said Tuesday.

For the now-expired PDS warning, forecasters had warned of "powerful and damaging" Santa Ana winds, saying gusts could reach up to 50 to 70 mph in some areas and up to 100 mph in other parts of the region.

However, by early Tuesday, the National Weather Service released a list of gust speeds seen over the last day — none of them reaching the peak levels that had been predicted. The strongest gusts recorded were in the western Santa Monica Mountains, where they reached 57 mph around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, and 62 mph near Six Flags Magic Mountain in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Marissa Wenzke

Marissa Wenzke is a journalist based in Los Angeles. She has a bachelor's degree in political science from UC Santa Barbara and is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School.

Although Santa Ana winds have weakened, Ken Clark has warned they are expected to continue. The fire risk at Southern California remains with lingering dry weather as of Jan. 21.

Display full video transcript

00:00Unfortunately, Ken, you know, over the last couple of years, Ken, I think we really got

00:05lucky that we weren't dealing with many Santa Ana winds.

00:11Now that caused problems too, but we didn't have much of a fire situation, but certainly

00:16things have changed this year as we've seen Santa Ana wind, Santa Ana wind, Santa Ana

00:21wind event, event, and event time and time again.

00:25And we're still dealing with some winds here this morning with a high fire danger.

00:30We have a high fire danger now, it's going to stay with it probably right on through

00:33Thursday at this point, maybe Friday morning as well.

00:35Then a big change, but that in a bit.

00:40We're not seeing the 70, 80 mile per hour winds we saw yesterday into last night.

00:46That's down quite a bit from yesterday and last night, and we are expecting winds to

00:54Not that there won't be some pretty good breezes still, especially in the mountains and the

00:57higher valleys, but it will not be as windy as it has been.

01:01You know, Ken, I called this up this morning and to me this was stunning.

01:06They'll see these dew point temperatures in Avalon, the island of Avalon, 12 degree dew

01:13Ken, do you remember a time you've seen these dew points this low?

01:17It's been a while, that's for certain.

01:19And I got an even better one than that.

01:21Mountain sensor in the St. Gabriel mountains this morning, the dew point is negative minus

01:30And you know, it's interesting because we don't have a long term drought going in California.

01:34We talked about this, that in the long term, there would be no drought in California through

01:40the winter of 2025 and even into 2026.

01:44But in the short term, it hasn't rained in a while.

01:47And unfortunately, with all this cold, they're dumping into the east.

01:51These little impulses come down from the north, what we call those inside sliders.

01:58Now, we don't have anything like that Wednesday, Thursday, but with the high pressure building

02:05Yeah, winds are going to come back up some again as we get into Wednesday, especially

02:09Wednesday night into Thursday, maybe by the morning.

02:13Nothing like we just saw, but it will continue the fire danger in California.

02:17Really quickly, Ken, and we don't have much time here.

02:21But this upper low coming, well, I have the wrong graphic.

02:25We do have a pattern change coming for the weekend.

02:30Showers this weekend, especially Saturday and Sunday, lower snow levels, colder temperatures.

02:36California expert Ken Clark, thanks for joining us here on AccuWeather Early.

Just two weeks after strong Santa Ana winds breathed life into wildfires in southern California, an expected resurgence in high wind conditions has led Southern California Edison (SCE) to consider enacting more Public Safety Power Shutoff events (PSPS) for more than 170,000 customers, the utility announced.

SCE meteorologists expected PSPS conditions to start Monday morning and anticipate they will be sustained through at least early Wednesday morning and possibly extend into later in the week. About 172,697 customers are under consideration for PSPS in Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura Counties, which the utility noted is a “much smaller number” than during the most recent windstorms. Near the start of the last windstorm, SCE said it had initiated a PSPS for 136,000 of its customers in several counties and said it was considering it for 427,208 more.

“We know these PSPS outages are a hardship for our customers, and we have done a lot of work on our system to reduce the number of customers we have had to shut off in these events,” said SCE Incident Commander Anthony Edeson. “We only turn off power when absolutely necessary to protect our communities.”

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) continues to work to restore power to the roughly 9,500 customers who are still without power, who are located in or adjacent to fire-damaged areas that LADWP crews cannot safely access or in areas where it is unsafe to re-energize power lines. Additionally, LADWP said it is on standby, ready to respond to any weather-related power outages due to the current red flag conditions.

(SCE) is now the subject (and defendant) of at least four lawsuits alleging that the utility is responsible for at least one of the fires that raged across southern California. The lawsuits were filed by homeowners and renters who lost their homes in the Eaton fire, ABC News reports, and they allege that SCE did not properly de-energize enough electrical equipment, even in the face of red flag warnings from the National Weather Service.

“Despite knowing of an extreme fire risk, Defendants deliberately prioritized profits over safety. This recklessness and conscious disregard for human safety was a substantial factor in bringing about the Eaton Fire,” one of the complaints reads.

Local officials, including the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), are still investigating the causes of the wildfires that picked up speed last week in the face of heavy Santa Ana winds. However, one lawsuit filed on behalf of several homeowners alleges that the Eaton fire started when SCE’s equipment created an “electrical arcing event which sent a shower of sparks and molten metal down to the ground into a receptive fuel bed.”

The plaintiffs in several lawsuits included supposed evidence of SCE’s liability for the Eaton fire, including statements and photos allegedly showing a fire starting near the base of SCE’s transmission towers, and satellite photos that purport to show the fire’s origin area near SCE’s overhead circuit lines, ABC News reports. SCE had previously confirmed in a press release that the Eaton fire began in its service area.

Pedro Pizarro, president and CEO of SCE’s parent company Edison International, appeared on “Good Morning America” the week after the fires began, and said the company did not yet have any indications that its equipment was involved in starting the fires.

“Typically, when there’s a spark created by equipment, you will see that kind of electrical anomaly. We haven’t seen that,” Pizarro said.

SCE filed two Electric Safety Incident Reports (ESIR) related to the wildfires, one for the Eaton Fire and another for the Hurst Fire. ESIRs are filed with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) for incidents that meet certain criteria, such as significant media attention or a governmental investigation.