A fast-growing fire near the Castaic Jail complex prompted alarm Wednesday morning as prosecutors urged the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to evacuate nearly 5,000 inmates at the county's northern jail.
The Hughes fired up Shortly before 11 a.m., approximately 5 miles north of Pitches detention center.
“No evacuations have yet been ordered,” the department said at 10:58 a.m., minutes after the fire broke out. “The facilities are aware and appropriate action will be taken.”
But the fire quickly spread to more than 3,000 acres, and by noon, attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California — representing inmates in two class-action suits against the prisons — began reaching out to county officials to urge action.
At 11:53 a.m., ACLU Southern California senior staff attorney Melissa Camacho emailed her concerns to Sandra Croxton, judicial deputy to Supervisor Kathryn Barker.
“I believe you and Supervisor Barker can put immediate pressure on the LASD to begin vacating the four jails immediately,” Camacho wrote. “I would imagine about 1,000 LASD employees are there, and that's just a guess. But you're definitely looking at over 5,000 people evacuating. That's a lot of people to evacuate to wait for an evacuation order or an alert, especially with only about 20 buses spread across the county right now.
For years, the sheriff's department has struggled with a shortage of prison transport buses, an aging fleet that has made repairs difficult. Late last year, officials told The Times that only 20 of its 82 buses were running.
Although the district approved funding for 20 new buses in September 2023, the first bus didn't arrive until December. Officials say the remaining buses will arrive every few weeks until the order is completed in August.
It's unclear how the evacuation will work, but department officials said state and other local resources could be used.
As of 12:20 a.m. Wednesday, the department said it had not yet evacuated the campus, but that day shift deputies and jailers had been asked to stay late — to assist in case of an evacuation at the jails and assist with evacuations. Parts of Santa Clarita have been affected by the fire.
As of late last year, the Castaic jail complex housed about 4,700 people, including at least 1,200 people with mental health issues, department data showed.
“It's a high population concentration in the area,” Camacho told The Times. “They don't have enough buses to take people to court — they don't have enough buses to move them all at once to get them out.”