12:17 p.m. PDT Sept. 12, 2021
Firefighters on the Route Fire northwest of Santa Clarita in Los Angeles County were busy overnight and as of Sunday morning have made very good progress on the fire. It burned on both sides of Interstate 5, completely closing it for a while Saturday afternoon.
Hand crews and engines working through the night were assisted by night-flying water-dropping helicopters, two from Los Angeles County and one from the Angeles National Forest.
Sunday morning firefighters reported it has burned 454 acres.
Below is an excellent Monday morning update on the fire, with video narrated by the Operations Section Chief. It was filmed on the west side of the fire, west of Interstate 5, and starts by looking north or northwest, then pans to the east and south. You can see that traffic has apparently resumed on I-5. Very good description of the fire status, and excellent videography. Someone give this Ops Chief a bonus!
|#RouteFire| The Route Fire Operations Chief gives an update on the status of the fire. pic.twitter.com/PQP2ZJ1BVQ
— Angeles National Forest (@Angeles_NF) September 12, 2021
7:18 p.m. PDT Sept. 11, 2021
The Route Fire that started north of Los Angeles Saturday afternoon on the west side of Interstate 5 about seven miles north of Castaic jumped across the freeway and by 6:30 p.m. had burned approximately 400 acres as it spread to the northeast.
Aircraft working on the fire included a DC-10, BAe-146, S-2T, at least one SuperScooper CL-415, and multiple helicopters including two 3,000-gallon Chinooks and a Sky-Crane.
A US Forest Service spokesperson said at 6:50 p.m. that there are few structures in the area that would be threatened by the blaze. He also said two firefighters had received minor burns.
Interstate 5 had to be closed in both directions.
We will update this article as more information becomes available.
