FIREFIGHTERS are battling a huge and rapidly moving new wildfire that swept through rugged mountains north of Los Angeles and resulted in more than 50,000 people being put under evacuation orders or warnings.

The so called Hughes Fire broke out on Wednesday and in less than a day had charred nearly 16 square miles of trees and brush near Lake Castaic, a popular recreation area about 40 miles from the devastating Eaton and Palisades fires that are still burning after three weeks.

Though the region was under a red flag warning for critical fire risk, winds were not as fast as they had been when those fires broke out, allowing for firefighting aircraft to dump tens of thousands of gallons of fire retardant on the latest blaze. 

By Wednesday night, only a small section of the Hughes fire had been contained.

“The situation that we’re in today is very different from the situation we were in 16 days ago,” Los Angeles County fire chief Anthony Marrone said on Wednesday evening.

Officials remained concerned that the Palisades and Eaton fires could break their containment lines as firefighters continued watching for hot spots.

More than 31,000 people have been ordered to evacuate from the Hughes fire, and another 23,000 are under evacuation warnings, LA county sheriff Robert Luna said.