A brush fire burning in Stevenson Ranch on Monday afternoon pushed close to homes, forced a shelter-in-place order for the STV-PICO area and had grown to about 15 acres by 5:40 p.m., according to fire crews.
Firefighters were calling the blaze the Max Fire after it was reported around 4:20 p.m. in a hiking area of Pico Canyon Park near Magnolia Lane and Autumn Place. Aerial footage showed large flames tearing through dense brush on a hillside near a cul-de-sac of homes as crews moved fast to keep the fire from reaching nearby neighborhoods.
Two helicopters dropped off hand crews, who began shoveling to build containment lines while another aircraft dropped flame-retardant material on the hillside. Even as those efforts were underway, the fire continued to burn toward a second neighborhood of homes near Jasmine and Summerhill lanes, keeping residents in the area under immediate concern.
The brush fire was burning in the Stevenson Ranch community in the Santa Clarita Valley, where the terrain and the homes sit close enough together that a hillside fire can turn into a neighborhood emergency in minutes. The shelter-in-place order was issued because the fire was still active and moving near residential streets.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation. For residents in and around the STV-PICO area, the next official update will determine whether crews can hold the lines they are building before the flames push any farther toward the homes at the edge of the hillside.
