Thousands evacuated and ‘immediate threat to life’ warning issued as Sandy wildfire approaches LA homes

Over 17,000 people have been told to flee their homes amid the ongoing Sandy wildfires near to LA, as authorities urgently issued an ‘immediate threat to life’ warning as the blaze continues to burn out of control.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) issued the order on Tuesday, after increasingly windy conditions have been fanning the flames and making the southern Californian blaze much harder to contain.

Several neighbourhoods in Simi Valley, a city with a population more than 125,000 and roughly 30 miles northwest of Los Angeles, are covered by the alert.

Simi Valley also holds a historic significance too, as it is where the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library is located which is the burial site of the 40th US President and his wife Nancy.

Yet as the wildfire continues to spread, it could also put several celebrity homes in nearby Thousand Oaks under threat too, with a host of famous names including Britney Spears, Jamie Foxx, Heather Locklear and Tom Selleck all having well established mansion properties in the area.

Authorities have called for the evacuation of more than 17,000 people (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

According to an update from Cal Fire, the current blaze spans 1,400 acres, and is just 5 percent contained, with one home already having been lost to the flames.

Yet despite the scale and winds working against them, authorities are confident they can get on top of the fire before it spreads uncontrollably.

Initially the winds had made tackling the fire difficult, with gusts of 30mph only fanning the flames, however calmer winds overnight have started to change the game.

Cal Fire spokesperson Andrew Dowd said: “We’ve made a lot of progress against this fire with those improved weather conditions.”

Yet it isn’t the only tricky blaze authorities have been trying to tackle, as another large fire on Santa Rosa Island, off the Southern California coast, now spans 23 square miles and counting.

The fire has not been contained and has spread across 14,600 acres, according to Cal Fire.

Well known as a popular camping destination, the fire also poses a huge risk to the Santa Rosa wildlife, which includes animals such as island foxes, spotted skunks and elephant seals.

An investigation into the cause of both fires remains ongoing.

The fire currently spans over 1,300 acres (Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

The latest wildfires to rock the state come after a particularly brutal 2025, that started off with the infamous LA wildfires that tore through entire neighborhoods - killing 30 residents and displacing thousands more.

Yet this was only the beginning of the trouble, with countless more large scale fires continuing to burn through California throughout the entirety of the year.

By the end of 2025, a total of 8,036 fires had burned 525,223 acres (212,550 ha) across the state - to put that in perspective, it’s roughly the same size as just under 400,000 football fields, or an area double the size of Los Angeles.

Around 16,500 people lost their homes in the fires, however so far, 2026 has been a little kinder, with just 7 documented structures destroyed in the first five months of the year.

So far, there have also been no recorded fatalities, but this could all change and makes the evacuation orders all the more crucial to help keep it that way.