Cal Fire reported that a fast-moving brush fire sparked near Interstate 5 and Smokey Bear Road in the Gorman area at 4:50 p.m. on Thursday. The fire prompted evacuation orders and a hard closure of the freeway in both directions. Dubbed the Danny Fire, the blaze had grown to 150 acres, according to the Angeles National Forest. NBC reported that it was 21% contained after crews stopped its forward progress.
Evacuation Orders Cover Bald Mountain Area
Authorities issued a mandatory evacuation order for residents west of Old Ridge Road and east of I-5 near Bald Mountain, as reported by NBC Los Angeles. A broader evacuation warning was also issued for areas north of Hungry Valley Road, west of the 5 to the Los Angeles County border, north of Lancaster Road, and west of Three Points. Separately, MyNewsLA reported that evacuation warnings tracked through Watch Duty fire monitoring were formally issued at 4:45 p.m. for Genasys zones GOR-E004-A, GOR-HUNGRYVALLEY-A, and GOR-HUNGRYVALLEY-B.
The California Highway Patrol confirmed a hard closure of I-5 northbound at Smokey Bear and a hard closure southbound at State Highway 138, cutting off the Tejon Pass corridor entirely in both directions. The fire's cause remained under investigation as of Thursday evening, per the same account.
Multi-Agency Response Along the Grapevine
Los Angeles County Fire Station 77, located at 46833 Peace Valley Road in Gorman, serves as the primary local response hub for wildland and highway incidents along the pass, according to the California Public Utilities Commission.
A Freeway Chokepoint With a History of Fire
The stretch of I-5 through the Tejon Pass and Grapevine carries more than 80,000 vehicles per day, making any closure a major bottleneck for freight and passenger travel between Southern California and the Central Valley, according to The Guardian. Gorman and the surrounding pass have a documented history of fast-moving wildfires driven by dry brush and canyon winds.
In June 2024, the 15,690-acre Post Fire burned near Gorman Post Road, destroying structures, closing southbound I-5 lanes while northbound lanes remained open, and forcing the evacuation of nearly 1,200 park visitors and staff from Hungry Valley State Vehicular Recreation Area, according to CBS Los Angeles. That fire scorched more than 10,000 acres inside Hungry Valley alone, delaying the park's overnight camping reopening until September 2025, per California State Parks.
The 2026 fire season has already seen repeated flare-ups along this same transit artery. Hoodline reported in August that two separate brush blazes, the 100-acre Ridge Fire in Gorman and the 180-acre Buzzard Fire near Lebec, struck the corridor within 48 hours of each other. A year earlier, the 220-acre Fort Fire ignited near Lebec, also forcing temporary lane closures on I-5 and evacuation warnings in Digier Canyon.
Notably, a Danny Fire has also been reported in the Antelope Valley, according to CBS Los Angeles. As of Thursday's update, the cause of this week's Danny Fire along I-5 remained under investigation.
