Firefighters made progress overnight and into Tuesday morning as they continued to protect homes in the Simi Valley area from the nearly 1,400-acre Sandy Fire in Ventura County. Minimal fire growth was reported overnight after the fire started late Monday morning and destroyed at least one home in a neighborhood at the base of a burning hillside.

The Sandy Fire started in the Simi Valley and has grown to an estimated 1,386 acres with no containment, as of Tuesday morning.

A wall of smoke rose over the western ridgeline of Simi Valley on Monday morning, and by noon thousands of residents were loading cars, leashing dogs, and driving east on surface streets as a fast-moving brush fire consumed the dry hills behind their neighborhoods.

A fast-moving brush fire which exploded to more than 800 acres in Simi Valley, California, on Monday, May 18, destroyed at least one home in the area. Emergency evacuation orders were issued for Simi

The fast-moving fires prompted evacuations and the closure of a national park the afternoon of Monday, May 18.