LASD moves inmates due to evacuation order 

Los Angeles County Fire department officials and law enforcement personnel responded to an unidentified incident where 17 patients were identified as needing medical attention at the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, Calif., on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023. Chris Torres/The Signal
Los Angeles County Fire department officials and law enforcement personnel responded to an unidentified incident where 17 patients were identified as needing medical attention at the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, Calif., on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023. Chris Torres/The Signal
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Officials with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Information Bureau confirmed Wednesday afternoon that hundreds of LASD inmates seen on buses at the Pitchess Detention Center were being transferred within the facility as a precaution due to the Hughes Fire. 
The approximately 1,000-acre complex, which is actually four facilities, houses thousands of inmates across its sprawl just east of Interstate 5 off Biscailuz Drive in Castaic: Pitchess Detention Center East, North and South and the North County Correctional Facility. 

“I tell people it’s like a huge ranch, and we moved people from one side of the ranch to the other side of the ranch,” said Julia Tafoya, a law enforcement technician in the department’s SIB, in a phone call Wednesday. 

“We have 476 inmates who were taken from PDC (Pitchess Detention Center – South) to NCCF (North County Correctional Facility),” she said, “which is across the other side of the area.” 

Both areas were listed under evacuation orders as of 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. The NCCF facility is closer to the Interstate 5 side of the complex. 

There was no report of structure damage as of the report of the move Wednesday afternoon, but the fast-moving Hughes Fire caused plenty of concern as the incident grew from 50 acres around 10:40 a.m. after its initial report, to approximately 8,000 acres by around 4 p.m. 

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