Pico Blvd. was temporarily closed early this afternoon when a business, most likely a store called Furniture by Design according to Google results, lit on fire, heavily damaging the unit. It is not considered a total loss yet because the Los Angeles Fire Department considers computers and business files a major component of the term "loss," and they have had not been able to access the office area. No one was inside the building at......

Reported at 2:27 p.m. this afternoon, a grass and brush fire of about 2-3 acres in size has been reported south of the Mineral Wells Trail in the northern part of Griffith Park. Los Angeles Spokesman Brian Humphrey reports that 100 firefighters have reported to the scene and there have been no injuries, no structures threatened and no formal evacuations ordered, as of 2:54 p.m. The last fire at the park was on Sunday, July......

A fire in North Hollywood that lasted under thirty minutes last night ended with four minor injuries, two of which with firefighters. At 11:17 p.m., the Los Angeles Fire Department was called to a single family home on Whitsett Ave. near Roscoe Blvd. It took 35 firefighters 22 minutes before a knockdown was called and in the midst of all that, two firefighters sustained minor injuries when a patio fell on top of them. Two......

In the 85 years that the Los Angeles County Fire Department has been around, no woman has ever been promoted to the rank of deputy chief. Today that changes when Helen Jo will be officially promoted to chief of the department's Financial Management Division, according to the Long Beach Press-Telegram. She will manage the department's fire fleet services, materials management and construction and maintenance divisions, which is considered the three busiest in the department.......

Cirque Berzerk, the LA-based, all-volunteer, DIY fire-dancing, contortionist, aerial daredevil, burlesque cabaret, clown troupe debuted its new show "Beneath" at Los Angeles State Historic Park last weekend. Complete with two acts, an original score, and a ten-member live band, "Beneath" practically set the big top on fire (under supervision of the Fire Marshall, of course). Cirque Berzerk was so hot that the Thursday - Sunday run sold out by Friday night's intermission. Lucky for those......

A view of the fire yesterday in Griffith Park | (AP Photo/John Antczak) Yesterday's 25-acre brush fire in Griffith Park forced the evacuation of nearby zoo patrons as well as animals from a breeding facility, like the endangered Condors. There was a quicker-than-usual response to the fire, which was first report at about a quarter to one in the afternoon, because firefighters from Hollywood were "already deployed nearby to conduct a brush fire drill,"......

A five acre brush fire broke out near Travel Town and the LA Zoo this afternoon around 12:45 p.m., according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. 32 LAFD fire companies reported to the scene with help from LA County, Burbank and Glendale fire departments totaling approximately 200 firefighters on the ground. As of 2:00 p.m. no injuries, evacuations or damaged structures were reported and a knockdown had not been declared yet. "It's not progressing in......

Like an episode of Weeds, LA City firefighters responding a warehouse fire last night in the Vermont Knolls neighborhood of South LA discovered marijuana plants as they fought the fire on the second floor of the building. Easily knocked down in 20 minutes, police investigators later found at least 50 full-grown marijuana plant and several pounds of dried product ready to ship, according to the LAPD, per KCBS. According to the media relations office at......

If you were going to Comic-Con or just heading towards San Diego, today's truck crash/fire was not helpful (should have taken the train, the Surfliner to San Diego is a beautiful and chill ride). This morning, "a Vons big rig crashed into a disabled vehicle on southbound Interstate 5 near Pulgas Road, flipped over and burst into flames... leaving all but one lane of southbound I-5 blocked for hours," according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.......

Photo by Long Beach Fire Department Two 22-year-old men have been arrested on suspicion for setting 26 fires over a two-week period which began June 30 when 14 arson fires set throughout the night and into the early morning. Officials used a surveillance tape from an AM/PM mini-mart to identify the suspects. "There were fires found in trashcans and dumpsters, fires caused by placing combustibles, such as old mattresses against garage doors. There were......

It was a normal day on Twitter. New Media and Interactive Consultant Kyra Reed was going about her day (it was Reed who turned The Roxy into a Web 2.0 success story). On Twitter, she chatted with friends as she was at home. Then, all of the sudden at 5:02 p.m., Ron Myers at the Los Angeles Fire Department tweets a structure fire on the 1000 block of Laguna Ave. "Single family home with fire......

Expected rain today could bring flooding to mountain areas that are recovering from recent wildfires. "The National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch from noon to this evening for Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles county mountain areas, excluding the Santa Monica range, and for the Antelope Valley," reports the LA Times.......

Photo by fauxen via Flickr As weather in Los Angeles is still normal, Central and Northern California could be in for another round of dry lightning storms. There are two areas of thunderstorms across the West over the next day or two that have potential to create new wildfires over California. "The combination of hot air and relatively high dew point temperatures will allow a few thunderstorms to erupt over the Sierra Nevada of......

AP Photo/The Los Angeles Times, Spencer Weiner Blackwater might be a more appropriate name for the future of some private firefighting business. Robert at Calitics has been looking into federal firefighter shortages during the recent spate of wildfires (over 1700 in total since June 20). He reports that there have been "deliberate staffing shortages have left the USFS [US Forest Service] unable to do vital off-season brush clearance, and left them without the staffing......

A firefighter continue to clear brush from the path of the gap fire on Sunday July 6, 2008 (AP Photo/ LA Times, Spencer Weiner) With another spike in temperatures on its way, firefighters may not have as much help as they did this weekend with the cooler weather with its moist air currents. 100+ degree weather will take over starting today in the San Fernando Valley. Up north in Santa Barbara County near Goleta,......

Los Angeles County firefighters putting out the fire in Malibu on 4th of July (AP Photo/Gus Ruelas) Yesterday's wildfire in Malibu charred 25 acres before LA County Firefighters were able to full contain it at 8:14 p.m. The fire, which started at 3:27 p.m. in a mobile home park near Las Virgenes Street and Las Virgenes Canyon Road, was knocked down but had quickly spread to nearby brush, prompting more than 200 campers at......

Reports are coming in about firs in the Los Angeles area. At about 3:30, a fire broke out at mobile home near a state park in Malibu Creek State Park. While the home fire was knocked down, the fire has spread to hillside brush and has at least burned through 10 acres. Park visitors have been evacuated. Update: As of 6:43 p.m., the fire had burned 20 acres and was at 90% containment. "Hopefully within......

If a huge fire forcing 1700 homes to be evacuated wasn't enough, now residents of Goleta are being asked to conserve energy until 5:00 p.m. tonight. "A regional manager with energy company Southern California Edison, Cathy Hart, said it is inevitable more power lines will be burned by the Gap Fire," KSBY reports. "If residents keep stress off the system, outages could be kept to a minimum, Hart said." Last night, about 40,000 customers lost......

70 miles east of Los Angeles in the San Bernardino National Forest, a fire, dubbed the Ridge Fire, that broke out at 1:30 p.m. has already burned at least 100 acres. Over a 1700 fires have burned throughout the state in the past few weeks, but few have hit Southern California. The closest major fire is the Gap Fire in Goleta, which has burned 2400 acres so far forcing Santa Barbara County officials to declare......

A fire ripped through an empty for-sale house this morning destroying it and damaging two neighboring others at 21110 Pacific Coast Hwy. prompting an entire closure of the highway (lanes reopened at 7:20 a.m.). The house was being sold for $1-million dollars, but six people were evacuated with no injuries from the two houses. No cause has been determined yet, but thankfully, this fire did not start off another wildfire.......

A wildfire erupted last night in Goleta, eight miles Northwest of Santa Barbara. It began in the Los Padres National Forest forcing mandatory evacuations of about 40 homes. Yesterday, a small fire was knocked down in the Canyon Country neighborhood of Santa Clarita and nearby in Agua Dulce, a truck caught fire on the Northbound 14 Freeway, but was quickly doused before it could spread to surrounding brush.......

The Long Beach Fire Dept.'s Arson Division is searching for suspects on the city's west side where more than a dozen small fires were started late Monday night/early Tuesday morning. "With the time of day and the close proximity to residences, any of these fires could have turned into something far more serious, even fatal," said LBFD Batallion Chief Frank Hayes. Fires were set to vehicles and in trash cans although no serious damage was......

In 10 days, 30 homes have been lost among the 1,500 fires that have blazed through around 400,000 acres of land. "All my life I knew it might burn -- and it finally did," said a Big Sur resident who lost her home. "But when you live in a place like that, you have to take the consequences." If there ever was a warning not to do your own fireworks this week, this would be......

A fire that began with a spark of lightning in Big Sur is now responsible for burning over 42 acres and is reportedly only 3 per cent contained. A 12-mile segment of the Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1) has been closed down as firefighters work to control the blaze. Over 1,000 fires have been burning in Northern California for the past week, many of which were ignited by lightning strikes. President Bush has declared a......

The LA County Fire Dept. announced that it will renew its lease on two "SuperScooper" airplanes to fight wildfires from September through December. The fixed-wing, amphibious Bombardier CL-415 is capable of scooping up to 1,620 gallons of water from lakes, injecting it with fire-resistant foam (in 12 seconds) and dropping it on wildfires. The LACoFD also leased an Erickson Helitanker, capable of dropping up to 2,200 gallons of water. Click here for video of a......

View Larger Map A wildfire broke out in various places this morning around 1:00 a.m. in Banning, 85 miles east of Los Angeles. Last reports state that it has grown to at 75 acres with 130 firefighters responding to battle the blaze. "In Northern California 13 fires have broken out in 72 hours. Homes and other structures have been destroyed, and evacuations are widespread," Warren Olney stated on KCRW's Which Way LA while asking if......

A fire broke out early this morning in Downtown. KCBS has some video: Nearly 150 firefighters Thursday morning knocked down a blaze that engulfed a two-story commercial building in the garment district of downtown Los Angeles. Firefighters poured water onto the blaze from street-level and from above as flames and black smoke shot into the morning sky, barely a half-mile east of the Staples Center. Authorities report no one was hurt in the fire, which......

TMZ got hold of the 911 call when the fire Universal Studios was reported. It's amazing how calm everything sounds. &righticonhover=0x333232&text=0x333232&slider=0xF2F2F2&track=0xFFFFFF&border=0xFFFFFF&loader=0x838383&soundFile=http://www.aolcdn.com/tmz_audio/060308_universal_911.mp3"> It's interesting to note that Universal Studios is never mentioned in this call, only Universal City, which is often incorrectly thought of as Universal Studios and the neighborhood of Cahuenga Pass (it's only a general area). The reason she asks for the address first is that she can easily dispatch fire engines to the......

Debris clutters the New York Street facade at the Universal Studios Hollywood back lot, Monday June 2, 2008, in the Universal City section of Los Angeles, a day after a fire destroyed the sets of iconic films. (AP Photo/Ric Francis) The fire at Universal Studios on Sunday that ripped through two "city blocks" was deemed an accident yesterday, but was not clarified until later. Now officials are saying a welders' blowtorch started the fire:......

Fire fighters examine the scene on the fire damaged lot of Universal Studios today (AP Photo/Nick Ut) The gates of Universal Studios opened back up today after yesterday's fire, which burned a two-block area of film sets for more than 12 hours. The incident forced them to close the doors for the day at the theme park and CityWalk. Areas destroyed or damaged included New York Street, a part of Back to the Future's......