Results tagged “mountwilson”

Although tomorrow afternoon we officially usher in fall, we're about to be swept up in another heat wave, this time complete with hot, dry Santa Ana winds. Not only does that mean we will be uncomfortably hot for another stretch of time, but also the risk for wildfires is dramatically higher. "Fire crews across Southern California will be on alert as a red flag warning goes into effect at midnight," explains abc7.com.

The Station Fire is largest wildfire in LA County's modern history (10th largest in California since 1933), burning 160,357 acres--some 250 square miles--throughout the Angeles National Forest on the San Gabriel Mountains. Officials have made plenty of progress since it began two weeks ago yesterday announcing today a 71 percent containment, a vast improvement from Wednesday when it was at 62 percent. Full containment is expected by 6 p.m. on September 15th.

It's been a tough week for Mount Wilson -- though she's still standing. But let's remember the good times with this video.

This afternoon the monstrous Station Fire continued its slowed-burn of the Angeles National Forest and San Gabriel Mountains, moving east towards communities to the north of Pasadena, as predicted earlier today.

Firefighters working to combat and contain the over 140,000-acre Station Fire have managed so far to keep the flames from scorching the historic Observatory and the communications towers that serve many of L.A.'s television and radio stations, as well as law enforcement and telecommunications.

HIgh temperatures and low humidity today began to subside, aiding firefighters in controlling the Station Fire, now 127,513 acres, nearly 200 square miles, in size. The blaze is now 22 percent contained, according to Forest Service officials. However, a change in weather could again downgrade containment and begin to threaten more homes.

The Station Fire made short work of the dense dry brush of the Angeles National Forest and the San Gabriel Mountains last night, almost doubling in size to at least 85,000 acres and growing. It is 19 miles long and 16 miles wide, according to a live KTLA broadcast, and still stands at only 5% contained. While communication towers and the Observatory atop Mount Wilson have not been burned, officials "said that area remains highly vulnerable," and firefighters remain actively working to keep the flames at bay from the historic building and vital broadcast equipment, reports the LA Times.

As the Station Fire continues to burn through the dense, dry brush of the San Gabriel mountains and close to many foothills communities, the threat posed to Mount Wilson remains of utmost concern. "Firefighters have been pulled away from Mount Wilson, where critical broadcast towers for many television and radio stations are located [...] Fire officials expect the mountain to be overrun with fire by 7:00 p.m. Sunday, indicating a probable outage for local news outlets," reports KTLA. This would make the weekend's lack of fire-related live unscheduled news broadcasts a non issue, since all the major networks in Los Angeles broadcast from towers located atop Mount Wilson. The Observatory operates a live webcam, which has been obscured by smoke for the past few days as the Station Fire burned nearby.

The Station Fire continues to hold the San Gabriel Mountains under siege as the northeastern flank of the 35,000+ acre blaze rages in the Acton area, continues to burn out of control with dangerous hotspots near homes in neighborhoods of La Crescenta, and could pose a threat to Mount Wilson (where 22 broacast stations have communication towers). The fire remains at around the 5% containment level. Here are some updates and information at this hour:

One major concern when it comes to the Station Fire is its proximity to Mount Wilson, which is home to a renowned 105-year-old Observatory, as well as communication towers for many local television and radio outlets ("relay broadcasting"). Although there are no personnel currently allowed on Mt. Wilson, they are monitoring the fire as best they can via the news, and posting updates to their website. They also operate a live webcam from one of the towers, which you can look at here. This morning they noted: "Towercam images during the night showed Red Box area flaming dying down, which is good news, but current Towercam scenes are obscured by smoke."

Since the torrential rains of 2005, the Mount Wilson Toll Road leading up to Henninger Flats and Mount Wilson has been closed. The popular, yet historic, trail has been a favorite for outdoors enthusiasts. The fire road leads into the hills above Pasadena and offers sweeping views across the San Gabriel Valley and beyond towards downtown and Catalina Island. After nearly four years, it officially opened last Friday to hikers and mountain bikers.