Results tagged “sylmar”

The Sayre Fire broke out late in the night on November 14th, 2008, and burned for several days in the Northeast San Fernando Valley and into Santa Clarita, ravaging across thousands of acres and destroying nearly 500 homes in the Oakridge Mobile Home Park in Sylmar alone. This community became emblematic of the Sayre Fire; officials like Mayor Villaraigosa and Governor Schwarzenegger addressed the scared residents while speaking to the media, authorities worked diligently to account for all the residents, and many wondered if poor water pressure could have contributed to the high number of homes lost.

     

After a few months of hibernating, the golf clubs in this my closet begged to be taken out for a little fresh air. So spurred on by Tiger Woods’ return to the fairways, and even more so by the pleading, golf-addicted husband, I dusted off the clubs and found the Footjoys. It was time to play.

The storm that soaked Southern California yesterday brought soggy hillsides down in some areas, and more rain is on the way today. The mud came sliding down in two separate locations in Sylmar last night, and a third mudslide was reported in Sierra Madre.

At the family Christmas Eve party, the ex-sister-in-law of Santa shooter Bruce Jeffrey Pardo made it out of her parents' Covina house alive with her injured daughter who was shot in the head--luckily with a non life-threatening injury.

Earlier suspicions that a ninth body could be inside the scene of a mass murder in Covina has been confirmed, the Chicago Tribune confirms. A man dressed as Santa Claus walked into his ex-in-laws home on Christmas Eve and began shooting before lighting the place on fire. He was later found dead after he apparently committed suicide at his brother's home in the Sylmar neighborhood of Los Angeles. UPDATE: Now the coroner's office is saying they will not confirm the ninth body. A 2 p.m. press conference is expected to update the press on what's going on.

Sad. Clad in a Santa Suit on Christmas Eve, Bruce Jeffrey Pardo arrived at his ex-wife parent's Covina home and shot and killed at least eight people. Here's how it played out, as described by the LA Times:

The Sayre Fire destroyed 489 homes and all but nine were at the Oak Ridge Mobile Home Park in Sylmar. Just like in Yorba Linda, residents are questioning the hearsay low water pressure. If that is indeed true and water pressure was higher, could homes have been saved?

The LAPD announced yesterday, "with a high degree of confidence," that all residents from the Oakridge Mobile Home Park safely escaped the Sayre Fire, which destroyed 479 homes in the Sylmar neighborhood. "While this was abundantly good news and a testament to the bravery of a number good neighbors and members of the Police and Fire Departments, it does not fully relieve the Police Department of the responsibility for a proper accounting of all evacuees," the LAPD said in a statement this morning.

The Sayre and Triangle Complex Fires in the Los Angeles area are still burning, but firefighters are gaining the upperhand.

The tally of damage from the Triangle Complex Fire has increased from 120 lost structures reported this morning to 259 destroyed structures in areas including Corona, Yorba Linda and Anaheim Hills, according to KCAL9 on-air news. The blaze, that hit parts of Orange, Riverside San Bernadino and LA counties, is still 40% contained with 29,000 acres burned. Officials are saying that it was possibly caused by a spark from a passing by car.

The Red Flag was called off last night as "fire perfect" weather began to lessen, making it harder for blazes to spread with ease. The conflagrations still burn, however, daily life in the region is getting back to normal this morning. TV News is no longer wall-to-wall breaking news, Metrolink trains are back in operation and freeway closures are few and far between.

As the Sayre Fire moves northward further into the Santa Clarita Valley and in Placerita Canyon, there is some good news for residents of the San Fernando Valley affected by the blaze.

Following remarks made by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger just before 10 o'clock this morning, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa spoke at a press conference held at Hansen Dam regarding the Sayre Fire.

       

The fire that tore through the Oakridge Mobile Home Park in Sylmar left total devastation in its wake. According to LAFD Captain Steve Ruda, who spoke to evacuees gathered at Sylmar High School this morning, almost all of the approximately 600 homes in the community were burned to the ground. The Sayre Fire began at 10:30 Friday night and has burned at least 6500 acres and remains far from being contained. The LAPD now considers the Oakridge Mobile Home Park a "crime scene."

Short pieces of video footage captured of the Sayre Fire, which began to rage in the Sylmar area late last night, have already made their way to YouTube.

The Oakridge Mobile Home Park at Glenoaks and the 210 Freeway in Sylmar has now been labeled a crime scene by the Los Angeles Police Department. According to a live broadcast on KABC-7, the LAPD have just ordered all media personnel out of the area and are focusing on their investigation. They have not made any indication as to the nature of the crime being investigated at the mobile home community or its affiliation, if any, with the Sayre fire. LAFD Captain Steve Ruda spoke to the neighborhood's evacuees gathered at the evacuation center at Sylmar High School at around 10:30 this morning.

Los Angeles City Fire Department Captain Steve Ruda began his address to the evacuees, volunteers, and members of the press gathered this morning at Sylmar High School by admitting "I don't have good news."

The wildfire that began late last night in Sylmar (13000 Sayre Street) has now grown to be at least 2600 acres, and has destroyed an as-of-yet undetermined number of homes and structures. Many local freeways remain shut down as the firefight continues. Currently there is one civilian who has been reported with major burns, and a few others with minor injuries. Evacuation centers are set up at Sylmar, San Fernando, Kennedy, and Chatsworth High Schools, and there are two major mandatory evacuation areas. Pierce College and the Hansen Dam are able to take in large animals from evacuees. Residents are being urged to gather up important documents, medication, and irreplaceable items such as photo albums and to leave their homes when asked, with the doors and gates unlocked so that firefighters can access the property as needed.

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The Sayre fire, which began around 10:30 last night in Sylmar has caused several transformers in the hills above the San Fernando Valley to explode, and as a result, the DWP has taken action to ensure the public's safety and to help the firefighters battle the blaze. According to a press release from early this morning:

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power began taking major power transmission lines near the Sayre Fire out of service at 5 AM today as the fire moved west toward the I-5 Corridor in Sylmar. Transmission lines were taken out of service due to the threat posed by the fire in order to assist firefighters and protect the public's safety. The I-5 corridor through Sylmar serves as a major utility corridor for the LADWP and other utilities, bringing imported power to Los Angeles from power plants in the Pacific Northwest and Southwestern US. As the fire moved toward the high-voltage transmission lines, the LADWP turned off these lines to ensure the safety of firefighters and the public.

A "large Fire visible from a distance" was called in to 911 tonight just before 10:30 pm from someone near Veterans Memorial Park in Sylmar, a neighborhood in the northeast San Fernando Valley near where the Marek Fire was located in October. Melissa Kelley of the Los Angeles Fire Department said preliminary estimates indicated that the fast moving blaze was 10-15 acres in size as of 10:50 p.m. CBS2, via a text alert, reported a few minutes later that the fire had burned 20 acres and evacuations were under way. It is reported that at least two homes have been touched by flames. UPDATE: The fire has now officially burned over 100 acres.

The City of Los Angeles has released these traffic advisories for the two fires.

Santa Ana winds whipped up the Marek / Little Tujunga Canyon Wildfire this morning, forcing school and freeway closures. More than 3,000 acres have burned from Lakeview Terrace to Sylmar including a mobile home park in Lopez Canyon. The 210 Freeway is closed from the 2 to the 118 and LAUSD announced the closure of four schools: Broadous Elementary in Pacoima, Hubbard Elementary in Sylmar, Harding Elementary in Sylmar and Fenton Charter School in Lakeview Terrace.

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Photo by Tom Andrews via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr

Was last night's earthquake cause to some full moon effect madness? Breaking News: "A man from the San Fernando Valley has contracted this year's first human case of West Nile virus in Los Angeles County, health officials said Thursday." (NBC4) A female suspect has been shot by police in a Sylmar Bank robbery. (KABC) "A SWAT standoff in the parking lot of a Taco Bell ended early this morning with the arrest of a...