Sharon McNary

The mudslide that destroyed homes and lives in Montecito last January buried the area’s popular hiking trails under debris and boulders. But nearly a year later, most trails are re-opened, thanks to volunteers, donations, and some carefully placed explosives.

Air quality inspectors were at the Torrance Refinery Monday following up on a toxic chemical spill over the weekend. Five gallons of Modified Hydrofluoric Acid leaked from a hose as it was being transferred from a tanker truck to a container at the Torrance Refinery.

The bikes were all donated, but the bike shop owner had to scramble to find enough people to build and give them all away.

Nearly a month after the Woolsey Fire was contained, some families whose homes burned are still couch-surfing, staying in hotels, and struggling to find interim homes to live in. Escalating rents in an area with already-low rental vacancy rates mean some insurance policies may not stretch to cover replacement rentals.

Some landlords are hiking rents as Woolsey fire victims seek interim rental housing.

Mayor Eric Garcetti called the agreement historic, but that might be a stretch.

The new rules affect only large investor-owned utilities like Southern California Edison and Southern California Gas Company, not city-owned providers.

In Pasadena, the Hahamongna Watershed Park behind Devil's Gate Dam is a hidden gem of a hiking area, filled with trees and plants.

The Devil's Gate Dam reservoir is choking on sediment, and heavy rains could cause the dam to malfunction and overflow, putting homes and a freeway at risk of flooding.

The upgrades are expensive: Covered power lines, fiberglass utility poles and tiny weather stations. The expected payoff? Reducing how often power lines start fires.

Not that many years ago, state and local fire officials considered adopting a policy to train residents to stay and defend their homes from fire. A disaster on the other side of the world killed the idea.

It happens in every big wildfire. Officials issue mandatory evacuation orders, but some people stay behind and try to save their homes. Sometimes they succeed, and that raises a policy question that firefighters would rather not confront.