Eaton Fire: A rebuilding journey

A Taco Zone truck. (Can anyone confirm if this is the one in question?) Photo by Nathan Jongewaard via Flickr Word of the Taco Zone truck that parks near Vons in Echo Park being on fire spread in much the same manner as the blaze last night via Twitter and food-centric message boards. City Council President Eric Garcetti noted the fire and Tweeted the incident: "Taco truck at Von's is on fire. Called it...

Raymond Lee Oyler, who set the deadly Esperanza Fire in 2006, was sentenced to death today after a jury recommended the penalty with the judge concurring in his final sentence. Five firefighters died when flames overtook them while protecting a house in the foothills of the San Jacinto Mountains. 41,000 acres burned and 34 homes were lost, too. The 38-year-old arsonist was convicted in March of five counts of first-degree murder, 20 counts of...

Thanks, lightning and dry brush. After yesterday's storm, lightning caused at least 19 fires in remote regions of the forest, Angeles National Forest officials report after a early morning reconnaissance flight. Twelve of those fires are full contained, but one fire called the Twin Fire remains fairly active in the the central San Gabriel Mountains. The 680,000-acre forest was struck by lightning approximately 400 times between 2:30am and 8:00pm Wednesday. Inciweb will be keeping...

A one-acre fire is burning in a remote part of the Cleveland National Forest in Orange County today. Officials first got word of a column of smoke that led them to a section about a mile west of Los Pinos Peak. “It is way up there and in a very inaccessible area,” a fire official told the OC Register. They predict the fire will not spread and will be knocked down fairly quickly....

More than 200 citizens died earlier this year while defending their homes from wildfires in Australia. That news made officials do a 180 from considering a stay and defend training program for Southern California. So they announced yesterday a "Ready, Set, Go" wildfire action plan for residents living in high risk fire areas--that is to create a defensible space around the home and go when evacuation orders are given. With a light year in...

The brush fire that began Sunday afternoon and burned around 450 acres in Joshua Tree National Park was fully contained yesterday morning, although some firefighters remained on the scene to check for hotspots. “Exotic grasses and weeds change the desert’s natural ecology and its normal fire frequency. Because of this, Joshua Tree National Park has a full suppression approach to wildfires," said Park Superintendent, Curt Sauer. "Given that no firefighter or park visitor was...

Doakes, the cat | Photo via his Facebook Page On Sunday evening, Jessica Amen and Kyle Kushner lost just about everything when their two-story unit apartment in Brentwood went aflame. Over 100 Los Angeles firefighters fought the aggressive blaze for nearly an hour before extinguishing it, keeping it contained to only their unit. One resident and one firefighter sustained injuries, but nothing life threatening. However, one cat, named Riggs, died. His pal and only...

A fire that began yesterday afternoon inside Joshua Tree National Park continues to burn today, but is expected to be knocked down by tonight. The blaze began around 4 p.m. near the Lost Horse Mine in the hills between the park’s Geology Tour Road and the Keys View Road. By 11 p.m., 150 acres had burned and had only been contained by 5%. As a precaution, 12 hikers near the Lost Horse Trail were...

A car with an engine fire sparked a small brush fire off La Tuna Canyon in the Northeast Valley a quarter to 1 p.m. today. Flames spread towards the 210 Freeway, prompting multiple lanes to close and a SigAlert to be issued. But 35 firefighters quickly stomped out the blaze. They will now stay at the scene for cold trailing, where they check for smoldering, bury any tree trunks and generally make sure nothing...

Photo by Advanced Land Imager on the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) | Courtesy of NASA As they always do with major fires in Southern California, NASA released a photo showing the burn scared mountains from the Jesusita Fire from May 10. The photo "shows the northern part of the burned area, which stretches from the outskirts of Santa Barbara (hidden beneath clouds) into Los Padres National Forest," says NASA. "Many valleys throughout the burned area...